On the rack

I just found a little gold sticker underneath a mounting point of my
Renntec rack. It says "Max load not to exceed 2.5 kgs".

Two-and-a-half kilos? A couple of big bags of sugar, innit. Now, are
they serious, or are they just covering themselves against claims
should I stick a baby elephant on there and find the bike weaves like
a **** at 140?

 

There's only one way to find out, though you may find a baby hippo more
streamlined.

also:

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?#link2

 

They are capable of handling far greater static loads than 2.5kg, but it's a
very different matter when you are bouncing along our crap potholed-infested
roads. I had a small top-box bolted to the Renntec rack on my VFR750F, and
after a couple of years the rack suffered failure through metal fatigue. I
replaced the rack, and it lasted until I sold the bike, but it too would
inevitably have failed eventually.

I wouldn't worry too much, but don't go mad and put baby elephants on it,
and keep an eye open for cracking, especially (but not exclusively) at the
welds.

Rick

 

I enquired about a rack from them for my SP1, like you they say
only 2.5kgs, i only need it once a year so thought **** that, stick
to the bag on my back.

2.5kgs indeed, waste of space.

Alan

 

I you were a drugs courier it could prove worthwhile I guess.

 

Assuming there are 4 mounting points, doesn't that give a max load of 10
kgs?

<thinks>
Do cnuts really weave at 140?
<thinks again>
Did he mean waves?

 

Good url. I looked and saw a _lot_ of hits for Renntec, so gave in
and asked ;-)

Smartarse.

 

Jeremy's been coaching me this morning.

 

I intend to beef the welds, as in their infinite wisdom Renntec only
weld the upper sides of the flattened tubes, and where the main
tube-cum-grabrail meets the single mounting point on each side, there
is only one weld where there could easily be two. I'm aware of
brittleness brought on by over-welding (having once "seam welded" a
MKI Escort by literally welding all the seams solid and then wondering
why a) the glass kept cracking/breaking/shattering and b) the floor
and pillars cracked. Then I found that it was meant to be weld an
inch, leave an inch and a half, then weld another inch ...) but I'll
chance it on the grounds of rigidity.

 

I did that....to a MK2 Escort rally car, then a few months later i
did another one properly.

Alan

SP1 for Fun, Jaguar for Comfort.
BOTAFOT #148

 

Maybe, but it was a *long* url

 

http://tinyurl.com/2jucs

 

You wanna get yersen a decent newsreader, you do. One of them
new-fangled Winders-based ones'd do the job.

 

Unusually, there are two mounting points only. Due to the lardy arse
end of the RF, designed to accomodate the Starship Enterprise lighting
overkill, there is no option to take a bracing strut round underneath.
I suspect that the 2.5kg limit applies to the rack entire, not just
the individual mounting points.

 

I have just received a Rentec for the Daytona and it has two little gold
stickers, I assume they think I might miss one, however they are so small
that loading anything other than gold bars would probably fail to exceed the
max weight indicated, anyway what about the loads exerted by the pillion
holding onto it under braking and acceleration, these must far exceed 2.5
kgs?

I am not so worried about my tent being over 2.5kgs as much as the throw
overs stuffed full of assorted touring shite and Christels ample bum (1)
Interestingly tests have shown that speeds above 130 mph do produce a
curious knocking sensation between my shoulder blades when the bike is
two-up and fully laden.

(1) Bearing in mind she is an ex Danish army sniper think long and hard
before commenting.

/d

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Pip burped loudly and ejected the following:

Have you got a base plate for your intended choice of top box?

If so, throw the rack away and bungee the box onto the seat using the
base plate as an anchor.

Obviously I don't think you'll take this seriously but I had mucho loads
in a 46 litre Givi top box attached in this way. I can tell you with
absolute certainty that it was regularly overfilled and at one time the
back tyre lifted up on the sidestand it was so heavy ;-)

My point is **** the rack and bungee the bugger, you won't regret it

 

Oh, I had no problem, never do, Pan is an excellent reader, its just Pip
doesn't seem to like long links ... normally

 

Hmm. I don't recall Pip ever complaining about long URLs. I think
you are confused.

 

So, situation normal here then.

Move along now. Nothing to see...

 

Oh... I do.