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Web maintained
by JohnnyRide
Nthegruv@comcast.net
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I have the black E-52 model installed. And I must say that GIVI
has the best mounting system I know of. Turn the key, push one button
and the trunk is off in 5 seconds.....sweet. Construction is top
notch as you would expect when you putting this kind of money in a trunk
system. There is a document compartment inside the trunk which is on the
bottom inside of the lid as an added bonus. Although I don't expect to
be showing anyone my title and proof of insurance... don't plan to... it
is a fast bike.... this is a nice touch. Anyway the trunk mounting
plate mounts to the existing rack on the back of the ST1300 solidly via
4 bolts. It isn't the prettiest mounting plate when you take the
trunk off, but to heck with it, function wins out over form in this
case.
As you could imagine that with the trunk installed, you will be more
susceptible to crosswinds with this high mount trunk so watch your speed
on windy days. In fact, I notice that with the trunk on, the bike
gets really jittery at interstate speeds and this is amplified around
trucks and other less aerodynamic vehicles. However the bright
side is, if you but a T-BAG or some other sort of bag behind you, (no,
this wasn't an attempt at humor, but if it made you laugh, then yes I
planned it that way), to fill the gap between you and the trunk,
stability is suppose to improve. I also have the "Brake light option"
installed for enhanced visibility. I may have to add some better bulbs
such as LEDS in to the equation to get that eye popping appeal I like so
much. (as in popping the eyes out of the cagers head with LED brightness
when they roll up behind you.)
Ok, so much for that. As you can see
to the left is the anticipated results from the stock mounting
instructions. The trunk is back there dangling in the air and it
makes a huge difference in the stability of this bike with it on.
Most noticeable at higher speeds, I am to the point of selling it on
EBAY but I thought, ok, 1 more shot at this.
So what I did was go buy
one 3 foot piece of this hollow square metal bar, cut 2, 11.5"
pieces off, drill 3 holes per bar, paint the bar black, use 4, 6mm
hex head bolts and 2, 8mm hex head bolts to hold it down and bingo,
solid. This moved the trunk forward about 8.5" inches.
You get the idea.
Moving it forward does help a lot, but I think I
will buy another bar and cut 2, 14" section and
remount it. I would like to lean back on the
backrest when ever I want to. It also need to retest
because tonight there were 30 mph guts on the
interstate and honestly I couldn't tell how well
this worked. I will wait till a normal night of
gentle breezes to test it out. It also makes
mounting and dismounting a little more fun since you
don't really want to kick the trunk with your
boot.....doh.
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