Top Box Woes

Gem rod

Gem rod

New member
Finally got my top box and rack today for my Fazer 800 that I ordered from the Yamaha dealer when I brought the bike.

Sure enough the 50 Litre box came with the Yamaha manual and fitting instructions and so is a genuine product.

Two major niggles:

First the rack does not actually fit without filing out chunks out of each side of the rear tail plastic. The instructions allude to this but indicate that only 1mm needs to be removed. I found it to be considerably more and I can well imagine most folks rejecting the product on the basis that this amount of GRP removal should not be necessary.

There is a small gap now where the rack grab rail meets the GRP where I went too far with the file. I will have to look at patching that up with something to prevent water ingress. Any ideas there would be appreciated.

Anyway the rack is now fitted and the rear seat back in position.

The other major gripe I have is that the lock for the top box is an extra! I just ordered it from Yamha UK and it cost £11.29 delivered. That will hardly break the bank but what farking use is a top box without a lock for heavens sake?

Not only can the contents of ones box be lifted by the opportunist thief but without the lock the entire box can be easily removed from the mounting plate and carted away!

Absolutely crazy. Yamaha went to all that trouble to design the bike with incredible attention to detail and then made the top box lock an additional extra!

The epitome of pettiness if you ask me.

I don't recommend the Yamaha top box and rack. If I had have known I would have purchased it separately from Givi.

:mad:
 
Gem rod

Gem rod

New member
TorontoAlex said:
Fack! I just ordered last week. I knew that the seat needed filing but the lock part sucks.
Click to expand...

On mine it wasn't the seat but the rear plastic section. The rear seat will need to be removed of course to do the job.

No kidding it took me an hour to do the filing. I was only taking a minuscule amount off at a time to keep on trying it. Even now I have not taken off quite enough and the rack presses down on the plastic so that there is a slight gap between the seat underside and the tail plastic.

Not Yamaha's best product by any means.

Anyway here is the part number for the lock if you want to get it ordered and ready.

52S-21780-09

Fits both the 39 Litre and mine which is the 50 Litre.

Just take your time and don't rush the job would be my advice. It does fit in the end!

http://www.lambamotorcycles.co.uk/yamaha-shop.aspx?productid=441127
 
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H

HeadFX

New member
I used a Dremel to file away my plastic... still took an hour or more though cos I had never used a Dremel in anger before. One bit of advice I would give is to protect the rest of the seat unit with masking tape before you start removing plastic. I managed to put a scratch on the seat unit when the Dremel slipped :(

It's a lot of work, but on the other hand dealers will charge you quite a bit to do it for you...

I have the 46 litre Yamaha box and I never needed to buy a lock separately... sorry to hear about that Gem rod
 
[]V[]addog

[]V[]addog

Member
U guys have some pics of ur set ups. I want one of these for the sole purpose of a back rest for my girlfriend. How easy is it to take off and put back on?
 
H

HeadFX

New member
I think with some Givi boxes (the official Yamaha cases are made by Givi too) you can buy a back rest that fits to the back of the case. Don't ask me which models though cos I don't know!

But anyhow I hope you mean to only take the case on and off and not the whole rack.... not unless you have a spare rear seat cowling to replace the one you have to butcher to fit the rack. In terms of taking the case on and off it's a piece of cake.
 
T

TorontoAlex

New member
[]V[]addog said:
U guys have some pics of ur set ups. I want one of these for the sole purpose of a back rest for my girlfriend. How easy is it to take off and put back on?
Click to expand...

Yamaha canada website has all the info. Both 30 and 46 litre have backrests. Also yamaha europe has a 50 litre case made by someone else that looks very stealthy. My dealer didnt want to order it for me so i got the givi. Takes 3 weeks to get.
 
Gem rod

Gem rod

New member
HeadFX said:
I used a Dremel to file away my plastic... still took an hour or more though cos I had never used a Dremel in anger before. One bit of advice I would give is to protect the rest of the seat unit with masking tape before you start removing plastic. I managed to put a scratch on the seat unit when the Dremel slipped :(

It's a lot of work, but on the other hand dealers will charge you quite a bit to do
Click to expand...

