• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Billet Tail Rack goes Diamond Plate

Kenneth Webb

Kenneth Webb

Livin' It Up!
I originally wanted to have a custom billet aluminum tail rack made, but the cost is astronomical. So, it is now in diamond plate. I have a 3000 mile trail ride coming up in one week, and I didn't think resting my duffel on the rear fender would be a good idea. I don't think the plastic at the fasterners would fare well, though some have done it with no apparent ill effects. While waiting for the paint to dry on my side stand stop plates I whittled out my stand and marked out my mounting brackets for cutting. They will rest on and bolt thru the grab rails. Pics for now and when I finish I'll post again. I made this to work with my Wolfman bags, and the weight will be right over the rear axle. That's why it wraps around the seat a bit. It should provide a solid mount for the duffel with camping gear. This will be the true test of my frame bracing!

Rack is shown resting on the fender, but it will be mounted on spacers to be level with the seat and allow the bag straps to pass under. Some lightening/finger holes will be cut into the plate.

630 Tail Rack 001.JPG630 Tail Rack 002.JPG630 Tail Rack 004.JPG
 
Just be sure to keep that rack plenty full and padded with luggage at all times. I would hate to think what that sharp edge would do if you landed wrong taking a dirt nap. ouch!!

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Looks worse than it is. It's well inboard of the side racks, and with the saddle bags on, it's going to be difficult to make contact with it at all. When not needed, just loosen four bolts and the whole thing comes off. This is only for long trips, period!
 
SilverBullet said:
Just be sure to keep that rack plenty full and padded with luggage at all times. I would hate to think what that sharp edge would do if you landed wrong taking a dirt nap. ouch!!

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Click to expand...

Well yes but there are handle bars, hot pipes, gas and a bunch of other stuff too. Ride fast / take chances, safety third. :D
 
I have a few holes along the edges for bungees if needed. I know this looks wide up front, but those ears are really not in the way of my legs and are nicely protected by the side rack bars in the event of a spill. When the duffel is on, they will be covered. It would require some extreme gyrations to make contact with the rack. What I really wanted was to get the bag a bit forward and well secured there, instead of way out back. I have plenty of room to scoot back when needed. All edges rounded well, of course.
 
It's not a work of art, but it's strong, solidly attached without mods to the bike, and best of all, it's finished. I've got slots front and back for straps, and two large holes in the middle which are for my fingers to reach the saddle bag strap buckle. The front buckle rests on the very back of the seat. The brackets bolt thru the hand grips with nylon spacers, and more spacers lift the rack to clear the fender and allow the rear strap to pass under. Testing it very soon.....

630 rack 001.JPG
 
Kenneth Webb said:
It's not a work of art, but it's strong, solidly attached without mods to the bike, and best of all, it's finished.
Click to expand...

That's what matters the most. Alternately for those who already have the Husky rack they could just swap out their top plate for something like yours with 4 bolts. Yours is still stronger though as the top plate supports are farther apart.

DSC_0038-2.jpg
 
The Husky rack looks great, and I tried to find one used, but no dice. I'll keep looking as the price new is really high for a mass produced item. Meanwhile, I think mine will be great when carrying a fully packed duffel and the ends of the bag won't droop and will make it easier to get into the saddle bags when fully loaded. Doing it over, I would make the plate just a little narrower, reduce the ears maybe one inch, and have it milled from half inch plate, and spend a bit more time on the mounting ears and hardware. Right now, I'm up against it schedule wise. 'Still might see about a billet rack some day so it could stay on all the time without me having to make excuses about the craftsmanship. For this one, it's function only. Leaving Thursday for Forever West. Loading the bikes on the trailer tomorrow. Here's where we are going http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=647968
 
Kenneth Webb said:
The Husky rack looks great, and I tried to find one used, but no dice. I'll keep looking as the price new is really high for a mass produced item.
Click to expand...

Well Husky rack is less than the Uptite skid plate so not bad considering. Not sure anything can be considered mass produced if unique for the 630, production numbers worldwide probably less than 2,000 units total for both years. Weighs only 1 lb more than the steel grab handles also. Just don't buy it from Tourtech same rack but $50 more.

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Just returned from Forever West, and my cobbled rack was just the ticket. It held my heavy rear bag securely and the width made getting into my side bags easy; no struggle because of drooping duffel ends. No subframe issues at all regardless of the pounding the bike took (a lot!) and I'm happy with my weld job. The only thing I need to do is to have the plate and mounts black anodized to prevent the bare aluminum rubbing onto the bottom of the duffel. I'll probably add a few more lightening holes as well. The rack will not reside on the bike for normal use and is very easy to install and remove. I did find a used Husky rack for everyday use, thanks to one of our members.
 
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