Earlier this week I received a new backrest in mail. After a two hour ride with the backrest in place, I knew my chiropractor would hate what I've done. My back was killing me. The backrest offered no lumbar support and pushed me so far forward that I was nearly touching the tank. Very uncomfortable. So, I need the backrest to move back and lower. A good challenge.
Yesterday, I went to Home Depot to look for new bracket ideas to hold the backrest in place. Lo and behold, the much overlooked l-bracket (corner bracket) came to the rescue. I picked up a set of four 3" X 3/4" zinc brackets. They won't rust, which is a plus.
Here's a picture of the bike with the passenger backrest removed. First I removed the front seat (don't get me started on the horrible design of that!) and then undid the two screws that hold the passenger seat to seat bracket. You can find them easily as they are the ones holding down the leather strap that goes across the passenger seat. I'd removed the strap last week, so you won't see it in the picture.
Next, I simply bolted the l-brackets onto the seat using the all the original bolts. No drilling, no fuss. This took me a few minutes as getting under the seat to hold the nuts is a bit of a pain. I tightened everything up and then placed the seat where I wanted it. Now, this is the new seat, not the original passenger seat that came with the bike. I figured that if I mess it up, I'd rather mess up the non-waterproof seat and save the good one.
The new seat simply screws into the brackets. The original seat has a metal backing, so you can't drill into it, but the new seat has a wooden back. I drilled 1/8" pilot holes and then screwed the seat to the l-brackets.
The only problem I had was that I couldn't get the two lower screws in because they are right up against the passenger seat. I'll worry about that once I know I have the seat in a good position and my back doesn't hurt.
Once I've worked out the perfect position, I'll remove the new seat and replace it with the original passenger seat. So I wasted $60 on a crappy seat, but in the end I'll wind up with a great seat for less the $5 it cost me for the l-brackets.
I wanted to make sure my luggage fit with the backrest, so I put most of it on (see below). I will use a 6 foot python lock to hold my luggage down. I thought that using eye hooks instead of regular screws in the backrest would give the python something to lock into. As you can see from the photo below, there isn't enough room for eye hooks. The smaller bag in front of the big one is one of my old saddlebags from the 250. It carries my emergency gear, such as tools, a first aid kit, spare glasses, ear plugs, and the owner's manual. The python goes through that and then through d-rings on the large luggage as well as wrapping around the backrest post. The one thing missing on the bike, besides me, is the tank bag.
