New Rack for TE630 Coming From Turbo City

[BACKMARKER]

Mr Brown, what front tire is that?

 

[CJBROWN]

Thanks John. Yeah, you need one for LAB2V, right?

Earlier in the thread are pics of the standard windshield. I just think it's too tall. It's at least mirror height if not a little higher. The standard screen could be cut down between two and three inches and would be pretty good. As an experiment I picked up a 12x18 sheet of polycarbonate/Lexan from hump-depot and cut out a custom one. The bend in the mounting tabs on the brackets put a nice curve into the flat sheet and it's a perfect height. Gets the wind blast off your chest, hits about helmet height now. And it's low enough to not be anywhere near in the way for offroading. The TCI brackets are a really nice setup.

Hope you can join us for the Death Valley trip.

Here's a pic of my custom one...

 

[CJBROWN]

Mr Brown, what front tire is that?

Pirelli Scorpion Rally. Seems to be working out fantastic. Good on road and sticks like velcro off. If it wears well it will be my new favorite tire. It does dance around a bit at 80mph though. If I was gonna be doing a LOT of hiway at speed I would probably go back to a Karoo 2 (not the Traveler (T) ) or a TKC. It's a good tradeoff for being so dirt-worthy though. The stock traveler is...uh...horrible.

 

[CJBROWN]

Got this from TCI Products today...
BTW, website is www.tciproductsusa.com
Let me know if any of you have any questions, or feel free to contact them directly.

I have got all the product active on my website for the TE 630. They are building parts as fast as we can. Maybe you can let the guys know on the forum that they can place their orders now and I will ship them as fast as I can.​

 

[pinocono]

Ordered my rack this afternoon. Slowly but surely getting my 630 outfitted.

 

[johngil]

Just ordered the windscreen bracket.
I'll be bugging Chris soon enough to get some pointers on making a screen I'm sure.

 

[mekanik]

Next week. Will post an update.

I did get a medium size Rolie bag and enduro tank bag from Wolfman. The Rolie is gonna work out perfect with the fuel pax.

EDIT: was tinkering the other night and took this one...

How about the skid plate fit with the Ti Leo Vince header pipes? It looks like major mods may be required due to a closer fit than the stock header pipes.

 

[CJBROWN]

How about the skid plate fit with the Ti Leo Vince header pipes? It looks like major mods may be required due to a closer fit than the stock header pipes.

Nothing major, just some trimming off the top so it clears the header. I know Tom would mod one for you if he knew where it needed to be trimmed. But we need a sample bike, something to go on. You could trim it yourself (it's aluminum) but he powercoats the skid silver and the guards black. So you would ruin the finish on the skid plate. Would want to trim to fit before it got powder coated. I'll bet you could also buy a raw plate from him, trim it to fit, and then have it painted yourself, or just leave it raw.

He is also going to add the second hole in the bottom for the main oil drain so it won't have to be removed to change the oil. The engine guards are easily removed with a couple of bolts and swing it up out of the way to get to the filter and screens.

EDIT: Now I realize why he powdercoats the skid - the guard mounting tabs are welded on and finished with a grinder, so it's all smoothed out and then painted to cover all the grinding and buffing marks. Take a look at the earlier pics in this thread, I think one of them shows the skid raw.

 

[CJBROWN]

BTW, couple of issues I've noticed...

1. skid plate reflects sound. The only time I notice it is with my helmet off at idle. Accentuates the already noisy valve train. Tom says they can spray the inside with a sound deadening coating if it bothers me. (Not so much really.)
2. The rear attach points for the skid are the center stand mounts. It would appear not to be compatible with a centerstand.
3. The windshield reflects light back from the headlight. Only noticeable at night (duh) and not a deal breaker, but it is there. The lower part of the screen could be painted flat black with Krylon Fusion. I may do that if it gets to bothering me. I don't ride at night much, so it's kind of a non-issue for me anyway. Wanted to mention it though as a full disclosure.

So far that's it. Really nice stuff. More pics coming this week, and I'm picking up the auxiliary fuel can that mounts to the cargo rack. Be sure to check out his other rack systems if you want to haul soft bags, or even Pelican boxes.

 

[CJBROWN]

EDIT/UPDATE: All of the product pics are up on their site now: www.tciproductsusa.com

Got the Kolpin auxilliary tank yesterday. Tom makes a pair brackets to fasten the pax mount to the rack. Decent setup. Locktitited the mounting screws and it's ready to go. This gives me 5 gal of fuel capacity for those long trips.

From my issues above, TCI said they could make a mounting bracket for the rear of the skid if someone wanted to utilize the center stand mounting points for same. He doesn't like to use brackets as they just add hassle to the setup and have a greater tendency to come loose or get bent. However the option is there.

He also said it is common to paint a band of black on the inside of any windshield that mounts in front of a headlight. I may do something on mine yet...have some ideas.

Here's the Kolpin pax and rack, mounted. Medium Rolie Bag fits great on there, has my tool roll, couple of innertubes, patch and inflators, tow strap, rags, spares, and room for a bit more. Doesn't move a bit.

 

[ContraHusky]

Careful with all the weight cantilevered out there. Stop and empty some fuel out of that aux tank every so often early in your ride.

Looks great. Going to order up my rack soon. Probably a fuel pack, too. I spent a day in the Mendocino Forest last Sunday, and my low-fuel light came on with 15 miles left back to the car+trailer.

 

[CJBROWN]

Careful with all the weight cantilevered out there. Stop and empty some fuel out of that aux tank every so often early in your ride.

