You can see from my earlier post on luggage selection, that in the end I decided to go with my existing AltRider Hemisphere luggage option, even though it is probably not the ideal solution (i.e. not sure I would pick it for the 690 Enduro R if I had not already got it). I further concluded that to fit it (and the tent) to the bike in a manner that I would be happy with, I would need a rear rack. The rack would also be used daily on a 60 mile per day commute (covid permitting!) to strap my laptop bag to.
Some limitations for any 690 Enduro rear rack
So, on my 250 Rally I fitted a B&B off road rear rack, and the mounting points on the 250 Rally were spot on, with good support right under the load bearing part of the rack. Very confidence inspiring that you can comfortably strap things to it, with no worries of anything breaking, even if you ride a little enthusiastically off-road. Unfortunately, thats not quite the case with the 690 Enduro R. The rear sub-frame of the bike doubles as the plastic (very strong mind) fuel tank. The only mounting points on the rear are those for the grab handles, so any rack has to use those mount points – there are no other mounting options. However, the grab mount points are near the back of the seat, meaning any rack will overhang the rear of the fender in an unsupported manner. As such, you just cant wack a load of weight on it and go jumping whoops (if, unlike me, you were brave enough to do so). Lets bring that to life a bit with a picture. This is the Perun rack, but same principle applies to all.
In the above picture, the blue circles show the mount points for the rack. Those mount points are designed for the grab handles, and they are set into the plastic sub-frame, they are strong, but not crazy strong. You can see the red line above, shows the main flat surface of the rack – there are no mount points supporting here, it overhangs. So, you can imagine if you put a lot of weight on the flat section, and then start bouncing over jumps, its gonna put huge strain on the forward positioned mounts – which would under harsh abuse fail. So, thats the first thing to remember, you can get a rack, but these bikes are not designed to have racks that carry lots of weight. For success, you must mount weight as near to the mount points as possible, and strap well to stop it bouncing. It is the bouncing / oscillating that causes the strain on the mount points. So, put the heavy stuff near the mounts and anything lighter further back. Strap the lighter stuff (mounted further back) to the heavy items mounted at the front (to stop the bouncing).
Options for a rack
So, now we understand the limitations, there were two main options I looked at, both on the face of it are a similar design (as both are limited by the mount positions as discussed above)
One option was the 3dmoto rear rack and also their heel guard strapping points. This looked a decent option with many strapping points. I couldn’t find too many reviews, but what I did find seemed positive. They are based in the EU, so there was no issue with import duty and VAT and so forth. Delivery seemed a little steep, but not excessive.
The other option was the Perun Moto rear rack and their heel guards. Whilst on the face of it, the price is similar to the 3dmoto option, you will pay a fair bit more for the Perun option. As they are outside of the EU, you will pay (on top of the price on the website) VAT at 20% (on everything including shipping), an import duty charge (as about 2.5% I think), and also a shipping handling charge (which was a fixed £11). If you order from Perun, get all you need in one go, as some of the costs (like the shipping handling cost) are not percentage, they are a fixed amount.
Despite the extra cost, I decided Perun was the one for me. This was for three reasons. Firstly – lots of positive feedback, secondly – you can see from the site a lot of development and testing with different bag setups has gone into the design, and finally – Nikola Maleti (company owner), is just about the nicest and most helpful soul you are likely to meet. Seriously, Nikola was a saint in helping me out – we must have exchanged over a dozen email on different subjects, with Nikola also offering advice on other mods for the 690, which he didn’t even sell. After I placed the order, for an unrelated reason I had second thoughts. Nikola immediately gave a full refund, and just said have a think and come back to me when you are ready. Which I did, and he was super helpful – I cant recommend him enough!
Fitting the Perun Rack
Really there are two jobs here, the first is removing and drilling the plastics, to reveal the grab handle mounts (they are NOT drilled when you buy the bike). Secondly, assembling and mounting up the rack. Contrary to what you may think, part 1 is the harder part – much harder than part 2 as it happens.
This is what you get in the box from Perun. The total weight of the rack (incl. fitments) is 1.35KG.
Step 1 – drilling the plastics
So four holes must be drilled in order to mount the rack. You are drilling these in the exact place you would drill if mounting the hand grab rails, there is no difference for the drill location, only the size of the drill bit would be different. Two holes must be drilled in the plastic surrounding the rear filler cap, and one in each rear side panel. So, how do you know where to drill then? Well, there is good and bad news here. The good news is that when you remove the plastics and look at the underside, you can see clearly marked drill points for the grab handles. Great I hear you say… well not entirely great I am afraid, which brings me nicely onto the bad news. The bad news is that the two drill hole markers in the rear side panels are NOT in the correct place. If you drill based on those, you will be a way off, about 4mm off in actuality (based on my panels!). I had got wind of this issue thankfully, even before I bought the bike (bought bike from AMS KTM in Tewksbury).
