Stumbled upon an eBay auction for an orange topcase that was originally sold as an accessory for United Motor scooters. Auction claimed that the original price was about $115 (maybe that's true, maybe it's not), but there was no reserve and only about a $16.00 shipping charge. Bidding started at $0.01, so I tossed in with a max bid of $5.00. Evidently, nobody else ever saw it, because that was the winning bid - exactly 1 cent (plus shipping).
Now, I realize that this isn't even close to being a Givi and that I'm going to have to do some hacking to get it mounted (don't even have a rack, but should be able to cobble something up from all the junk I've got lying around), but damn!
Not my intention to gloat; just happy to be on the non-feces-encrusted end of the stick for a change. If anyone's interested, just let me know and I'll post the seller's info. He doesn't have anything up right now, but you never know
That's a really good price, even if it's a total piece of garbage! Not saying it is, mind you. If it's decent, even better.
It looks like it should go pretty well with the 06 Blur's Orange. If it's off by too much, Autozone and Advanced Auto Parts both sell "Dupli-Color" brand paint. DSGM318 "Charcoal Metallic" is almost the exact color of the grey in the 06's. Sand it down, spray it with a can of that (small can, but should be enough for 2 coats with left-overs) and a layer or two of clear-coat and it'd look really nice against the 06 Blur's color scheme.
They make another color that's just a shade off, I don't know the name and I haven't tested it, but I think that shade might be the exact color of the Blur Gray. My Shad top-case was scratched up in my accident, so I was planning on repainting it, so this is pretty much what I had in mind. As for the color I mentioned above, when I got my Blur, the original owner had laid it down once and scratched the front panel, I covered it up with this color and after a little sanding with 800-1000 grit w/d emery, it was barely perceivable.
Hope that helps in case the color's too off for you. Probably $15 for paint, clear-coat and sand paper. I miss my top-case a hell of a lot. I hate wearing a backpack to work, it makes me slouch.
Great find! Mind PM'ing me the contact info just in case my top-case has some hidden damage (structural)? It's in the shop now with my frame and my fresh shipment of replacement parts. The Forks are on back-order, so it's still out of commission for the foreseeable future.
Let us know if you run across any mounting difficulties, I'm handy at coming up with fabricated solutions and wouldn't mind lending a tip or advice.
Also, if you can find one, I suggest the rear rack for the Blur. I was lucky enough to have it already included on mine when I bought it. But compared to the Buddy's rear rack, it's 100 times better made and thought out. It's a little tricky to mount, but the way it attaches is just leaps and bound above others that I've seen. I'd buy it in a heart-beat if it didn't come with mine and I'd buy it again if it were damaged in the accident. It did take a hit (cracked the top-case mounting plate) but took no damage at all. Definitely easier than fabricating a mount.
Yeah, but you don't have the premium silver-and-black UM sticker, proven to reduce drag, increase fuel economy, and draw more women than a Filene's clearance sale.
You know, this purchase was eligible for a 25% "live search" cashback deal, plus an additional 10% coupon from eBay. Neither is applicable to the shipping costs. Wonder what kind of accounting mess I could have caused had I chosen to use these for $0.01.
BTW: Happy and Safe Thanksgiving to all. Please remember to adjust your entry speed and angle of lean as you approach turns in order to compensate for the extra weight of all the stuff you consumed.
charlie55 wrote:BTW: Happy and Safe Thanksgiving to all. Please remember to adjust your entry speed and angle of lean as you approach turns in order to compensate for the extra weight of all the stuff you consumed.
Nice! I just stole that for a 2sb Thanksgiving Twitter Tip.
2strokebuzz: When news breaks, we put it under a tarp in the garage.
Genuine outsources to china to make top cases, all the top cases you find on chinese bikes are 100% the same design and come from the same factory. They just order an amount, and paint specs and tell them to put the genuine logo on the badge.
I hear ya. I even felt a little odd about it myself.
