Showing posts with label PL532 kappa kappa40 DL650 wee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PL532 kappa kappa40 DL650 wee. Show all posts

Monday, August 17, 2009

GIVI PL532 & Kappa 40L cases for my Wee

Part of my decision for purchasing a new bike was to get it set up for touring and that means Hard Side cases and more security for my electronic stuff & Laptop. When I had the SV I purchased a set of Cortech Saddle Bags but found that I could only put expendable items into them. With the scooter I had lockable underseat storage for these items and the topbag was only for clothes or other non-valuables. The first farkle that I installed was the GIVI crash bars. Un-intended oopsies happen. It happens to all of us so better to get protected before any damage occurs. While it was my plan to purchase Givi E36 cases, my dealer conspired to give me an excellent price on Kappa 40 ltr side cases so Kappa it is. I'm always flexible when it comes to saving $$ . I arrived bright and early at the dealer's on Saturday morning but they did not have the time to install the side case brackets so I took them home and did it myself.

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Kappa is a subsidiary of Givi and the PL532 bracket becomes a KL532 bracket. I'm not that technical, but I can follow instructions. It says to cut here, so out comes my razor box cutter. So far so good

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I'm still waiting for my buddy, Jack "r" (whats-his-name) (<-- click link) to offer his patented Baby Harp seal look course 101, in the hopes that someone would take pity on my and take over.

Inside the package after I removed all the plastic were these 3 pieces.

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The instruction sheet is not that clear having been photocopied a few dozen times and I'm not very good at reading Italian. There was also a sealed bag of nuts and bolts and a few washers. Looks straight forward so far. Left side, Right side and a connecting stabilizer bar which joins the two sides

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First the top case comes off to reveal the mounting plate which has to be removed.

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You have to remove the bolts for the passenger handrail wing, slide the bracket into position and replace the factory OEM bolts with the longer ones supplied. An additional spacer had to be slid in between the side case bracket and the rail, on both sides. I have read that the trick is to start the threads on all the mounting points but do not tighten yet.

Now to proceed to do the same thing on the left side

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There are 3 mounting points on each side which must line up with the frame of the bike. I managed to get 5 points lined up but the 6th was proving to be difficult as I was nearly 1/2" out of alignment on one side. I loosened all the bolts again and tried to "bend" the bracket a little to eventually make it fit.

I could not install the stabilizer bar as the holes were too small with the supplied nut and bolts. I didn't think it was up to me to have to locate my larger drill bits so back to the dealer I went for them to solve this last little hurdle.

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The plan was to install the bracket at home, return and snap on the bags. Here we are with the bags mounted. A little wider than what I really wanted but the cases are quite large and will hold a lot of stuff

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Later, I went shopping. No worries now, I have lots of room to put all of my "stuff"

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Sorry, Lucky (<-- click link), I may be able to fit in a kitchen sink or two.