Motorcycle Custom Bike Rack

I love motorcycling. I love mountain biking. If only I could find a way to combine the two...

I thought briefly of trailering a bike behind my motorcycle, but there are too many legal issues (registration, turn signal lights, etc.)....and I think a trailer behind a bike is contradictory to the spirit of the ride.  So I opted to find a way of mounting my mountain bike to my motorcycle. I heard about a great business in Portland, called ReRack.  Their business goal is to service the Portland biking community by re-using and re-selling old Thule and Yakima bike racks.

I approached them on Tuesday afternoon with my bike and armed with my laptop with some photos of what others had done. They initially thought of fabricating a base by welding a bar to the plate and then attaching a Yakima fork mount rack (with rail). I did not want an expensive (and unnecessary) fabrication process. I wanted to use off the shelf products and a little creativity to mount to the many mounting points already on the bike.

I found some mounts that would latch onto the handle grips for the rear
passenger. The tops of these mount swiveled, which was important since the
passenger grips are not parallel. Once the right part for mounting a round
Yakima bar were found, it was just a matter of some creative bending of the
steel mounting plates so they would securely attach to the handles.

Now the second element was the swing arm that grasps the bike frame at the down tube. This was pretty simple. I used a hacksaw to cut off a lip in the mounting plate. I drilled some holes for some existing mounting screws. I then inverted the mounting plate and attached it through the existing "rack" found on my Kawasaki Concours.  All this work made me thirsty, and I took a little break. ;-)

It bobs a little due to the design and flexing of the swing arm, but
laterally there is no movement at all. It rides really nice and gets LOTS
of attention!

Enjoy your ride and keep the rubber side down. :-)