When it comes to stuff like this, I'm pretty easy-going. If the guy had contacted me and said, "Geez, I fouled up by not setting a reserve price, and I'm gonna take a beating by letting it go for a penny", I'd let him off the hook without a second thought. Profiting from others' mistakes is seriously bad karma fodder in my book. (Guess you can tell I don't work on Wall Street.)
However, he already contacted me, made no mention of the price, and gave me a shipping date. You know, it's possible that he had a good year and was looking to sell off some dusty old stock at a loss in order to get some kind of tax benefit.
Well, if I wanted to get rid of unneeded top case, I would rather sell it on eBay for a penny to someone who rides bikes and wants one, then throw it away. You can't really donate it to a second hand store because it is too specialized item. It is just a matter of taking a trip to a post office anyways. So don't feel bad for the guy, he probably is happy it went to you rather then to the landfill.
how hard is it to get a leg over the blur with one of these cases on the back?
I would love to have more storage on my blur, but just wonder, since there is no real step through on the blur.
any notice of noise or weight weirdness? on the back of the bike?
You have to bend your leg a little bit, that's the only adjustment you have to make, when you're riding by yourself. Riding with a passenger is a little different. When my wife rode on the back, I'd let her get on first (with the bike on the center stand) then I'd get on by stepping on the foot rest area and stepping over the tank.
I've never noticed any real difference, as the Blur's high tail end puts it directly behind, you in noise. The weight just depends on what you put in there. I put heavier items in the bucket or strapped to the rear rack in front of the case so as to keep the weight more centered. It does make for a great place to bungee larger items to where a passenger would sit, as you've got a solid object to push it against and the rear rack serves as a solid hook point for a bungee net.
Hopefully I'll have my forks in soon and will be able to ride it again. Still waiting...
I have a top case on my Blur and I get on by stepping through the existing "step through". Although small, I still manage to get on without having to swing my leg over the seat.
Thought long and hard about fabricating my own rack and decided to just bite the bullet and purchase one.
As luck would have it, Sportique had two on eBay for a B-I-N price of $60.00 or Best Offer. Shipping to my area was $13.29. They accepted my offer of $45.00, so I'm getting it for $58.29. I didn't bother with the "live cashback" deal since it doesn't work for "best offers" and it's down to 15% anyway, which means that it would only have knocked $9.00 off the B-I-N price.
I believe that they still have one left. If interested, search eBay for "luggage rack blur" (without the quotes). If I recall correctly, Scooterworks is asking about $70.00 plus shipping for this item, so it's a pretty good deal.
I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's a really well made rack, a lot better than the one for the Buddy, but that might just be a fluke.
A not of caution about the chrome finish. When you go o mount it, put some duct tape or something simular on the mounting plate, with the non-sticky side on the chrome to avoid scratching the finish. I did that with my rear rack when I mounted my topcase and never had any issues with scratching or rusting. The Buddy rear rack has to be scrubbed down with Neverdull about once every 2 weeks to fight off the surface rust.
Finally had a few spare minutes to at least get the rack mounted. Nicely made, but at first blush it looks as if you'd need to do some bending since the mounting points aren't symmetrical in terms of left/right. However, a quick look at the underside of that grab bar shows that it's mounting point are equally asymmetrical. Wonder if it was a casting error that needed to be accomodated when designing the rack, or it is was intentional.
Didn't get a chance to do the topcase yet. Too cold and been putting in way too many hours in at work trying to get a project in under deadline. However, it seems to be pretty decent (not having a basis for comparison), and the only thing i really needed to do was noodle with the lockset in order to get it to shut tightly on itself.
Frost's right about the sourcing. I poked around the far East trade contact websites and found this company called Wenzhou Jiekai Motorocycle Accessories Co., Ltd., and some of their product line looks to be pretty much identical to both the topcase I have, and the Buddy OEMs. Also saw a few more companies in China with pretty close matches. Don't know if it's a matter of them pirating off each other or just reusing the same photos. I'm tempted to get a container quote just to see how much the markup really is. Granted $0.01 is ridiculously low, and $115.00 is kinda high. I'm betting that the wholsale cost is somewhere around $25.00 - $40.00 per unit.