Yep

Same happened to me. Scratched the rear tail plastic with the file. Fortunately the rack covers most of it.

On the key issue Yamaha said that they are designed for customers to choose one of two options

1) A standards top box type key .
2) A lock that works with your bike key.

Ok fair enough that's a good idea. The dealer should still have made me aware that the lock needs to be ordered separately though. Nothing worse that going to all that trouble to fit the box then find that you still have to wait for the lock to arrive.

Should arrive today so maybe I will upload some pics.
 
Gem rod

Gem rod

New member
[]V[]addog said:
U guys have some pics of ur set ups. I want one of these for the sole purpose of a back rest for my girlfriend. How easy is it to take off and put back on?
Click to expand...

Once you have filed away the rear tail plastic to fit the rack there is no way that you would want to remove it and replace the original grab rails. You would end up with gaping holes in the rear tail plastic. It's a permanent fit imho.
 
Larry P

Larry P

New member
Sounds like some rough times with the 50L case. In the US I managed to get the 46L and rack from Yamaha. Dremel did the cutting and the rack fits fine. There are gaps with the seat on but without them the rack wouldn't be able to mount at all. I would recommend some weather stripping to stop the water from going under the seat if you really worry, but the water can drain from the interior plastic. Yamaha has well placed holes inside for drainage.
 
T

TorontoAlex

New member
Holy shitters thats a nice box. Much better than the north american box. Was there an adapter plate to get the topbox onto the rack?
 
T

TorontoAlex

New member
I just installed the topbox carrier rack and used 70mm x 8 x 1.25 bolts to mock up a templatewith masking tape. Still took alot of fiddling around but for those who are as nervous as i was hacking the cowl up this is a good start. Used a fein multimaster with half round blade and file instead of dremel.
 
Gem rod

Gem rod

New member
TorontoAlex said:
Holy shitters thats a nice box. Much better than the north american box. Was there an adapter plate to get the topbox onto the rack?
Click to expand...

Yes the adapter plate bolts on to the metal rack. The top box then fits on to the adapter plate and is designed to be 'quick release'. That is if you unlock the box it can be detached and removed easily.

It works well and accommodates two full face helmets.

It's just a pain to fit in the first place!
 
F

Fazer 8

Member
I see others have installed this rack on a Fazer 8 and made no mention of this:

The areas of the rear cowling that need to be removed to allow this rack to fit are actually moulded into the underside of the cowling, indicating where the material needs to be removed. At least on my 2013 Fazer 8 it was. I suspect the FZ8 may have the same thing, but I don't know for sure.

I took my time doing it, as I wasn't sure, but in the end I had removed all that material and a smidge more (maybe that's what that cryptic "1 mm crearance" note in the install instructions means - and yes, it actually says "crearance", lol). I wish I'd taken some pics as I was doing it, but if you remove the tail section and flip it over, the areas where material are to be removed are fairly obvious.

I'm still not sure what the best tool for doing this sort of work would be. I used a fine toothed hacksaw blade to remove the majority of the material and then cleaned up the edges with a Dremel with a spiral cutter (meant for materials like wood and plastic, I guess). Part of the problem is that even though the area to be removed is marked on the underside, it's difficult to work on it from the bottom, and I couldn't think of a good way to really accurately transfer the pattern from the back to the front. In hindsight, drilling a number of small holes just inside those lines from the bottom, so that I could see from the top where exactly I was meant to be cutting might have helped.
 
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9 Lives

9 Lives

New member
I went with the Yamaha mount because of esthetic reasons, it looks like its built in to the bike rather than something just bolted on. I do agree that Yamaha should have designed the system better but it looks much better than the GIVI setup IMO.
 
F

Fazer 8

Member
Clearly, judging by the molded-in markings on the bodywork, Yamaha gave this rear carrier some thought. It's just too bad that they didn't think a little harder and make both the grab handles and the rack the same shape where they pass through the tail section plastic. That surely wouldn't have been too difficult.

Ah, well, I'm happy with final result and I can't see that I'll ever take the rack back off, now.
 
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