As previously chronicled, the Pelican case has moved between a few bikes now, and when I put it on the Dakar, I used existing holes to mount it behind the solo seat. Since it is bolted on, I avoided making any new holes in the case, but it pretty much eliminates any pillion possibilities. I needed to take it off for some rack and wiring work, so I decided to investigate moving it back so that a pillion was possible. It turns out that this is non-trivial due to the “lip” on the rear of the Dakar rack. My first thought was just to cut off the lip and weld it back on horizontal to creat a flat surface. It is a structural piece of the rear and would make the bike non-stock, so I decided against it.
There are many solutions out there in cyberspace and in mailorder space as well. They range from a host of home-brew solutions to commercial solutions from Boxerworks and Hepco Becker. After choking on the commercial prices for solving a pretty basic problem, I decided to visit the hardware store. The other motivation was that in my case, the Fox shock control lives beneath the rear rack, so I could not just clamp things on in one of the most logical locations.
The home-brew solutions all involved creating a platform to make the case level with the rear “lip”. I found my solution in some 1.5″ boxed channel. It is already full of holes. I then selected a couple of different U-clamps and headed home. $11.67 all told. Once back in the garage, I cut the channel to the needed width, drilled a couple more holes in the bottom of the Pelican, and test fit the assembly. With everything worked out, I took things apart and rattle-canned everything black. Looked ok, and is very sturdy. At some point I will affix a thin sheet of aluminum to the bottom to cover the couple of exposed holes in the case that now exist.
