Backrest for a 4th Gen, in a hurry :}

[FromMaine]

Well, you just never know.

 

I have a friend who has gotten back on Bikes after a 41 year hiatus, he wanted to go cross country. I thought about it and invited myself along for the first couple of days to get him up and running. Plan was for me to turn back in Buffalo as he wanted to see Niagra Falls. Well after stopping in I decided to continue on to Erie Pa. as I have family there, my friend joined me. I called my nephew to let him know I was going to be in town and stop by the hotel for a beer. Well over dinner that night the conversation turned to having his daughter, my niece, visit us in Maine. I said that when I got home I would find a way to make it happen. He said what about on the bike? I said I would think about it and his wife definitely needed to sign off on this. Next day I said good by to my buddy and headed over to do some work on my nephews boat, despite being Saturday he had business commitments. He joined me around 530 at the boat on his 84 VF1000F and we rode back to the house.

 

Over a quiet beer in his driveway an hour later I said I assume nothing is going to happen as you have not mentioned it again. He said " No, no my wife and I talked and she is fine with it" Well, I didn't see that coming...…….. Then he said "you still OK with doing this"? I had a deep think about it. Back in 2010 I had my daughter, then 19, on the back of my Honda VF1100S for 26 days and just about 8K miles, so I was pretty sure I could get her there safely. I told him I wanted to see all the gear she would be wearing and we needed to figure out a solid backrest on the bike as I wanted her to feel safe. "No problem he said, we'll build one tomorrow". He owns an auto/heavy truck repair shop with all the kit, so next day we headed over and got there at 10, by 2 we had the frame designed, bent, welded, painted, rained on, and fitted . We had a laugh when trying to decide how high it should be, I admitted I had never been on the back of a bike and didn't know, neither had he, we winged it  No pad yet but he said "I have an idea"

 

When we got back to the house my niece caught wind that one of her Teddy Bears was going to be strapped to the frame as a pad, which quickly nixed that plan. So fiberboard, some shop towels and electrical tape it is.

 

We made it as far as Burlington VT. when my wife alerted me that Maine had changed its Covid plan once again and she and I would have to quarantine for 14 days and no they would not test my niece as she's under 18 and not a resident. Well after consultation with all involved it was agreed that her time would be better spent if we did a tour and took our time getting back to PA, which we did for a about 14 days, I'll post something on that in a different post.

 

At a distance the rack looks odd as I missed getting it perfectly square, and up close it looks like if fell off a piece of Soviet era farm equipment, and getting rained on about 1 minute after spray painting it gives it a, well, DIY patina, but it worked well for 1,800 miles she was onboard.

[Stray]

Amazing what a man can do when it needs doing! 

[FromMaine]

Forgot to mention, Nothing was altered and its removeable. Only thing I had to do was replace the 2 bolts for the hand holds with about 10mm longer. Its tight but the seat comes off/on fairly easily. The pic shows the mounting method.

 

Not pretty, but functional. 

[coupedupsubie]

I had contemplated doing something similar before buying the Givi setup. My wife didn't like not having anything behind her. The Givi box is nice for small shopping trips.

[Dutchy]