Top Case review - Ebay case and Shad Top Master bracket

Hey people. I purchased a top case for my 5th gen. and finally got the bracket to mount it. I even had the chance to take it out for a full day’s ride today. Here is a quick review/first impression.

I started by purchasing a top case off of ebay from a vendor called bid4ez. The case was listed as “Universal motorcycle scooter trunk luggage top case ~XL”. In the ebay ad it is shown with two helmets in it. It cost me $65 shipped to my door and it has a LARGE capacity, I was worried that it would be really cumbersome on the bike.



As you can see, it looks "substantial" when mounted on the bike, but I honestly didn’t notice it was back there today. At both 80+ and in the twisties, it was completely invisible all day. The mount uses two large front tabs and a metal clip to attach to its mount plate.



The latch mechanism is metal, but the handle is plastic. We'll see how that lasts. The case can’t be removed when the lid is locked down. You have to open the lid, in order for the release button to operate. Push the red button and lift to take the case off and it has a carry handle molded into the front. This thing is VERY much like a Givi monokey case and feels very solid.

The rack that I used is a Shad Top Master and I bought it from cycleluggage.com Shad top master for Honda VFR800 FI 99-01 The rack cost me $115 shipped to my door.







As you can see, the rack runs very nicely along the body lines of the bike and there are two attachment brackets. One bracket sandwiches between the subframe and passenger grab handle, using the rear mounting bolt of the grab handle. The front bracket is flat and sandwiches between the passenger peg bracket rear mount and frame. The wide set mounting points make for a REALLY solid bracket mounting.

As I was mounting the rack I had a few issues.

First problem - You must cut on the plastic mudguards to allow the brackets to have a nice close fit to the subframe. I have an undertail and still had to cut out notches for each bracket mount tab. You can just figure that out as you go. As a plus, the instructions mention that you will have to cut the plastic, so it wasn’t a surprise.

Second problem - The new rack attaches by slipping under the rear mount of the passenger grab handles. The rear bolts of the grab handles are too short for comfort, when the mount brackets were slipped under the grab handle. I went to Ace hardware and bought two bolts that were 8-1.25 X 50mm and that was taken care of.

Third problem - The mounting plate for the case I purchased is clearly narrower than what the Shad mounts were designed for. To get things to fit, I grabbed an adjustable clamp and just squeezed the ends of the rack together. When they were at the correct width, I put in the mounting bolts. I then put some little round stick on pads on top of the bolts, with the glue facing up. That allowed me to CAREFULLY lower the mounting plate onto the bolts and my new bolt hole locations were perfectly marked. I drilled the holes, mounted the plate, took off the clamp and triple checked that the bolts were nice and tight.


Fourth problem - I have a high rise pipe on my bike. The bracket that holds it on ALSO uses the peg bracket bolts to mount. It was a bit fiddly to make everything bolt on with the stock peg bracket bolts, but they turned out to be JUST long enough to have good bite and everything stacked up correctly. I might recommend buying two new peg bracket bolts that are about 10mm longer than the stock ones. I also had to buy some new hardware to re-mount the stainless, muffler support strap.


The last helpful note I can give is that the whole kit comes with a series of little, square spacers. When you mount up the racks, you are putting the mounting tabs in between pieces designed to fit flush. You MUST use the spacers to shim the other side of the brackets. I stacked two spacers under the front of the passenger foot peg mounting brackets and only used one spacer under the front mounting of the passenger grab brackets.
All in all, I am VERY happy with the top case and the Shad mount combo. The case is BIG and roomy and attaches solidly to its base plate. The rack required a little “persuasion” to get the brackets to line up with the subframe mounting points, but it did finally bolt on and played nice with my existing high pipe mount. The cutting I did to the undertail was minimal and is unnoticeable when everything is mounted.

Total price was $200 for the case, rack and extra hardware I purchased. When compared to the cost of a complete Givi or even Shad setup (upwards of $300), I am WAY SATISFIED with this case/rack combo. and highly recommend it. Having a trunk is already a night/day convenience when compared to the tank bag I had been using.

Jose

 

Nice write up and thanks for sharing

 

I have a high mount Micron exhaust on my 5th Gen. Do you think the SHAD Top Master Rack would work with it without interference?

Also, is it a permanent installation or can it be easily removed from time to time?

 

My bike had a Micron high pipe when I bought it. I replaced the can with a Supertrapp, but I re-used the mounting system. I am confident this setup will work great with your complete Micron high pipe, but you will probably need to make some adjustments and get some more hardware like I did.

The rack installation is permanent and you cannot easily remove. Although when you remove the case, the remaining metal plate is pretty unobtrusive. If it is really important to make it removable, you could easily rig something up. The arms are hollow, so you could cut and weld.bolt in a plug. Then drill/tap some holes in the plug piece sticking out so you could unbolt the whole rear section.

Jose

 

One of the best mods to my bike was the Givi V47.
Look up
addmorelights.com if the top case has lights you can add....running, turn signals and brakes. There in Canada and what a bunch of great guys...just a thought

 

Great writeup. Looks like it might be the way I might go to get a top box. They also have a rack that fits the '02 without interfering with the side luggage.
I noticed that there is no passenger cushion on it, do you think one could easily be installed?

 

Yes, I think you could easily do two small pads on each case half, or maybe you could do one larger pad on the top half with a hinge that lets it flap upward. When you open the top it would just sort of hang downward. You could attach a magnet to the lower half of the case to get it to hold on and not flap around when you don't have a passenger back there.

Jose

 

I just installed their givi E41 brake/turn signal kit (with dual red/amber LEDs). works great. However I'm a bit concerned there is no weather proofing to keep water out from behind the lens and shorting out the LED strips. I'm going to run a bead of clear RTV silicone around the perimeter to be safe.

 

Great idea...