Another idea for a top case?

[cap'n]

Re: Guess what arrived today?

Dude you guys are nuts. Leave it to the FZ6 Forum guys to fab up LED control boxes. I love you people.

Quick thought/ concern about the OP though: Once you mount that holder plate onto the pillion portion of your seat, put a big box on, and load it with anything heavy, is the base plate wide enough / stable enough to keep it from wobbling side to side? It seems like you'd be able to grab that top box once it's mounted and sorta jiggle it left and right. (I hope not)

 

[SirIsaac]

Re: Guess what arrived today?

Certainly. Did it all up in Visio before I got started. Was originally going to do it with a 555 timer but decided that was stupid, not as flexible and took up more board space than using the micro controller (Arduino Pro Mini 5V). Since I don't have a way to make PCBs, minimizing the amount of wiring I had to do on the board was essential, it still was a pain. Plus I can use the MCU to implement more stuff eventually. I have the board done but don't have any pictures.

Again, awesome job. I was going to ask if you used 555 timer(s), but figured that would show my age . I googled "Arduino Pro Mini 5V", looks like it costs less than $20.

I just ordered the large top box from Sears, $58 delivered to my house. A similar size top box from Shad is around $200. the Sears box is probably not as good as a Shad, but hopefully good enough. I have a Shad 29 liter box on a Shad rack, which is great for around town stuff. But I am taking a 3 day (I know, wow, three whole days) trip this spring and didn't figure that it would hold all I might need. I was also considering buying some soft saddelbags, but then I'd have to fab up the "hold-out" brackets. My riding partner thinks the 40 liter box will be big enough. Of course now I'll have to build your circuit and install the LEDs (and remove the iron cross emblem from the top of the case.)

 

[Mexi-can't]

I just got the same large topcase from sears in today. After looking at the mounting systems and not wanting to spend $150 or so to mount a $40 box, I have some ideas. One of the boxes is going on the Bandit 1200, the sw-motech rack for it is made from aluminum and looks easy enough to duplicate. I have a sheet of 1/8" aluminum and a metal brake. Looks like this:

So my thought for the FZ6 is to fab up a bracket similar to the ones used to mount a seat cowl, and make a rack out of the aluminum that attaches to it. This would put the topcase over the rear seat, yet still be removable.

Ridiculous idea or do-able?

 

[SirIsaac]

So my thought for the FZ6 is to fab up a bracket similar to the ones used to mount a seat cowl, and make a rack out of the aluminum that attaches to it. This would put the topcase over the rear seat, yet still be removable.

Ridiculous idea or do-able?

Sounds like a great idea. I don't think I could do it, but based on what I have seen others do here, I'm sure it is doable. Do it!

 

[brad81987]

Re: Guess what arrived today?

Again, awesome job. I was going to ask if you used 555 timer(s), but figured that would show my age . I googled "Arduino Pro Mini 5V", looks like it costs less than $20.

I just ordered the large top box from Sears, $58 delivered to my house. A 40 liter top box from Shad is well over $200. the Sears box is probably not as good as a Shad, but hopefully good enough. I have a Shad 29 liter box on a Shad rack, which is great for around town stuff. But I am taking a 3 day (I know, wow, three whole days) trip this spring and didn't figure that it would hold all I might need. I was also considering buying some soft saddelbags, but then I'd have to fab up the "hold-out" brackets. My riding partner thinks the 40 liter box will be big enough. Of course now I'll have to build your circuit and install the LEDs (and remove the iron cross emblem from the top of the case.)

LOL, thanks. I haven't officially tested it on the bike yet. I hooked it up to the battery with the engine off and jumped the brake and blinker circuits to test it and everything was good. I can't think of anything that would act up with it with it hardwired to the running bike but haven't officially tested it yet.

 

[FZ1inNH]

Re: Guess what arrived today?

Dude you guys are nuts. Leave it to the FZ6 Forum guys to fab up LED control boxes. I love you people.

Quick thought/ concern about the OP though: Once you mount that holder plate onto the pillion portion of your seat, put a big box on, and load it with anything heavy, is the base plate wide enough / stable enough to keep it from wobbling side to side? It seems like you'd be able to grab that top box once it's mounted and sorta jiggle it left and right. (I hope not)

A lot of true innovators here!

To answer your question: Depends. It really will depend on how well I can brace and bolt that plate to the seat pan. The seat pan itself is very solid on the bike. I'm hoping to bolt as far out to the edges as I can without stressing the integrity of the pan itself. The example you see above is from another FZ1 member and he's stated that his doesn't have much give at all.

That was a good point to bring up though! Thanks! :thumbup:

 

[brad81987]

Ok, for those that were wondering, here's the circuit I built for the LED control. Not overly complex but kind of a pain to solder up. Really wish I had a mini-mill to do PCBs.....

 

[clunk]

I've been working towards getting the Sears topcase mounted to my stock 2007 seat (currently using a comfort seat w/ transferrable Roho Airhawk). After working through a couple different mounting iterations, I think I've settled on a final design.

I cut a ~5"x7" rectangle out of the stock seat foam an plan on placing a cut down 2x6 in that hole. With a little bit of sanding to round some sharp edges, I should be able to stretch the original seat cover back over that. I'll then place a matching block on top of that (painted black) for the mounting plate to sit on (will also rest on the back lip of the seat). The front two bolts will go through the holes in the seat pan that currently hold the rubber bumpers on either side of the seat lock (I'll dremel out the bumpers to fi back over the nut/bolt). The rear bolts should fit into the channels in the rear of the seat pan. It remains to be seen just how well the plastic seat pan will handle the load of the top case, but it seems to be pretty sturdy.

My only difficulty so far has been that the medium and large top cases use different mounting plates (bought one of each). The medium is a pretty good match style-wise for our bikes and I was hoping to be able to switch to the large on the same mounting plate when more capacity was needed. May have to add a Shad rack ($93.59 from Stadium Yamaha) to hold the large case when needed.