AltRider Luggage Rack System for BMW R 1200 GS

Reviews

• Sun 08 Apr, 2012 by Patrick

  5 stars because i love alt rider products...but instructions need revising... the following only applies to a 2012 R1200GS. BMW may have made changes that alt rider is unaware of, which lead to my particular installation issues? this set up has several possible configurations. what is below only applies to the racks set up as pictured on page 5 of the instructions with the "rear rack lower". i.e. a completely flat area behind the seat. also i was following the instructions that came with the racks. the instructions that i just viewed via download on the alt rider site are different! you should compare. first off. excellent quality! INSTALLATION NOTES: RE: PILLION replacement rack. - there was no indication in the instructions that i needed to install the pin that catches in the rear seat/pillion lock on the bike. some extra thinking and looking made me realize what was up...but still... - once the pin was installed...at first i thought that it wasn't going to fit. the fit is TIGHT, VERY TIGHT. it took a lot of muscle to wiggle the welded clips at the rear into position so that the pin that locks into the keyed seat release would even get near the hole. then it took a lot of messing and firm pressure to get it to seat in the catch. beware, the mechanism on the bike that releases the main seat and the pillion seat is the same....so any tightness on the pillion catch affects the main seat too....it appears that this will loosen up a bit over time, the second time i took it off and put it back on it was easier but some plastic has been scrapped away where the rear welded clips go in, i'm a bit on the fence about how secure those point are...it seems that they are just clipped into plastic. RE: REAR rack. [installed flat] this is where things got interesting...and the 2 sets of instructions i mentioned above deviate. the download version shows using a single bolt and spacer for the center of the rear rack. the instructions that came with the rack show using 3 bolts, which is what i did. - page 4, picture 8 indicated leaving the most rearward spacer in place. this didn't work for me—read below. - page 5, picture 11 shows putting the long spacers in place, removing the OEM bolts, what's not stated is that the OEM bolts have washers beneath them....should they stay or go? in my install the only way i could get the 2 plates to be flush on the top and get the 3 spacers to be level under the plate was to do the following: 1. remove the OEM rear spacer. 2. remove the OEM bolts AND washers shown on page 4, picture 8 3. use 1 of those washers under the replacement alt rider center spacer, do not use the OEM spacer at all. 4. the instructions say to use 3x m6x40 bolts. the center is not a 40, it's a 30 5. there is no mention of using loctite. the OEM bolts at the rear all had loctite used....i used loctite on all 3 rear top bolts. as i mentioned the download instructions only show using the single center bolt as the top surface attachment point...this makes sense, as that's how the OEM rack was installed, and you wouldn't have the issues i had....but in my mind 3 areas of support are better than one.

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