I have over 3K miles on mine, some of it over whoops, washboard, g-outs, all manner of terrain, with about 35lbs on the back - kolpin 1.5gl, the rack, and a medium rolie with about 14lbs of crap in it like tools, spares, tubes, etc. I think the factory rack has a weight limit disclaimer for 5-8lbs or something, so don't whine about it. Hell, a heavy duty enduro jacket weighs 6lbs. You had been warned.
Factory rack max weight limit is 5kg or 11lbs. My loaded tail bag weighs only 8lbs. so 30% under that rating. Rack did serve a good purpose after subframe cracked as it gave a good lashing point to tie up the subframe for my ride home, haha _
Pulled the sub-frame off to give an up close inspection. All is well. The spider cracks that started have not grown any larger after a year of pretty hard use. I really think the Wolfman racks help out quite a bit as well.
The gussets you added where you have your 'motohelp' sticker are doing all the work. Without them your frame would surely have broken by now.
I am in the process of welding in some gussets same as johngil above. Whilst on the dissmantle I found that all subframe mounts were loose and both lower mounts were bent! Loctite will be liberally applied for reinstall. The usual load............. What is left....... I am going to hammer this with sealant (bit paranoid about it).... Mick.
Winter is setting in, time to do mods. I also found the sub frame bolts loose on one nut striped. I also found this wire worn almost right through. No idea what would have happened if it had broke , but i'm sure it would have taken a while to find it. This shows where the wire goes... Thanks for the sub frame reinforcement tips. Randy
Finally got around to completing this mod! Thanks to all concerned for the heads up!! Subframe all painted and on. All Finished!
Reinforce your sub-frame folks. I really wish 630Mick had taken that left hand reinforcing plate all the way forward to the diagonal down tube! Lots of extra strength that way, and puts the top tube mainly in tension so it doesn't fail in bending.
+1 And forward of the diagonals too. Watch that section on top that's unreinforced, it's likely to bend or crack there. Watch those bottom attach bolts as well. They are known to come loose and/or bend/break. HT bolts not recommended - just replace them if they bend, otherwise it's going to break somewhere else.
Yeah I see what your saying. I'll give it a good torture test in the new year and see how it goes. Merry Xmas all!. Mick.
Yup, I've seen that before..........TWICE on the same damn trip to Death Valley last year!! I've finally welded mine up, nice and neat. All ready for March in Death Valley 2013 Noobs rally!! Hopefully I don't find something else to break!
Yeah, after a month without it mine's been strengthened & welded back together. Went for a tougher ride last weekend with some more serious offroad riders (CR500 , 400EXC, FE450 & WRF450) & it held up OK with my same tail bag on the rack. Here's hoping it stays that way! In a way I'm almost glad it snapped, as I was always a little conscious of it and reluctant to carry extra fuel on it, but now don't need to worry about it (well at lest I hope!).
Most probably wont understand this statement but it is really true for me also. I kept delaying doing my subframe mod also not wanting to tear the bike down just for that. In the meantime I was always overly cautious when jumping and hopping the bike especially with any weight on the back. Now I will fix it stronger than stock and then can ride fearless of subframe failure and increase my fun factor greatly. _
I gotta admit that's a little odd. LOL. I didn't want mine broken so I came up with a way to ensure it didn't. I'm at 4K miles now. Went over it last night in detail, not the slightest indication of any stress on the sub. Both lower bolts were a little loose though, and got an eighth turn or so on each sprocket bolt. All of the engine guard bolts were a bit loose as well. It's a paint mixer. Oh, and two of the rivets at the front of the left exhaust can had popped, probably from a lay down last year on the trail when it bent the peg bracket and subframe mounting bolt. On reassembling the cans after de-catting them I used aluminum rivets. There was discussion at that point about questionable strength. So yeah, if you tweak the cans hard enough you'll pop the rivets. They lasted 4K miles though, so I just popped them out and put new ones in, good and tight again. The other 4 or so were fine. The gutted cans have worked out famously. Only cost me $25 to get free-flow exhaust and dump 5lbs out of them.
I've loaded the crap out of mine and ridden the living you know what out of it. Here's Bar-Ten Ranch, north rim of Grand Canyon. We did 800 miles in 5 days, about 70% offroad.
Interesting little problem, after downloading and printing the Chris Brown template for the sub-frame reinforcement I noticed the width to be 1 3/4 inches. I am assuming that as a 2 inch bar is recommended then the brackets are supposed to be 2 inches wide. This difference I put down to US paper being a different size to UK paper. To overcome this I scalled up by 114.3% and hey presto the brackets are now 2 inches wide. However, before butchering the flat bar, can anybody tell me how long each bracket should be so I can check my solution works. As yet the footpeg brackets have not arrived so I can't check bolt hole spacing or use a cardboard template.
Since you removed your footpeg brackets, use the existing bracket clamps for hole placement. You only need the new ones if you're going to reinstall the footpegs. A lot of guys run without them. I kept mine for emergency extraction of another rider. If you crash the bike on them they WILL bend the subframe mounting bolts. Don't ask me how I know. If all you have is acrobat reader to view and print the PDF, you still should be able to select 'print full size' rather than 'fit to page'. Anyway, now that you have them to where you think they are full size you can trace them to a heavier card stock, like a manila file folder, and then you can trial fit and mark your holes. And yes, we are using 2" wide stock, 3/16" thick. I'm sure 1/4 would work but I don't recommend 1/8, it's too light. For a thicker plate I think you would need longer bolts for the peg bracket clamps. The left side one is 14-11/16 " long and the right side is 12-1/8" overall. Exact length is not critical, a eighth or sixteenth of an inch either way is probably not going to matter. Hole placement is critical so it will bolt in there. Once I got the general shape that would fit in there then I clamped it in with a c-clamp and marked the hole centers, drill, trial fit. Once you get them trial bolted in there then you know where your saddle clamps will be, mark them on the sub, then remove the plates, trial fit the inner fender and mark holes for the bolts. I used a 5/8" hole saw so there's room to fit the bolts into the plates and clamps once the inner fender is installed. Then you have to cut a slot from the back of the inner fender to clear the new plates. Once you do it then it all makes sense. Hard to describe, easy to do. BTW, make sure you locktite everything on final assembly. These bikes are like a mix-master and vibrate everything loose.
Just picked this up form my friend. This is what he came up with. I thought I share this with everybody. It's working great plenty of room for my leo. Just hope I remember how everything gets back together.
