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installing a ventura pack rack


what you'll need:
Time needed: about 30 minutes

background.
Illustrating my impeccable sense of timing, I bought this used Ventura luggage system for Peter's Superhawk right before he broke his back snowboarding in February 2004. Needless to say, he didn't do much touring after that, so it took us until the Wind Dancers Pacific Rally to install it.

pre-procedure.
The only pre-procedure needed is to get the rear plastic out of the way. Peter just removed the seat, took off all of the fairing bolts except the front two, and disconnected the taillight. Then he could just pivot it up and out of the way. I don't have any pictures, since he'd already done this by the time I got into the garage.

procedure.
The first thing you'll want to do, as always, is make sure you know where the thing's going. There are two main points: the rearward passenger peg bolt and the bolt that holds on the rear fender.

Go ahead and remove the passenger peg bolt (8mm hex head socket).

The trick is that the handle-looking thing on the rack is going to slide into the frame just behind the fender bolt. Here's the main idea (note: I'm just holding the rack up in place; nothing's bolted on yet).


You're going to line up the hole in the rack with the bolt hole there....


....by sliding that piece of rack down into the frame.

OK, now that you know what's going on, go ahead and unfasten that rear fender bolt (10mm). There'll be a little washer on the inside; don't lose that. You'll be putting it back on soon.

Now take the rack and slide it into place. Make sure that the bolt hole in the frame and the one on the rack line up properly.

Take the supplied bolt (6mm hex) and thread it through the rack. Take the washer that you didn't lose earlier and put it, and then the nut, on. Tighten everything down good and tight.

Put your passenger peg bolt back on, through the rack bolt hole, and tighten that puppy down. Now's also a good time to put your rear fairing back together.

Now you're set! The Ventura rack slides right onto the mounting racks, and tightens down with the screw and locknut (on the mounting racks).