KTM 690 Enduro/SMC Luggage rack - details and general idea

Idea

I wanted luggage rack for my KTM 690 Enduro that is not too big to ruin design of the bike; made for soft luggage, with many strapping options; with ability to mount Rotopax on top of it; sturdy enough to endure rough rides over stone gardens; that can easily integrate with Touratech pannier racks.

There were several nice luggage racks for KTM 690 Enduro on the market, but non of them ticked all my boxes, so I decided to make my own luggage rack.

Here are two Advrider posts with very first prototype of my rack:  post one and post two. Since then, I made several design changes, and here is final CAD model (without holes for Rotopax):

Final product can be seen HERE.

Strength and carrying capacity

When used for heavy off road duties, racks can brake. Vibration causes small cracks, that lead to snapping of the rack. Simple use of stronger materials is not valid solution. In order to achieve greater strength and to minimise vibration stress, this luggage rack consists out of two parts - upper and lower, that are connected with two M6 bolts (not shown on CAD model). This will prevent oscillations that could lead to cracks.

Final result is very strong rack. But carrying capacity is limited by the bikes design - rack can only carry as much weight as mounting points (bolts to the plastic tank) can endure, and therefore I don't recommend putting more then few kilograms to the back. 

Production

Rack is made out of hard AlMg3 (5754) aluminium sheet, 5 mm thick. Big bend is 20 degrees, with 5 mm radii; smaller bends are made with smaller radius, because they don't suffer great stress. All bends are perpendicular to grain direction.

Aluminium is cut using water jet. All edges are debbured by hand.

Pictures before bending:

Pictures after bending:

After bending, upper and lower rack plates are sandblasted and powder coated to matt black. Here are few pictures of finished and assembled rack.

Details

Below the rack plate, between rack plate and tail of the bike, two soft rubber bushings are located. Rubber bushings do not transfer weight of the luggage to the tail of the bike, they just minimise oscillations of the rack. Bushings are bolted to the rack using M6x20 countersunk 10.9 zinc coated bolts.

Two sets of aluminium spacers are provided - one for rack alone and other for using luggage rack with pannier racks (Touratech, Wolfman, Happy Trail, Rally Raid). Strong M8x70 button head bolts with flange, 10.9 zinc coated, are also provided.

Pannier rack integration

Rack was made in way that is very easy to integrate it with Touratech, Wolfman, Happy Trail, Rally Raid pannier racks.

Lower spacer is 19 mm high and combined with 70 mm long bolt safe maximum of threaded inserts (moulded to plastic tank) is used, without danger of pulling the insert out. Do not use longer bolts, threaded inserts are shallow. 

Rotopax

1 gallon Rotopax container can be attached to the rack, using standard Rotopax mounts. Bolting Rotopax mount to the rack will contribute to the strength of the assembly, because bolts for Rotopax mount will go through lower and upper part of luggage rack and will bind them together even more.

Luggage options

There are many slots, so its easy to strap luggage on the rack. Luggage can be positioned far back, or over gas cap, as you like. Also, its very easy to attach frameless luggage systems, like Altrider Hemisphere or Giant Loop Coyote.

More luggage ideas HERE.

Extension plate

As said before, this rack was designed to carry smaller soft bags (ie. Kriega US-10) and/or Rotopax container (1 gallon). It can carry as much weight as mounting points (bolts to the plastic tank) can endure, but I don't recommend putting more then few kilograms to the back.

For purpose of carrying larger bags, I designed extension plate that can be easily attached on top of Luggage rack, to provide larger top plate. Its meant for bulkier, but not to heavy bags, like Kriega US-20. Its also Rotopax ready and it mounts (and dismounts) in few minutes, without removing Luggage rack.

Extension plate can be purchased HERE.