Check yer rack!

Rippinyarn · Post by **Rippinyarn** » Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:51 pm

If you have the Genuine Blur chrome rack, get out there and check the four bolts that hold the rack to the grab handle. I had a catastrophic failure of my rack today when the left side most forward attachment (bolt hole) sheared off and dug into the plastic of the scoot. There was only one bolt holding the rack on (the corresponding right side one) and that one came out with my fingers. I don't know if the other two had slowly backed out over time and fell out or if they came out today when the support broke. As far as I can tell, the holes are all still threaded...

I don't overload my top case (today it had a hat in it), and I only put the helmet in there when I'm parked somewhere. I always thought that the Blur rack was one of the more stout pieces on the scoot, but even the most stout are prone to failure over what passes for roads here in Detroit.

An interesting failure to say the least, and I think that I'll go without a rack/top case for a while

Check your bolts, people!

Anyone know any panniers that will fit the Blur?

Edwub · Post by **Edwub** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 12:48 am

Oh noes!! Sorry to see that, Ripp!

SQ · Post by SQ » Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:27 am

Locktite, always use locktite. Especially the way the Blur vibrates. The damage does not look too bad. A little filler and blend the paint. Should be hardly noticable. Could have been worse.

chub1965 · Post by **chub1965** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:19 pm

had similar problem on my 150.3 bolts sheered off before i realized why the top case had gotten so noisy.had to drill out the old bolts and replace with hardened bolts from lowes.within a few months the rack itself broke.very rough streets in rva.

DCUNITED4LIFE · Post by **DCUNITED4LIFE** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:09 pm

Damn....I'll be doing this this PM.

Rippinyarn · Post by **Rippinyarn** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:49 pm

Amazon saddlebags were installed (quickly) yesterday. It looks much better (nothing against top cases, but the mounting on the Blur is a little high for the me).

Let me mount them up a bit better and I'll start a new post on saddlebags for the Blur. It rode fantastically this morning, but it's not because of the saddlebags

minuteman · Post by **minuteman** » Tue May 01, 2012 3:13 am

a few years ago one busted on me, as well. also the threads got stripped in a couple of the holes of the tail fin thing. i put about 10k miles on her in a year, so i guess the vibration eventually took its toll. have an 06, so it was the orange tail fin.

went into scooterworks and asked if they might have one around. the rep and i were just poking around the shelves in the back and there was one sitting right there! it was the black fin so it was from an 07. i asked him how much he wanted for it and he told me he had no idea why it was there and i could just take it - awesome!

put a new rack on that black fin, tightened her up and she's never come loose, snapped, or had threads stripped. that was over 20k miles ago.

RxBlur · Post by **RxBlur** » Mon May 07, 2012 9:34 pm

Wow, the EXACT same thing happened to me. The bolts came loose, my husband reinstalled it with harder bolts, then the rack snapped in half!

Any recommendations for a higher-quality replacement that will fit (or can be adapted to fit) the Blur? I really need to have a topcase on my bike.

Emgersh · Post by **Emgersh** » Sun May 27, 2012 9:35 pm

Could you post a picture and let us know where you got them?

Rippinyarn wrote:Amazon saddlebags were installed (quickly) yesterday. It looks much better (nothing against top cases, but the mounting on the Blur is a little high for the me).

Let me mount them up a bit better and I'll start a new post on saddlebags for the Blur. It rode fantastically this morning, but it's not because of the saddlebags

RxBlur · Post by **RxBlur** » Mon May 28, 2012 6:00 am

Locktite, always use locktite. Especially the way the Blur vibrates.

What's Locktite? I'm getting ready to go Round No. 2 with a new rack, and I want to get it right. The shop suggested that vibration was the issue as well.

ScooterWorks has redesigned the rack - we'll see how this one works out.

Rippinyarn · Post by **Rippinyarn** » Mon May 28, 2012 3:24 pm

Here's the one that I got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RN ... 00_s00_i00 It's pretty nice and I love the built-in high-vis rain covers. I also like the feel of them on the Blur. I don't carry much in them, but it's great to have the additional storage for when I need to put the helmet under the seat.

I installed it with the straps going under the seat, and it was fine. It sagged like crazy (like they say in the reviews), but I have a solution to that that I'm going to install before Amerivespa. I was looking for some soft, light material that I could take horizontally across the bottom the seat to hold the bags a little more upright. It took me a couple of weeks until one day when I was looking at the sales bin in our local hardware store. I found a clear plastic A/C heat vent deflector that is adjustable and (I think) strong enough to be mounted under the seat (below the computer and battery compartments, i.e. just over the fender) and will stick out and provide support for the bags. We'll see how it works and I'll post some pics when it's done. It's clear, minimalistic and lightweight, but we'll see.

Rippinyarn · Post by **Rippinyarn** » Mon May 28, 2012 3:28 pm

RxBlur wrote:
Locktite, always use locktite. Especially the way the Blur vibrates.
What's Locktite? I'm getting ready to go Round No. 2 with a new rack, and I want to get it right. The shop suggested that vibration was the issue as well.

ScooterWorks has redesigned the rack - we'll see how this one works out.

Locktite one brand of a thread-locking "glue" that provides different levels of resistance to the bolt or screw coming loose. Blue is for fasteners that need to be secured but can be removed with a little elbow grease (force), red is the one that you use when you absolutely don't want the fastener coming loose - it requires heat in order to break the bond holding the fastener together.

RxBlur · Post by **RxBlur** » Mon May 28, 2012 4:28 pm

Locktite one brand of a thread-locking "glue" that provides different levels of resistance to the bolt or screw coming loose. Blue is for fasteners that need to be secured but can be removed with a little elbow grease (force), red is the one that you use when you absolutely don't want the fastener coming loose - it requires heat in order to break the bond holding the fastener together.

Awesome, thanks. I <3 chemistry.

BlueMark · Post by **BlueMark** » Mon May 28, 2012 7:07 pm

This is a good informative thread, but I gotta admit I was a little disappointed after clicking on that promising title.

omniphil · Post by **omniphil** » Wed May 30, 2012 7:20 pm

2 of my bolts sheared off, I just replaced them with hardened bolts this weekend. I guess I now get to look forward to a broken rack in my future. That's pretty lame...

dongarritas · Post by **dongarritas** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:56 pm

My problem was the bolts that came with the Genuine rack; there should be 2 each of two different length, hardened bolts. This was not the case, and 3 out of four stripped out on one ride, @50 miles in. Got back, took to my dealer, and he replaced, with a little loctite, two sets of proper bolts. Hopefully no rack failure, as we are both confident that this solves the bolt problem.

dookiegang · Post by **dookiegang** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:43 pm

I just wanted to add one other thing to look out for. I have the black rack on mine. On the top, on the cross bar just behind where the 90d U bend is, the welds are starting to rust. It looks like the paint didn't make it under there. They may need to be scrubbed down and touched up to prevent a full rust out. I only left it out in the rain once, the day after I got it, but it's less than three weeks old with 250 miles on it.

turboscott · Post by **turboscott** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:38 pm

Same thing happened to me. It's not the bolts in my case, it was the blur rack welds cracking and the the grab bar threads got soft. The grab rail metals are really poor, aluminum, which will fail under the vibraton. This occurred about three or four months ago on mine. I'm probably gonna drill holes through the grab rail and bolt all the way through IF I get around to fixing it. My buddy rewelded the rack for me. Scratched my rail, tail plastic and light.

UPDATED 11/14/12 - I posted a separate thread with Pics of my fix.

Modern Buddy

Check yer rack!

Check yer rack!

Picture, please!

Re Rack