Hi all,
I recently obtained through eBay a set of hard cases (as far as I can tell these are original BMW cases and rack (as seen in the photos below), but maybe not?) that allegedly, and almost do, fit my R75/5 SWB; the rear pivot bolt fits in where it should, the tail light and turn signals clear everything, and the upper mount lines up perfectly with the bolt going through the top of my rear shocks. The problem I'm having is figuring out what the lower arm support is supposed to bolt into... Copious amounts of Googling have turned up a couple good photos of SWBs with very similar racks attached, but never with a closeup of where the lower leg attaches.
Hoping someone can point me in the right direction before I resort to just drilling a new hole in the appropriate spot...
Rack and one of the cases, so you can tell me I've got the totally wrong rack for my bike:
The lower arm (left side):
Looks decent on the bike regardless, at least, just not terribly secure
Are you positive those racks were for a SWB? The vast majority floating around out there are for the LWB or later bikes. The top bolts will fit but the shorter subframe puts the bottom one too far in, and you will have to drill a hole somewhere near your passenger pegs. I can’t speak to that specific rack, the one on my swb is a bit different.
On brackets that I have owned, the lower leg attaches at the hole that has the long scratch mark going upwards to where the flat part wants to rest in the picture above.
If it were my bike, I would mark the spot, drill the hole , bolt it down, and see how it works.
former Airmarshal, IL.
rubbernkr, I'm not certain that this rack was meant for an SWB, the guy I bought it off eBay from couldn't say for sure where it had come from. His price was too good to pass up regardless though - thankfully it looks like it mostly fits, minus this one issue.
8053, in the end I've decided to do just what you said - mark and drill a hole in the new spot and call it a day; there looks to be enough material to solidly hold a bolt, and some of the local Airheads guys have my back on this, so it can't be too bad of an idea! 😉
From the reading I've done, this rack is one of the old, prone-to-losing-your-case-on-the-highway style mounting options so I guess I'll be adding some straps to the cases when they're mounted, just in case...
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