WR250R designed rear rack, anyone

So... one of my troops also happens to be an engineering student. Who also happens to be starting up a high end fab shop with a friend. Who casually mentioned to me a few days ago that they're looking for projects in niche markets in carbon fiber, light metals, etc.

Which got me to thinking that it sure would be nice to have a rear rack as sturdy as that Cycleracks monstrosity, capable of hauling anything remotely reasonable on it, that was also uber strong and added little to the width profile of the bike. If it also went on and off in a heartbeat, that would be nice too.

Would anyone else here be equally intrigued with such a rack? I don't know enough about materials to know if carbon fiber could take the loads a bike taking a dirt nap or clipping a tree trunk might add, but either that or metal would work for me. And if it had a built in mounting point for those Kolpin gas tanks, that might be nice too.

Anyways, if there's more than me interested in them, I can go talk to Cpl Mack and see if he's serious enough to take a chance on making some money on the WR250R riders.

Rear racks, over headlight racks, radiator guards... if I was a fabricator, I bet I could think of all kinds of cool stuff to do. Of course, the ultimate intent is to make a profit and grow your business, so the profit has to be there if you're not doing it just for yourself.

Cpl Mack lives somewhere on the Lower Mainland this summer while working on Op Podium for the Vancouver Winter Olympics next year. If there is interest, somebody with a WR down there dropping in on him would be a lot better than me dragging my bike down to Vancouver.

Sounds like a helluva an idea! One where you don't have to drill thru the fender preferably. Tib knows someone in Van with an R² that would be nice and close.

Most excellent idea, in my very humble shop and with my very basic skills have been working on such a rack. Drilled holes in fender to mount 3/16 aluminum plate, but would like to add some support on the sides. Your idea of adding something to support a Kolpin is great, something on the left side, and it would be great if it would work with dirtbagz. I will keep my eye on this one!

thanks the fishman

I need something simple and stand-alone to hold a saddlebag away from the stock exhaust. A local machinist is also a rider and I want to try to simply bend some stainless into a larger heat shield. If that doesn't work, I'll need a frame to hold the bag. Nothing as expensive as a Dirtbagz system.

1moreroad wrote:

I need something simple and stand-alone to hold a saddlebag away from the stock exhaust. A local machinist is also a rider and I want to try to simply bend some stainless into a larger heat shield. If that doesn't work, I'll need a frame to hold the bag. Nothing as expensive as a Dirtbagz system.

What I'm envisioning here is something as sturdy and as capable as the Cycleracks carrier - but kept tight to the bike as possible so there's no real reason to take it off anyways, even if it is easy to do. I see a rack doing three things:

1. Move the load of what you're carrying to proper weight bearing attachment points on the bike. The tail, apparently, is not where you should be putting a lot of weight.
   
2. Keep that load as tight to the sides of the bike and as low to the tail as possible to reduce increasing silhouette on the front/back plane.
   
3. Be generic in that pretty much any system a rider chooses will be able to be attached to the rack without modifications and jury rigging.
   

And I guess it wouldn't hurt if it was unobtrusive in appearance and almost unnoticeable.

So that's what I'm going to be talking to Mack about designing and doing. I'm sure he'd be equally as happy to do simple tail racks for light loads, etc, but I want a rack I can load up and head back in the boonies for three or four days.

SheWolf wrote:

Sounds like a helluva an idea! One where you don't have to drill thru the fender preferably. Tib knows someone in Van with an R² that would be nice and close.

I hope to talk to Cpl Mack tomorrow; he's working out of 6 ES, 39 Combat Engineer Regiment in North Vancouver at the armoury on Forbes Avenue. If you can get me the contact info for the WR rider, that would be handy.

I've always scratched my head as to why people can't make elegant little racks that blend in with the bike. Why so clunky? Look at the metal parts on an internal frame or external frame backpack. There's nothing to them, and in the military world I've parachuted with such a pack dozens of times, with the pack loaded to the nuts, and it comes down with a hell of a thump on the ground by the lowering webbing and never breaks the packframe.

So with that in mind, why in hell does every cycle rack look like it was built six sizes too large? Stupid.

+1 I agree, the Cycleracks would be a nice setup if it wasn't so god-awful ugly. That was the only thing holding me back from getting one. It's like putting a sombrero on a toy poodle.

Jäger wrote:

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1. Move the load of what you're carrying to proper weight bearing attachment points on the bike. The tail, apparently, is not where you should be putting a lot of weight.
   
2. Keep that load as tight to the sides of the bike and as low to the tail as possible to reduce increasing silhouette on the front/back plane.
   
3. Be generic in that pretty much any system a rider chooses will be able to be attached to the rack without modifications and jury rigging.
   

Sounds good. I'll definitely watch with interest.

I would only add that it be a straight bolt on accessory. The Dirtbagz require the rider to modify the tail end.

It needs to be cost competitive, too. Cycleracks cost $150 and Dirtbagz brackets cost $120.

Thanks!

I would suggest doing something that does not compete with the other rack's out there
My thought's are to make an attachment for the bike that you can put 2 different size rack's onto
One tight clean and pretty, the other a huge ugly milk crate for the adventure guy's

This would allow him to make mounting bracket's for every brand and only 2 rack's or a fuel can mount that fits them
Gotta be light and simple

Just sent you a PM Jaeger. I live in Vancouver and would be happy to lend my bike for the measurements and fittings. It's always a bonus to have accessories made locally.

Bob

So any news on the status of this project ? I'm in the market for a rack. Are there any preliminary designs you can show us ?

Chrispy1200 wrote:

So any news on the status of this project ? I'm in the market for a rack. Are there any preliminary designs you can show us ?

Not yet. The guy with the ability to actually build the thing is an engineering student with his little fab shop starting up, but he has been dragged into the Canadian Forces full time right now. He's at the Wet Coast, and with the Olympics coming here in... seven months... everyone working for the Forces in that area right now is going full tilt boogey. Supposed to be about 8500 CF personnel working on the Olympics, so I imagine he's like everybody else and getting double and triple tasked. I know I'm wearing many hats right now (one of which I should be under at this second, not typing away here).

Anyways, information and questions and answers are flowing back and forth sporadically. One of the big delays is I felt he needed to get a feel for what he is trying to achieve, so I've pointed him at assorted ADV threads, specific posts, some ride reports, websites for what's currently available, etc. If the best he can come up with is just another cycleracks or bodega rack or whatever, what's the point? I'm hoping he can design a rack that has the sime philosphy as the bike: slim, wrapped around the bike as tightly as possible, and with various setup possibilities e.g. how about a rack which is just a tail rack unless you mount the extra pieces that your saddlebags are already mounted on? That's just a thought.

And finally, one of the obstacles: he isn't a motorcycle rider. So he's trying to come up with something for an activity he's never done and knows nothing about. He has humped a ruck, however, so he does understand the concept of keeping everything tucked away as much as possible, strong, and light as possible.

It's a bit of a challenge for him all the way around, and has to come second to his primary responsibilities at the moment. I wouldn't be expecting to see a rack design from Paul be offered here anytime soon. I wish he could do it like tomorrow, but realistically it is going to be a while.