Motorcycle & Gear Notes, Reviews and References

Givi luggage at last!
results & notes for installation on the Ducati 750 Sport

spring 2002

The luggage quest finally ended yesterday morning, when i picked up the bike from its first service and having had racks and luggage mounted. Pictures are here:
http://downwardspiral.net/pictures/Motorcycles/Ducati/Hello_Ducati/Givi

The Luggage Itself:

The luggage are a pair of Givi E360 and a Givi E460, all in matte black (not matte anthracite, another color option which might have worked). Cavernous, especially the E460. The advertised waterproof seal also pulls a nice suction, which can make the bags a PITA to open. The panniers have matched keys. The topbox has a different key. Annoying but livable.

It's really nice to have a locking trunk for my helmet when i'm parking at the store...

The E360 does, indeed, hold a full face helmet. (I wear a medium Arai Signet/GT.) You have to remove the document holder, which gives the extra 3/4" clearance needed to make it fit. You could use a pair of panniers and stick a helmet in one of them ... somewhat less convienient than sticking a helmet in the top box, though.

It should be noted that the way they're mounted, none but the smallest of passengers could sit on the back with the panniers hung. Heels are just barely on the pegs

The panniers stick out a couple inches further than my mirrors, though not much. That makes me a bit cautious -- good thing i'm not in the habit of lane-splitting. Since they're mounted well over the pipes, they won't affect ground clearance too much -- I really doubt that i'm going to try to achieve the lean angle required to make them touch down. If i'm out to really do the twisties, i'm probably not touring. :-)

Racks & Mounting:

I chose Givi Wingracks. I wanted the strength and stability of the wingracks -- I am not a fan of tubular racks. However, neither givi nor anybody else make pannier-capable fitting kits for the Ducati sport/supersport line, so custom fitting was required.

Givi only supports a top box rack, and the method of fitting -- hanging it off of the frame under the seat -- doesn't inspire confidence. Never fear, Bruce Meyers to the rescue ... we decided to take advantage of the fact that the aluminum grab bar on the post-2000 S/SS series is very solidly attached to the frame, and used that as a top mount point (see photos 562 and 571).

The wingracks are the standard, somewhat ugly racks. If i get the urge to pretty up the racks and lose my fiscal mind, I might replace the N-series racks with E-series ones, just 'cause they're smoothed out and prettier. :) Turn signals are included, which cut out the bike's own rear turn signals. They're huge...

Also, i had previously replaced the ducati rear fender with a fender eliminator kit, which aside from cleaning up the rear, replaced ducati's plastic parts with aluminum. This turned out to make the license plate a good point to add some lateral stability (see photos 561 and 565)

The racks should unbolt pretty easily... which i'll have to do for a track day late this month!

Wind, Stability, and Speed:

I expected the top box to add a lot of sail. Interestingly, this wasn't a problem ~except~ at low speeds. Around 30 mph, wind is a Bad Thing. Over 40, and the bike stabilizes nicely and the wind seems little worse than it was before. Low speed drivers are now very clearly my enemy. ;)

When i picked up the bike, Bruce commented that he had noticed no instability. "I took it up to a hundred and it was very stable. I was suprised." A long ride home confirmed this.

As expected, the bags certainly add drag. Top speed was, erm, well, lower than without them, but still well over double the posted limit where i tested them.

Other Comments and Notes:

A list member commented: You'll find that the Matte Givi's also protect against parking-lot drops.

Seeing as i've replaced two, yes, two turn signals in the past month from two different forms of stupidity, this is a good thing. (I'm trying to get all my damage taken care of in the first thousand miles... ;-)

Next I plan to add 3M's black reflective Scotchlite tape to the racks, bags, and a few bits of the bike itself ... my compromise between conspicuity and style.

I purchased my luggage through RiderHaus online, because they were so helpful in my intial research, and compettively priced. BCM Ducati ordered the wingracks and associated fitting parts, fabricated some more and did the custom mounting work. Bruce's work is top-notch!

My pretty black bike ("hello oni") earned the nickname AWACS at BCM after the luggage was loaded. It's a stealth platform with a big round instrument dome on its tail... ;-)

Problems and Solutions

Updated November 2002

Over the summer, while I was on the New England AIDS Ride doing motorcycle safety crew, the rack broke. No kidding. Cast metal, you see, doesn't like to have holes drilled in it, or anything else that causes weird stress the designers never indended. First the top rack broke where it was bolted to the grab bar -- couldn't take the strain. This left the weight supported solely by the side rack mounting points -- the normally connected ones at the passenger pegs were fine, but the horizontal stabiliser, which was never intended to bear a vertical load, gave way next: first the left side threw a bolt, which left the entire load on the the right side, which of course broke.

Lovely.

So we ordered some replacement parts and set about making a stronger replacement. The top rack is now bolted to an alumnimum plate by its intended mounting points, and that plate is secured to the top rack using the same bolt hole in the grab bar. The new wingracks are secured through their intended mounting points to an L-bracket connecting them to the horizontal stabiliser bar. I ordered the newer, sleeker racks while we were at it -- much nicer looking next to this bike's curved fairings.

It's been a several months since doing this. So far, so good!