See what I did there? 😂
Ok, so the bike came with a set of luggage racks (yay). The bike didn’t come with the proper mounting bolts (boo). I knew I was missing some spacers but wasn’t sure how many so I stacked up a few stainless washers and bolted the racks on. That was like the second day I had the bike. On the third day I called Touratech and had them send me the proper bolts and spacers. Can I just say, what a wonderfully nice company they are!!
I knew I needed extra fuel and that usually means a Rotopax. I have a 2.5 gallon one for the back of the 950 but thinking I need to do this bike a little different.
We’re trying to build it lighter, lower center of gravity kind of thing. I think both Tomm and I had the same idea of mounting them vertical on the side racks. I think we also both had the idea of doing a 1 gallon instead and since that was the way, why not put a water on the other side for a good balance?
The problem was how to mount the mount to the racks. The rack design has a big old rectangular hole right about where the mount would need to be. Problem # 2 is that my racks are not simple steel, they are stainless.
Luckily Tomm has a relative, Ryan, who welds and does some pretty incredible stuff. We consulted with him and based on what he said I bought a piece of 16 gauge 304 Stainless to fit. We figured a 4″ wide bar down the middle of the space would be strong enough to hold the mount.
We pulled the racks off the bike and dropped them off at Ryans.
BONUS:
If you are going to have something welded up, why not personalize it? You know I’m a DeadHead, right? So is Tomm and as it turns out, so is his nephew Ryan. Ryan has access to a water jet. That’s a machine that can blast a super small stream of compressed air, water and sometimes an abrasive material and cut steel into any shape. So I did a little sketch of what I was thinking of and told Ryan to do whatever he could with it.
I knew that you can’t just make a simple outline or you would end up with a hole in the metal in the outline of a bear.
A couple of days later, Ryan said it was all done! I zipped over to his house and picked it up.
Exactly as I had imagined! Ryan, you rock! I know you can’t see it, especially when the cans are mounted but it’s the little things, right?
I then mounted the racks using the bolts I got from Touratech and then worked on mounting the Rotopax Mounts. I placed the empty gas can right where I wanted then had the wife scribe the circle inside. I then matched the mount to that circle, figured out where the holes should be, drilled, and then mounted the mounts (using locktight of course).
After doing both sides I made sure they were even and equal. Not sure why, after all what would I have done if they weren’t?
They were equal and just about perfect!
a pint a pound, the world around…
16 Pounds later, I now have 3.2 gallons in the tank plus the 1 gallon as a back up. My 1st tank of gas on the bike yielded 46.875 MPG which then gives me a possible range of 196 miles. Of course, conditions and riding style will make that number vary.
I’ll also have 1 gallon of hot water on the side plus the 3 liters I carry in my backpack. We’ll see how that goes. Hey, isn’t there a drinking fountain kind of thing you can put on the end of your rotopax? I’ll have to look into that.
Once again a huge thank you to Ryan. Seriously. 👍
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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