Backrest/Sissy bar & rack

Would appreciate any help or advice anyone has on the best aftermarket type to fit on my newly acquired 2013 M800. My pillion won't ride without one and I have been quoted £850 to supply and fit the Suzuki one !!!!!!!!!!!
Have heard that Renegade are good.
Many thanks.

I had a Showchrome one on my C800, good quality but a little too upright.

Ian what is the budget, to many on the market to even guess at without a ruff figure.
Don't pay extra to have it fitted, even a blind man with one arm can do that. It's only four bolts.

Perhaps this will might help you?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=suzuki+m+800+sissybar&LH_PrefLoc=3&_nkwusc=suzuki+M800+sissibar&_rdc=1

Ian - mine's Highway Hawk, seems to have done the Job, bike doesn't live outside or go out in rain, but all in At £240 tops from what I can remember 

Thanks for the info - much appreciated. Dave, I was thinking about £200/£300

Ian

Appreciate any advice / suggestions to where I can get a decent sissy bar/back rest for a 2015 VL800 Intruder

Try Custom Cruisers at Alfreton Derbyshire as I got my VL800 Highway Hawk bits from them at a really good price & he gives discount to 800 forum members as well!

Metric cruisers too.

Hi john (johnboss)
Here is the cheapest eBay sissi bar with rack for VL800 (from 2001-2014) and others. i think the 2015 has no change from center hole to center hole.
They show all the measures in cm and inches, please check it, ok?:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=suzuki+M800&LH_PrefLoc=3&_sop=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XBackrest+Sissy+Bar+With+Luggage+Rack+Fit+Suzuki+Volusia+Vl800.TRS0&_nkw=Backrest+Sissy+Bar+With+Luggage+Rack+Fit+Suzuki+Volusia+Vl800&_sacat=0

I have the Highway Hawk one defo would not buy again as the chromes crap

Yeah I got one from the states for about £100 inc a rear rack and shipping. It's great from a practicality point of view, wife loves it when riding pillion, but the chrome is utter shite. They only need to forecast rain and it goes rusty at the thought of it!

Thanks all for the advice - Sounds like I'll have to start the ball rolling with a ride out to Derbyshire this sunny weekend - God, its a hard life!

Hi mate I've got a renegade sissy bar and rack fitted to mine I have the highest one really good and you cant make a pillion feel safer and coz it's the big one it makes it really easy to strap things to that sit on the rack big bags so on

Thanks for the info - I think Custom Cruisers stock renegade, so I'll give them a call this week.

I'm thinking of getting another Boulevard M50 and want to fit a sissy bar or a trunk box on a rack.



On many sites where sissy bars and luggage racks are listed , the racks always seem to be listed for M50s (VZ800, M800) up to 2009 only.  Did the bolt hole centres change with the model change in 2010 (that's with the change from the ordinary to cowl headlight models)?  Or haven't these manufacturers just updated their listings?



If I bought a luggage rack and mounting plates for a 2009 M50, would it fit a 2011 or 2012?  The bolt hole centres on my 2010 M50 were 200 mm exactly - I had a pair of stainless saddle bag supports made for it and remember that measurement specifically.  I might just have to take a tape measure down to the Suzuki agent and have a measure up.

I'll check up on my 2005 M800 tonight and post the measurements here.

Hopefully someone with a 2010 or newer M800 will do the same....

I can tell you without having to measure that they have changed 2010> as I went through this scenario earlier on this year.
I ordered a pair of saddle bag supports to go on the forum France trip in May as most of the attendees of that trip know only to well by now! 
Although I was ordering a post 2010 pair, like you said the company concerned hadn't changed the product codes so I ended up being sent a pre 2010 pair the holes of which which are out by quite a bit.
One phone call rectified the problem though, they realised their error, sent me the correct ones and told me to keep the other ones too. Job done!......Well it was until they fell off, but thats another story altogether, innit Alan! 

I can say that in mine M800 from 2010 the center hole to center hole has 200mm exactly.

Can anyone tell me the bolt hole centre for a pre-2010 C50 or M50 sissy bar support.  And would I be able to redrill
a pre-2010 C50 or M5-0 sissy bar support to fit it to a post 2010 M50.

Seems the problem is that the post M50 has a specific bolt hole centre (200 mm) and it's the only one in the Boulevard
range which has this bolt hole size.  Therefore the small market size means that there are no manufacturers who make
a sissy bar support for this model.

So I thought I'd buy a more available (and cheaper) C50 or pre-2010 M50 sissy bar support and luggage rack, redrill
it to the 200 mm post 2010 M50 bolt hole centres, and fit it so I can fit a wrap around trunk box.

I'd like to fit something like this universal trunk box to a M50 so my pillion has a much more secure backrest, but it
needs a luggage rack to mount it to and the post 2010 M50 seems to have a limited availability of fittings which would
allow me to mount this on a post 2015 M50.

The holes on my 2009 C50 sissy bar are 212mm centre's

That box/backrest combo looks great.... I'd been looking at them online myself.