Looks great. Going to order up my rack soon. Probably a fuel pack, too. I spent a day in the Mendocino Forest last Sunday, and my low-fuel light came on with 15 miles left back to the car+trailer.

I'm estimating total weight at about 22lbs., including 1.5gl of gas at 9lbs.
For road and dirt road do you think it will be too much for the subframe?

One would think if the back of the seat can handle a 150lb passenger, surely 25lbs on the back is do-able, no?

 

[SilverBullet]

I'm estimating total weight at about 22lbs., including 1.5gl of gas at 9lbs.
For road and dirt road do you think it will be too much for the subframe?

One would think if the back of the seat can handle a 150lb passenger, surely 25lbs on the back is do-able, no?

For road and dirt road you should be ok. Serious off road you'll be asking for trouble. Already a ride report on this forum for a cracked subframe carrying less weight than that offroad (~15 lbs.). Like ContraHusky said "cantilevered" is the key word. Rack bolts on to the ass end of the subframe creating maximum leverage and force. Passenger seat still has a subframe support brace under it same as the drivers seat.

_

 

[twolane]

Ordered my rack yesterday. Can't wait to check it out.

 

[Russ]

I'm estimating total weight at about 22lbs., including 1.5gl of gas at 9lbs.
For road and dirt road do you think it will be too much for the subframe?

One would think if the back of the seat can handle a 150lb passenger, surely 25lbs on the back is do-able, no?

For road and dirt road you should be ok. Serious off road you'll be asking for trouble. Already a ride report on this forum for a cracked subframe carrying less weight than that offroad (~15 lbs.). Like ContraHusky said "cantilevered" is the key word. Rack bolts on to the ass end of the subframe creating maximum leverage and force. Passenger seat still has a subframe support brace under it same as the drivers seat._

My immediate reaction when I saw your setup was the same, not through personal experience but reading Vondirters problems in posts a page or two back.

If you haven't already done so, you could consider a front fender bag like this one from Wolfman. I'm not sure how much & what weight you can fit in them, but it may just lighten the weight off the back enough to give you a little more confidence.

http://www.wolfmanluggage.com/Enduro/Images/enduro_fender.jpg

 

[ContraHusky]

Yeah...the passenger's weight is squarely on the main subframe, with a support column angling down to a strong point. The rear rack has no column supporting it in compression. Only cantilevered aluminum. Just be careful in the rough stuff till you've got the fuel mostly emptied into the main tank.

Maybe tie your drybag to the passenger spot instead of on top of the fuel can...?

 

[CJBROWN]

Okay...had a vacation day today so was able to stay up half the night and figure this out. This is obviously a real problem, a certain weakpoint in this design. I'm glad I didn't traipes off on my trip without a closer look. I surely would have broken off the rack mounts.

Here's a photo of the subframe showing the passenger hand-hold point and where all aftermarket racks attach. Easy to see that this is not going to support much weight on it's own. There are gussets and nice welds where it attaches to the end of the subframe top tube, but gee, how much can it handle? Not much I'd say, especially for any bumpy terrain.

So...loathing to drill holes in what I suspect is a 'stressed tube' design of the aluminum subframe I am going to re-purpose the passenger peg brackets and run a triangulation with 2" X 3/16" aluminum flat bar like this:

I'm heading down to the local metal surplus shop and pick up some stock. I can always get another set of brackets for the passenger pegs if I need/want them, or for the guys that will tie into them for other racking systems including DBZ, TCI, and probably others. More pics when it's done. I'll get dimensions/pattern of the finished pieces for others to fab them up, or make them up for sale. I'm thinking this is a must-do for any weight on the rear of the subframe.

 

[Indy]

That looks like it could be a good solution, anxious to see your results.

 

[CJBROWN]

Well that was quite a project. I've probably got about 10 hours in this thing figuring out how to make it work and then making the parts. I have no qualms about my subframe now. If it breaks I've got bigger problems.

2" bar stock was easy to come by, 3/16" thick so it's strong enough without being too bulky. Schorre Metals has every kind of material for fabrication, about $5 for a 3' length.

There's room to slip it in between the inner fender and the subframe. As I mentioned, not wanting to drill a hole in the subframe tubing at the risk of weakening it, I removed the passenger foot peg brackets and use the saddle mounting brackets from them. This worked out really well, and is hell for stout. If the subframe breaks after all of this reinforcing then it will probably break off the whole darn thing.

Here's the right side bracket shaped and fastened up as a trial fit.

Right behind the air intake horn you can see the bracket, same thing on the left side.

And the left side, trial fitted...

Trial fitted, view from the rear...

Here you can see the left side bracket and how both plates bolt up...

Next I did a bit of trimming on the inner fender. Holes each side for the framing bracket bolts, and a slot on each side for the plates to go thru. I was able to retain all of the inner fender, adding a zip tie to the very rear point of the outside flap.

Reinstalling the inner fender and bolting up the plates. Everything got blue locktight including the lower subframe bolts now that the passenger foot peg brackets were removed.

Inner fender again, outer fender installed, just tightening everything down. Rack is remounted. Looking under the wheel well you can't really tell anything has changed. Same for the outside of the bike once the side panels are reinstalled. Everything is hidden and internal...

Here's everything all buttoned up. If you look close in front of the rack bracket you can see the left side plate.

And I have patterns for each plate I can scan in for a digital file.

Cross country trials next weekend!

 

[johngil]

Looks good. I would only be worried about the force bending the diagonal tube upwards if you were carrying lots of weight. It would be nice to have a gusset or a kicker in there.
Might be a good idea to dump your fuel as soon as you have room in your tank.