My initial plan was to get AMS to drill the holes for me. Logic told me, they must do these every day and would know the exact place to drill to get them properly aligned. Leaving nothing to change, I went into detail in my email to AMS that I wanted 15mm holes, and that I understood the marks were off – but wanted them in the correct place. Thinking I would collect the bike with it pre0drilled in the right place meant I could just fit the rack. Well, the absolute disaster they made of the drilling, still makes my blood boil. I will go into detail in another post, but it was an absolute joke – sheer incompetence from AMS. I eventually (have lots of moaning) got them to agree to replace the panels, so I could drill them myself. Below is how I did it…
The spacers that come with the Perun rack are 14mm diameter, so you need to drill as close to that as you can, but bearing in mind, you probably wont get it spot on, so will need some wriggle room. I went for a 15mm drill bit, but I didn’t start with that size, I drilled pilot holes first. So, lets look at the position of the 4 holes. Pic is post drilling, so we can see where the holes are…
The twoon the right of the pic above (red arrows near the filler) are a doddle. On my bike (and on others I have read about) the markings are spot on. With those two, remove the panel and locate the drill markings on the underside (they look like a target) – then drill a 2mm hole. Place the part back on the bike and pop your 2mm drill bit through the hole. Just check that the drill bit you pushed in lands straight into the middle of the bolt mount point – it should do. Then go for it, and drill it out to 15mm. It should look a little like this.
The to holes located further forward (left side of 2nd pic above) are more difficult, this is where the factory markings were off on mine (and others). They may not be on yours, you will have to work that out yourself! So, on the rear side panels I needed to drill in the quadrant shown below, which is offset toward the rear and toward the saddle. I just drew a 45 degree line from the red dot in the centre to the perimeter of their marking circle, and drilled half way along the line. Its the same deal both sides, the quadrant I wanted was toward the one toward the rear of the bike, and toward the saddle (taking the hole closer to the clip with the torch shaped cut out (in the top right of the pic below).
Again, I would recommend drilling a 2mm to 3mm pilot hole initially, and then mounting the plastics on the bike, and checking the location by pushing through your drill bit. Once happy, I would drill to 15mm straight away. If they are not 100% they should be close, and you should be able to file any areas as needed if the spacers that come with the rack snag. I would go from 2mm to 15mm in one shot. I made the mistake of going 2mm to 8mm to check I could screw the bolts in (which I could), but then this made drilling to 15mm harder, as I had a large 8mm hole in the middle of where I wanted to drill, so it was hard to align the 15mm drill in the middle of that.
Assembling the rack and mounting
Assembling the rack is a doddle. You simply take the two metal pieces, pop in the smaller spaces and drop the bolts through like so.
You then take the longer spacers and drop those in the holes you drilled (hopefully in the correct place!). Next offer up the rack and see if the bolts are 100% aligned with the holes. If not, you may need to get your file out, and have a wee file to enlargen the offending area until the bolts will go through the spacers and screw in OK.
Next, I took some of the blue Loctite and applied to the bolts, before lowering into place and tightening.
To provide a little more support for the rear of the rack, there are some rubber feet attached to the bottom of the rack, at the far end near the tail light (see pic below and red lines). These are designed to prevent undue flexing and oscillation of the rack (due to the mounts being so far forward).
I was really pleased with the look when done, and how close I got the holes. Shows what you can do if you take your time and dont rush. Wish I had done it myself from the start, and not gone anywhere near asking the dealer (AMS Tewksbury) to drill them, they were completely incompetent.
Heel guards
Just to finish it off, I also ordered the Perun heel guards (at the same time!) to act as strapping points for the AltRider luggage. I may have been able to get away with the passenger footpeg attachment, but this seemed to make the straps run a little too close to the exhaust for my liking.
You simply unbolt the rear foot peg mount on each side and bolt them on in their place. Again, I used a small amount of blue Loctite to prevent them working lose.
They feel good quality and will do exactly what I want them to do.
Here is a pic of the bike with the luggage mounted up on the rack, ready for a trip on the TET.
Just need covid and winter to both be over, and can get some proper mileage in!
Small Bike Adventures 