I have read about the wobbly top box and how a fee of £130 would fix it with the purchase of a new plate, well after having mine to bits last night i have designed some spacers which hopefully will eliminate the need to spend a fortune.
I have our instrument make here at work turning them from stainless and await the trial probably tomorrow, i noticed when removing the original bolts they were installed inboard of where i would have put them, so these parts are going to be installed outboard nearer the main fixing points of the plate.
I shall of course keep you up to date if they work, if there rubbish i shall keep quiet.
Alan
Alan, Sounds like you are about to save yourself a decent wedge for the sake of a few bolts .... good luck and as you say keep us all posted ;D
I just have a Givi box on mine and I have to admit it's solid as a rock. There some small rubber feet/spacers underneath it and they create the snug fit. Hope you get it sorted and pretty cheaply too.
QuoteI just have a Givi box on mine and I have to admit it's solid as a rock. There some small rubber feet/spacers underneath it and they create the snug fit. Hope you get it sorted and pretty cheaply too.
The Kawasaki topbox is a Givi box and has rubber feet on the base as well. But unlike the more expensive Monokey boxes Kawasaki chose to sell only the cheap and nasty Monolock boxes as accessories. Not only are they flimsy, have no fasteners inside, a maximum load of only 3kg and a plastic base, the rubber feet come off very easily when you take the box off too.
So far so good, I had the stainless spacers turned up and they have given the topbox 50% more stability so now onto the next phase.
I have obtained a bit of alloy checkerplate which is 5pm thick, I shall mill the outside of it to exactly the same shape as the original plate which bolts on the bike but I will extend it rearwards some 20mm at the furthest point, drill the fixing holes and secure it to my bike with some rubber grommets between bike and alloy.
Should take me a couple of weeks to complete and will report back on it's success or failure.
Alan
Is that generally the problem then that the base plate isnt large enough to accomodate the area of the box sitting on it?
Well as a newbie i have looked at four bikes of varying ages, all owners and me included came to the same conculsion that the base plate was to flexible for the mounting plate to have any decent effect.
I noticed somewhere you could purchase for £130 a pre-built plate and this was the cure, but not wishing to spend that amount of cash and managing to get this bit of alloy checker plate, along with the skills of some good technicians we have at work decided to have a go.
I looked at mine and noticed the rear of the box mounting overhangs the base plate by some distance, hense me making this one 20mm longer.
I shall of course report back.
Alan
I just bought an Ortlieb 49L waterproof roll bag (£54) instead and chuck it on the back seat over the panniers.
No worrying about top boxes falling off, no compromised handling
The bag can be bungee'd on to the rack if the missues goes on the back as I took an old "rack" from my oven and cable-tied it to the base plate for better support for the bag - saved the £130!!!
Bit of luck today, a mate of mine is taking the original black plastic mounting along with the Allow checker plate and he has access to a computer aided water jet system to cut it out including the holes, should be back with me tomorrow night.
Top job.
Alan
Alan, I've seen one of those used on Orange County Choppers, a very nifty bit of kit.
I took mine apart recently to move the box back as the Mrs was complaining that it was too close and kept hitting her in the back.
I must say im disgusted at how flimsy the plastic plate is and am thinking of contacting Kawasaki direct about it as IMO its not fit for purpose
I have an SW motech top box, kept from my ZZR, and it has a bigger fitting plate than the Kawa one and sits further from the pillion and doesn't bounce. I suppose the ideal solution is a top box mount that bolts directly to the bike, thus making the plastic rack redundant?
Quote from: Cartman on September 21, 2011, 10:46:05 AM
I have an SW motech top box, kept from my ZZR, and it has a bigger fitting plate than the Kawa one and sits further from the pillion and doesn't bounce. I suppose the ideal solution is a top box mount that bolts directly to the bike, thus making the plastic rack redundant?
Good idea but still something kawa should be addressing, think i'll make a phone call ;)
Quote from: Gas Man on September 21, 2011, 10:49:31 AM
Good idea but still something kawa should be addressing, think i'll make a phone call ;)
You are not wrong, good luck!!
Quote from: Cartman on September 21, 2011, 11:01:12 AM
You are not wrong, good luck!!
I used to have the VN and wasnt that impressed with the seat as within 1hr was in agony with my arse. Called kawa bout it and they went halves with me on a custom gel seat from the usa
A bit more info for those interested... I'm guessing you especially Al ;)
Have spoken to Kawa cutomer serv and they are looking into the problem.
I told them the solution was (seeing as its a 13k bike) to stop using cheap plastic racks and to use as standard these:
http://www.chainspeed.co.uk/products/Alu%252dRack-for-Kawasaki-GTR1400-2007-onwards-by-SW%252dMotech.html
http://www.chainspeed.co.uk/products/Adaptor-kit-for-Givi%7B47%7DKappa-Monolock-by-SW%252dMotech.html
They use this brand for the 1400ZZR as standard so why not the GTR ::)
I still don't understand what you guys are on about.
The base isn't a problem.
It is fully sufficient for a box with a maximum load of 3kg.
Why anybody in his right mind would design (Givi) and sell (Kawasaki) a 49l box with a 3kg payload is beyond me, though.
And didn't your bike come with those parts (rack and adaptor) anyway?
Mine did!
All Kawasaki needs to do is offer the Givi Monokey box which comes with a metal base anyway instead of selling only the cheaper Monolock one.
Quote from: mecki on September 21, 2011, 02:16:19 PM
I still don't understand what you guys are on about.
The base isn't a problem.
