Installation of Sprint ST Tail Rack PDF Print E-mail
Written by Daniel Hienzsch   
Friday, 08 June 2007
Before I headed out on my last trip to Yosemite, I knew I was going to want to have some extra luggage along to carry warmer clothing.  It was going to be the middle of April with the possibility of rain and the guarantee of cold weather in Yosemite Valley, so that meant the tail bag in addition to everything else, and a tail bag meant a tail rack.
Here is the full photo album for the Sprint ST Tail Rack Installation. Installing the tail rack turned out to be more arduous than I expected.  Before you begin, take all the rear plastic off of the bike and disassemble the rear tail lights.  That will make things much easier.  You will also want to clear out anything you have in the tray under the seat (tool pouch, etc).

Front Bracket
Front Bracket
The strengthening brackets that go into the bike are somewhat confusing to decipher.  The one that goes the farthest forward in the bike is the worst to install.  you will have to remove nearly the entire plastic area that exists under the seat and then, bending said plastic nearly to the breaking point, slide this thing into place.  In my case, even after all of that, the bolts didn't even fit, so I have an essentially useless hunk of metal stuck over the tool area.

To make matters worse, the cable for the seat lock needs to be rerouted between the frame of the bike and over the new mounting plate.  However those two pieces of steel overlapped by about a quarter inch.  Consequently, I wound up cutting a huge chunk out of the thick steel plate with my Rotozip to allow the cable to move freely and not bind.  If you have to do the same, remember to file down the sharp edges smooth so that they don't cut into your seat lock cable.  That would be bad... very bad.

Of course, those weren't the only issues.  The seat latch mounted nicely to the new moutning plate, but when I put my Corbin seats on, the lock wouldn't catch because that damn strengthening plate was keeping the seat lowering into place by about 1/2 an inch.  I tried raising it with washers, but that was a pain due to the slim bolts (the washers didn't want to stack nicely).  So I went to Home Despot and bought a set of nylon spacers of various thicknesses.  The first ones I tried, worked.  Now i have a nice 1/2 gap between my seat cowling and the rear fairing that looks a little cheap.  Not much to be done about it though.

Nylon Spacers
Nylon Spacers
Top View of Seat Lock Area
Top View of Seat Lock Area
Channel Cut into Plate
Channel Cut into Plate

Once you have everything taken apart and are ready to begin the installation, you will also realise that there are only two sizes of bolts mentioned in the instructions, but three sizes of bolts on hand.  The way I wound up installing, you take the bolts that normally hold the fairing on and you use those to hold down the rear of the tail rack, then you use the super tall bolts to clamp the tail rack to the spacer to the fairing to the strengthening bracket.

Small in the Back
Small in the Back
Tall in the Front
Tall in the Front


All the pieces do wind up fitting together though.  The rack follows the rake of the bike, rather than being parrallel to the ground, so don't be surprised if the rack looks like it's pointing up a little from the rear of the bike.

3/4 View of Final Installation
3/4 View of Final Installation
Front View of Final Installation
Front View of Final Installation

The tail bag had 11 pounds of gear in it (mostly sweatshirts, rain ponchos, cliff bars, etc) and fit perfectly on the rack, although it did take a bit of thinking to determine the best way to secure it.  Finally I just used a long nylon strap with a tightening clip to pull the handles of the bag tight against the backrest.  It didn't budge a bit.
Last Updated ( Friday, 09 January 2009 )
 

Latest Journals

Thanksgiving Week Sport Touring 2005

The idea of undertaking a longer trip, more than just a weekend, had been percolating for some time.  I wondered if I could do it; I wondered if my bike could do it.  Two days of holiday res...

Morro Bay Sport Touring 2005

In the previous month, I had already been on sport touring trips to Arizona and Death Valley on my 2000 Triumph Sprint ST, so taking a quick trip up the coast to Morro Bay shouldn't have been a bi...

San Diego East Moto Sport Touring 2006

I like telescopes, particularly the big ones.  The first one I ever was able to get up close to was the observatory complex on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawai'i and I was hooked.  I j...

Death Valley Moto Sport Touring 2005

With all the media coverage of the "100 year bloom” at Death Valley, I and Robyn decided that we would be fools to miss out.  The Sprint had performed marvelously despite both fate a...

Germany Vacation Travelogue 2006

I hadn’t really been to Germany in a decade.  In fact, since 1991, I had only gone over for a couple of days here and there for funerals and I had never been with Robyn; this was going to...