[Gater6572]

Hi everyone. New to the forum. Recently purchased a 2022 TW200 and couldn't be happier. Currently outfitting the bike specifically to take out to Colorado on a DIY elk hunt this October. As soon as I got the bike I purchased the tusk tail rack as I liked how it looked the most and the price was right. After some more consideration I decided I did want to go with side luggage racks, but I'm having a lot of trouble deciphering whether or not different manufacturers will be compatible with each other. They all look like they attached to the same point above the secondary rider pegs. Wondering if anyone is at any luck making this combination work? A lot of stuff has quite a hefty lead time and I don't necessarily have the time to wait for weeks for the parts to show up to find out they don't work. Or that I have to do a lot more customization than I have time to do. Any insight would be great!

 

[Cotharyus]

You’ve jumped the gun. Sell the tusk and get the ht tail rack to go with the sl or su side rack. You won’t regret it.

 

[Gater6572]

You’ve jumped the gun. Sell the tusk and get the ht tail rack to go with the sl or su side rack. You won’t regret it.

You think huh? The tail rack just didn't look quite as stout to me. I suppose it's a lot more stout with the SU or SL rack?

 

[Cotharyus]

Yes, absolutely. To get this, you have to understand the racks can work separately but are designed as far as I can tell to work best as a system. The side racks, as you might expect, have two frame mounting points - the passenger pegs and a higher point under the seat, for example the exhaust mount on the right side. Then they also attach to the sub-frame where your rear turn signals are. Turn signals are relocated using brackets in the kit to just above and outside the tail light. The tail rack has a bracket that mounts it to the frame under the seat, and the sub frame where the turn signals mount. When combined, it looks like the side racks actually use the frame mounts to bear most of the load, and the stiffness of the side racks transfers load from the tail rack to the frame rather than the subframe since the subframe mount is shared with the tail rack.

Pictures of my setup - two 2.5 gallon cans to haul fuel for the mini-ex, and the tail rack here carrying an ammo box with maintainence stuff in it for the machine - grease, extra bits, etc. - on smooth flat ground the load wouldn’t seem to be much, but since I regularly navigate the mountain bike trails I’m building with that load on, including rock gardens, rhythm sections, etc - the forces are probably multiplied a bit. Several months of doing this daily has not produced any problems yet. I’ve also taken the TW out several times cruising forest service roads (some of which recommend 4wd vehicles, etc) with 1 gallon fuel cans for the bike on each side, which is of course overkill, but I figure on group rides I might be able to carry fuel for folks who can’t. I’d also like to point out that I have dropped the bike and had no damage to the rear turn signals with the way they are located. Actually because of the hand guards, no damage anywhere on the bike from the drop, which likely involved a bit of luck, but still. If you want, I can try to take some pictures of the mount points for the rack, etc today. It’s a big commitment, the whole rack setup cost north of $600 but THIS was my intended use for the TW - I don’t need to preach how perfect the little tractor that things its a motorcycle is for this task. And on days off, it turns into the most gloriously fun little dual sport…..

 

[Gater6572]

Yes, absolutely. To get this, you have to understand the racks can work separately but are designed as far as I can tell to work best as a system. The side racks, as you might expect, have two frame mounting points - the passenger pegs and a higher point under the seat, for example the exhaust mount on the right side. Then they also attach to the sub-frame where your rear turn signals are. Turn signals are relocated using brackets in the kit to just above and outside the tail light. The tail rack has a bracket that mounts it to the frame under the seat, and the sub frame where the turn signals mount. When combined, it looks like the side racks actually use the frame mounts to bear most of the load, and the stiffness of the side racks transfers load from the tail rack to the frame rather than the subframe since the subframe mount is shared with the tail rack.

View attachment 218008 View attachment 218009

Pictures of my setup - two 2.5 gallon cans to haul fuel for the mini-ex, and the tail rack here carrying an ammo box with maintainence stuff in it for the machine - grease, extra bits, etc. - on smooth flat ground the load wouldn’t seem to be much, but since I regularly navigate the mountain bike trails I’m building with that load on, including rock gardens, rhythm sections, etc - the forces are probably multiplied a bit. Several months of doing this daily has not produced any problems yet. I’ve also taken the TW out several times cruising forest service roads (some of which recommend 4wd vehicles, etc) with 1 gallon fuel cans for the bike on each side, which is of course overkill, but I figure on group rides I might be able to carry fuel for folks who can’t. I’d also like to point out that I have dropped the bike and had no damage to the rear turn signals with the way they are located. Actually because of the hand guards, no damage anywhere on the bike from the drop, which likely involved a bit of luck, but still. If you want, I can try to take some pictures of the mount points for the rack, etc today. It’s a big commitment, the whole rack setup cost north of $600 but THIS was my intended use for the TW - I don’t need to preach how perfect the little tractor that things its a motorcycle is for this task. And on days off, it turns into the most gloriously fun little dual sport…..

That would be awesome man. I've been looking for days at every picture I can find of the SL and SU and tusk racks trying to find some detailed picture of the mounting brackets on both. Mainly for the SL because that's what I already ordered. I'd love to be able to make the Tusk and SL work together because I feel like the flat cargo tray will work better for what I want to mount on it while retaining some surface are for other stuff, but then of course can't figure out if I can make the side racks work with them. The other portion of it is that at this point I can't get a happy trails rear rack for at least a month and would really like to test my setup on my home turf before taking it out west and am in a bit of a time crunch now.. But definitely agree it would probably be best to run the same manufacturer for the rear and sides as well. That is the SU pictured on your bike above, correct?

 

[TW-Brian]

Not sure if these pics will help you or not . . . . .

 

[Cotharyus]

I suppose some of the information in these pictures may be obvious (foot peg location) but hopefully it helps. This is the SU rack, tail rack, rotopax side plates and mounts, and tool carrier on the left side. I’d be happy to try to answer any other questions you have about the racks or mount points. Believe me when I say if I wasn’t happy with every aspect of the rack or the transaction (you already know about the wait times) I’d be up front about it. This is a very nice setup.