Goldwing Trunk on an Airhead ?

[dinandan]

I need advice on mounting a 1980ÔÇÖs style Goldwing trunk on my 1983 R80RT. My wife and I have traveled on several 1000+ mile trips and have concluded that the current distance limiting factor is the comfort in the back rest. We love the R80RT (we took our honeymoon on it) and have no plans to replace it so the obvious solution is to create an R80LT.

I have already replaced the stock seat with a Russell touring saddle designed for a 1985 R80RT. I fabricated the custom mounts for the seat myself. I have access to a machine shop and welding equipment so no reasonable amount of custom fabrication is out of the question. IÔÇÖm considering purchasing an additional rear subframe to mock up the required mounting supports.

Has anybody ever seen a 1980s style Goldwing trunk (GL1200) mounted to an airhead? For highway speed stability is the GL1200 trunk just too big? I have read about highway speed stability issues with the K1100LT topcases causing troubles. (Keep in mind the R80s top speed when it was new was only 105mph.) Other manufacturers trunks are certainly options (Kawasaki Voyager, Yamaha Venture, etc). I have heard that the Suzuki Cavalcade topbox has fore and aft adjustment for passenger comfort.

The priorities for this modification will be
1. Long haul passenger comfort while keeping Highway speed stability & Safety in mind
2. Feasibility of modification from a fabrication perspective.
3. Extra luggage capacity
4. Extra lights already built into trunk
5. Cosmetics (form follows function )

Any advice before starting this modification would be greatly appreciated!

I know it would be ÔÇ£EasierÔÇØ to just buy a Goldwing or K1100LT. For several reasons that are beyond the scope of this thread that is simply not an option.

Thanks in advance for your Help!

 

[cycleman2]

Your particular bike or any of that generation RT doesn't really lend itself well to a trunk because of the way it would mount on the rear portion of the seat.

You will have to build a better frame to support the trunk and then there are lots of different trunks out there that you can use. On my R1100R I built a rear frame and mounted a 70's trunk with a back rest pad that worked fine. It was a Witcom !! not sure of spelling.

Keep your frame fairly simple and then just make use an aluminium plate to support the trunk that will allow you to move the trunk back and forth on the frame so you can get the back rest in the right spot for a passenger. You will want to keep the trunk fairly small.

Some times a Wolfman bag or something similar can be adapted to work just as well as a trunk.

 

[miairhead]

Reynolds Rack?

Reynolds race holds a trunk I have on my 84 R100RT. I sure if you look you can find one, they come up on Ebay, or maybe Re-Psycle might have one. I look the fact it allows access the battery, etc and then moves closer for a back rest for the passenger.

 

[bmweuro]

This is what you need.

Reynolds folding rear rack. This set up I have has bag mounts for the BMW Touring saddlebags.