Adding a luggage rack on the Transalp

So after some research on the available luggage racks for the Transalp we decided to save some time and ordered a FIVE STARS Side Rack Systems from the German site Louis.

But it didn’t really fit super nicely, spacers too short and holes were not lining up:

Contacted Louis and complained some and they sent me along to the manufacture. I got tired of arguing and it wasn’t that expensive so decided to just install it. Here are the steps I did:

Needed some force to bend it for the holes to line up:

Counter sunk these holes so the bolts holding the cross brace wouldn’t stick out and because soft luggage will be used and we don’t want anything rubbing against it:

Had plans on keeping the tool tube that came with the bike and just relocated it had this arrangement to lengthen the spacer, but had to skip the tool tube for now since in this location it would interfere with the straps from the bags:

A longer spacer for the right side made out of a piece of steel pipe, just rattle can paint to get it black:

And the cross brace looked very dangerous just bolting in place. A few 100 meters on gravel and my guess is that it would have worked its way down so it would hit the wheel so to secure it I added a piece of aluminum securing it to the support frame for the rear light and licence plate holder:

I then discovered that a bolt was missing:

Since this seems to be the best way to route the straps the tool tube would interfer:

Since I had to skip the tool tube I needed another spacer, sorted that out by cutting the right side spacer since that was replaced already to make that fill the gap:

But the left indicator sticks out a bit to much.  There were some pieces made to relocate the indicators further back but I would prefer if they stayed inside the rack for protection, made two bracket to relocate them:

And what they look in bolted on:

UPDATE:

Since we had a request about better side views of the rack installed here they are:

Right side, since we are going to replace the battery we haven’t bolted the cover back in place:

With luggage in place, height might need to be adjusted and a strap over them that goes around the luggage rack is the easiest way to hold them in place:

And right side with luggage: