I just bought an '08 WR250R to replace my aging KTM 640, and being the
(sometimes) frugal person that I am, I wanted to mount the Pelican case that I'd
kept from the KTM onto the WR. And I didn't want to spend a lot of money.
I thought about it a bit and looked at some posts, and then I went to
Lowes to scout for hardware. I found various alternatives, but ultimately I
think this modest collection best served my purpose.
Grand total ---
$15
The spacers are steel, 1/2 X 5/8 X 1.5, the bolts are M6 1.00 X 50,
and the aluminum angle is light gauge 1/16 X 1/2 X 3 FT.
If I had not had a tail case to mount and just wanted a rack, I noticed some inexpensive BBQ
grill pieces---either the standard chrome wire or perforated, painted metal.
Those might have served for a standalone rack.
Yamaha very thoughtfully marks four centered circles on the underside of the rear fender, which match up
to the four subframe bolts that hold on the taillight assembly. I would drill
those out, and those would be my mounting points. I drilled out those holes and
removed the existing bolts and inserted the spacers (the taillight assembly
stayed loosely in place with the bolts removed---to my pleased surprise)
Before I drilled out the fender, I had carefully measured the spacing of the four
holes-to-be that Yamaha had embossed on the underside of the fender, and I made
a little paper template for creating my tail rack. Based on those measurements
(sorry, I didn't record them), I cut a "trellis" of aluminum angle.
OK, you can see in the pic above that the bolts are not the 50mm ones I'd gotten from Lowes.
Those were marginal length at best, and so I went to a specialty shop and spent
$2 on 4 M6 bolts that were a 1/2 inch or so longer.
I had to use a
rat-tail file to enlarge some of the holes in my aluminum angle pieces, because
my measuring and drilling had not been as precise as I'd hoped. No big
deal---the thin gauge aluminum filed quickly, and it's no major structural
issue. The two rearward holes in the pic above are not attached directly to the
bike, they just attach to the tail case for added support.
Once all was cut and drilled I mounted the rack to the tail case using the two rearward,
short bolts/locknuts.
Then I set the assembly in place and was pleasantly surprised when the four mounting bolts were
easily threaded into the subframe assembly
Voila! It seems probably as robust as can be expected for a close-pattern four bolt mount, and
on a dual-sport I don't intend to carry anything of significant heft anyway.
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