It is fully sufficient for a box with a maximum load of 3kg.
Why anybody in his right mind would design (Givi) and sell (Kawasaki) a 49l box with a 3kg payload is beyond me, though.
And didn't your bike come with those parts (rack and adaptor) anyway?
Mine did!
All Kawasaki needs to do is offer the Givi Monokey box which comes with a metal base anyway instead of selling only the cheaper Monolock one.
Its the rack which is the problem, cheap plastic rubbish. Its also a back rest for the pillion and as a consequence hits my wife in the back due to the flex in the cheap plastic
It "hits" your wife in the back?
That the top box is wobbly I accept.
After all it is made from very thin and soft plastic.
But that it "hits" a pillion in the back I just can't believe.
Or is it the other way around and she is hitting the top box instead?
A bit ham fisted on the throttle perhaps?
And who would want to use that flimsy thing as a back rest in the first place?
I'd be scared that it may just fall off if you put a bit of pressure on it.
Maybe you should try the back rest pad first before you waste a lot of time and/or money on another rack.
Are all 4 rubber spacers still in there?
I check every time I take the top case off that there isn't one stuck to the bottom.
I haven't used the top box with a pillion yet, but when I lost one of the spacers it started to rattle quite a bit. ???
Quote from: Gas Man on September 21, 2011, 01:30:37 PM
A bit more info for those interested... I'm guessing you especially Al ;)
Have spoken to Kawa cutomer serv and they are looking into the problem.
I told them the solution was (seeing as its a 13k bike) to stop using cheap plastic racks and to use as standard these:
http://www.chainspeed.co.uk/products/Alu%252dRack-for-Kawasaki-GTR1400-2007-onwards-by-SW%252dMotech.html (http://www.chainspeed.co.uk/products/Alu%252dRack-for-Kawasaki-GTR1400-2007-onwards-by-SW%252dMotech.html)
http://www.chainspeed.co.uk/products/Adaptor-kit-for-Givi%7B47%7DKappa-Monolock-by-SW%252dMotech.html (http://www.chainspeed.co.uk/products/Adaptor-kit-for-Givi%7B47%7DKappa-Monolock-by-SW%252dMotech.html)
They use this brand for the 1400ZZR as standard so why not the GTR ::)
This is the very set up that I use. No movement at all and fully loaded panniers and a couple of kilos in the top box bike was steady as a rock on autobahn at 140mph ;D
Well I am a happy bunny, collected the water cut plate and all I had to do was put a 5mm radius on the lower edge where it bolts onto the bike and mark where I wanted to bolt the mounting plate to go, drilled the holes, cleaned it up and assembled it, with the addition of two pieces of White door sealer where the box clips back in the two holes and it was complete.
Looks good an as for wobble I would say it's a 95% improvement and well worth the work.
So all I can say is if you get yourself some alloy plate then wobble will be a thing of the past.
Alan
Alan, is your chap willing and able to make a few of these plates up perhaps complete with holes etc? I'd be interested in buying one if they were a sensible price.
I shall see him in the local and ask.
Alan
Quote from: mecki on September 21, 2011, 03:04:09 PM
It "hits" your wife in the back?
That the top box is wobbly I accept.
After all it is made from very thin and soft plastic.
But that it "hits" a pillion in the back I just can't believe.
Or is it the other way around and she is hitting the top box instead?
A bit ham fisted on the throttle perhaps?
And who would want to use that flimsy thing as a back rest in the first place?
I'd be scared that it may just fall off if you put a bit of pressure on it.
Maybe you should try the back rest pad first before you waste a lot of time and/or money on another rack.
Are all 4 rubber spacers still in there?
I check every time I take the top case off that there isn't one stuck to the bottom.
I haven't used the top box with a pillion yet, but when I lost one of the spacers it started to rattle quite a bit. ???
Mine has the pad.
The whole point of the back rest pad is its supposed to double up as a back rest as well as a top box so you should be able to lean back on it!
Yes all 4 rubbers are intact and i've also put some sticky back foam to take up any slack between the box and the monokey plate.
As said already its the flex in the rack which IMO is not fit for purpose which makes the box wobble up and down which in turn makes it a very uncomfortable experience for my wife. the whole point of getting the box with the back rest pad was to allow the wife to have something to rest on. 1 of the main reasons for choosing the GTR was because the wife comes out a lot on it with me.
You've hit the nail on the head really when you said "And who would want to use that flimsy thing as a back rest in the first place?
I'd be scared that it may just fall off if you put a bit of pressure on it."
Quote from: Lonewolf on September 22, 2011, 12:29:48 AM
Alan, is your chap willing and able to make a few of these plates up perhaps complete with holes etc? I'd be interested in buying one if they were a sensible price.
+1 on that :D
to be honest I think i'll spend the £115 and get the bits in the links i posted earlier ;)
I spoke to cust serv about this but was not impressed ::)
Quote from: mecki on September 06, 2011, 06:50:21 PM
The Kawasaki topbox is a Givi box and has rubber feet on the base as well. But unlike the more expensive Monokey boxes Kawasaki chose to sell only the cheap and nasty Monolock boxes as accessories. Not only are they flimsy, have no fasteners inside, a maximum load of only 3kg and a plastic base, the rubber feet come off very easily when you take the box off too.
Are the feet on the rack or on bottom of box? There are 4 empty holes on my rack :(
Quote from: Andy on September 23, 2011, 05:53:48 PM
Are the feet on the rack or on bottom of box? There are 4 empty holes on my rack :(
Should be on the rack.