hard luggage

[mickmaul]

Guys,

had my place of work changed, no other option than to use the bike, on a daily commute. (car park fees bloody rip off)

I need to take a fair bit of kit with me, so i think hard luggage is the way to go.

Was thinking about a top case, this may have the added benifit of encouraging the wife to sit on the back. At the mo she is convinced she will fall off the back, so won't get on.

Anyways, thinking of the Givi system, the brackets and plate cost about £90, and case £120 upwards, so it is fiancially doable.

Wondered if anyone had any experiance of Givi stuff ie, fitting the bracket, and the general quality etc

Thanks , Mick

[Blackal]

Quality is good, although I did find that when tightening up the side brackets - the Givi plate was slightly dished by the alignment.

If you defo need the luggage space - then it is a necessity...... but the top-box ain't exactly "dainty", and with the COG being cantilevered out over the back - I'd limit it to lightweight gear.

At least the Givi boxes are fairly lightweight empty.

Al

[Fw190]

do you have the pannier rails? if not Motorworks may be worth a shout, they often have used hard luggage that isnt usualy that expensive. I paid £70 a side, bit of a polish with some back to black... good to go.

I bloomin hate top boxes, they look horrible and hang all that weight out the back... my opinion of course.

[Dai wiskers]

Well they work but have a look
http://boxertrix.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... ht=#136981

[timbox2]

I take it we are talking R1100S, if so although I agree with Fw190 about looks, for commuting Id go Topbox over panniers everytime. Try filtering on some roads with panniers, you'll be in the queue with the cages.

Also agree with regards pillion, my missus is the same and refuses to get on a bike without a "Backrest", as she calls it.

I found the givi arms a bit flimsy looking and surface rusted quite quickly, but I can vouch for them holding far, far more weight than the 6Kg limit they say, my topbox regularly held my "Slab of Concrete" HP Laptop plus bag of tools for 40,000 odd miles, many at German Autobahn speeds, no prob.
And actually, looking at the pic now, dont think it did look too bad.

[Dai wiskers]

It does look far better with a top box fitted then you can't see the way the rack fit's or dosen't fit

But even after saying that it works well and i think that if you sprayed the plate mount black it would look a lot better

[Twinspark]

Not the prettiest solution - but I have a fair investment in Givi kit - I have the massive side cases, a wingrack and a couple of different top cases.

So I bought the Givi monorack arms and a Wingrack universal kit - sadly, Givi have discontinued the matching tubular case holders which used to bolt up to the monorack arms.

Anyway, for touring, it looks like this - and gives me a fair bit more capacity than the BMW panniers / top box combo.





The biggest criticism I have is that it's impossible to unlock the seat with the top plate in place.

[el-nicko]

......Try filtering on some roads with panniers, you'll be in the queue with the cages.

Yes and If you forget you've got 'em on you can get into trouble too.
Someone posted a vid on here of a bloke who did forget and ended up tipping himself and his bike of the quay-side onto a boat in a harbour.

BTW, Really nice pic' of your bike Tim. What's going on in the background? Is it a (tank) fireing range?

Nick.

[Triton]

If its an R1100S you can fit the narrow City Lids to the panniers. This slims them down to less width than the cylinder heads but of course reduces the capacity. I have this on my R1100RS which uses the same panniers.

[timbox2]

......Try filtering on some roads with panniers, you'll be in the queue with the cages.

Yes and If you forget you've got 'em on you can get into trouble too.
Someone posted a vid on here of a bloke who did forget and ended up tipping himself and his bike of the quay-side onto a boat in a harbour.

BTW, Really nice pic' of your bike Tim. What's going on in the background? Is it a (tank) fireing range?

Nick.

Yep, just outside of Bergen-Belsen, I was working on the camp and staying in Bad-Fallingbostel, great run in every morning using the tank roads

[mickmaul]

Thanks for responses, going to give the matter some more thought, before committing

cheers

[Al]

Even though I am not a fan of rear boxes I am just about to go rack/box route myself, my wife likes the backrest bit after our trips in Vietnam and Thailand.
I ordered a new givi rack last night as none about second hand at the moment, £84 delivered, will probably put a cheaper box on though as I can modify any plates to fit the givi arms at work and make a slot for the key so I can unlock seat.
First trip will be the Wales w/end.


Al.

[el-nicko]

Yep, just outside of Bergen-Belsen, I was working on the camp and staying in Bad-Fallingbostel, great run in every morning using the tank roads

That's not anywhere near Luneburg Heath is it?

[Kimmett]

I've got the Givi brackets and plate to sell for £25 plus postage, as I no longer have an 1100S. I had a Givi top box along with the BMW city panniers and the combination seemed to work well.