The issues I can think of are these.... the box needs to sit on a rack.... but the rack is normally part of the sissy bar, so your 2 backrests would be fighting with each other.

I would of thought for this box to work, you need to keep the sissy bar horizontal frame and rack , but ditch the upright...

Is this the type of sissy bar & rack you mean?



Even if you did remove the sissy bar backrest, the rack isn't very deep front to back, and that might mean the fibreglass box wasn't well enough supported.

Just some thoughts, but its a great proposition for 2 up touring...

I'd be thinking of fitting a large aluminium plate to the rack or such to spread the load.

Good shout pear drop

Well Mal my rack is as big as most others out there & I've made it easier to carry stuff by the simple addition of an alloy oblong plate about 7" wide by 18" long by 6mm thick & it's bolted to another plate under the rack making a sandwich which makes it VERY strong.
Sim & Two Job Mick saw it when they came to Matlock & made the comment of it looking like an F1 wing device keeping the back end down LOL!

Yes, you do have to take off the backrest portion of the sissy bar, leaving the mounts and the rack only.  But most sissy bars are made up of three individual components, two mounting brackets, the sissy bar backrest and the luggage rack.

From memory, the sellers say that a rack 8" x 11" is needed to mount that trunk box.  I'd thought that I'd make some sort of frame or plate under the trunk box and mount that on the luggage rack.

That's what I was suggesting you do to strengthen it up.

Have run a tape measure over the rear haunches of my 2012 M50 (M800/VZ800).  Not only is the bolt
hole separation 200 mm exactly (from 8 1/2" on the C50/C80/VL800 and pre-2009 M50/M800/VZ800)
but the mounting points on the later bike taper inward from about 350 to 320 mm, whereas the
C50/C800/VL800 and  pre-2009 M50/M800/VZ800 are parallel.

I'm thinking of having mounting plates cut from 6mm/ 1/4" aluminium and spacing them out from the rear
mounting points so they run parallel.  Then I'd have a "joggle" (don't you love some of the industry specific
terms you come across?) in the upright to reduce the mounting width of the plates to  that of the trunk box.

The trunk box I'm looking at has a tubular frame mounted under it that I could attach the two mounting plates to.

Still a number of steps to go.  I've finished the planning, so I've got to ...

1.  Get a job to pay for my motorbiking hobby.
2.  Order and wait for the trunk box to be delivered
3.  Measure up the mounting points on the trunk box and finalise the mounting plate design.
4.  Get the trunk box painted to match my own bike.
5.  Get the mounting plates fabricated
6.  Assemble

Went for my first ride today with my wife on the pillion on the new bike.  Just a gentle ride around the city
and over the Harbour Bridge and back.  Ended up having a coffee at a lovely little French patisserie in the
nearest shopping centre to our home.  We both had a marvellous time, and my wife enjoyed it and felt secure
even though I don't have a sissy bar on the bike yet.  So we'll be pottering around a lot more from now on.

sounds lovely.... and don't you dare tell us how sunny it is... as i sit at my desk midday 6th august, its cold and pissing down!

Nope, not sunny down here, it's the last month of winter so max daily temperatures are in the mid teens deg C.
Had bands of rain sweeping through yesterday, but blue skies in between.  Still had to be well wrapped up under
the jacket and wore a neck warmer.

Have finally thrown the comms units onto the charger so we can chat as we pootle around.

Visited a friend today in a town about 150 km south, drove the cage down and left my jersey there.  My wife reckons
that I did it deliberately so I'd have to ride down to pick it up.  The thought never crossed my mind, true, but the
idea is a good one.

Kiwi Steve wrote:

Nope, not sunny down here, it's the last month of winter so max daily temperatures are in the mid teens deg C.

Winter?........Mid teens?    Thats a summer here!!!

Well, I've ordered the double helmet wrap around top box I wanted out of eBay USA.  It should be here by the end of the month.

I've drafted out how I'll mount it, I'll get 6 mm aluminium mounting plates cut out and mount then on the rear mudguard brackets.  It doesn't matter that there's a taper on the rear mud guard mounting points, I'll just angle the square section tubes I'll use for mounting the top box.  I'll drill holes in the mounting plates and mount the saddle bags the dealer threw in with the bike at the same time.

Will take lots of photos and post some progress updates.

Hi Kiwi Steve
Do you mean something like this?

TaurusTuga wrote:

Hi Kiwi Steve
Do you mean something like this?

Something like it Taurus, but I won't have the flat carrier across the top.  I'm thinking of having a tube and bar
frame upon which the top box sits so I'll only need the vertical mounting plates to attach to the sides of the top
box frame.

Funny what you notice when you are concentrating on a project.  Your bike is a C50 and the pillion seat slides into
the front mounting bracket from the rear and bolts at the back.  The M50 has the pillion seat slide into the rear
mounting bracket from the front and is secured by two hex drive bolts under the rider's seat.  So I shouldn't have
any problems taking off or reattaching my pillion seat with the top box attached.