Hitchcocks Forum

Got them yesterday, fitted them today. Someone had already mentioned the fact they don’t line up.... really? Check the first two pictures... the back fittings lined up very well.... let’s look at the front two!....

Anyway, as you’ll notice, the rear bottom bracket is a good inch and a quarter plus from the holes. And rather than drill new holes through the provided number plate reinforcement plate, I’ll left it as is.

I’m happy. With one fitting they wouldn’t come off the bike. The two front ones are substantial and there’s still the back top ones on either side. The non bolted fitting is tight to the back, I can see it causing sone chafing with panniers fitted and travelling, I’ll just monitor it, it is definitely secure.

As I have a rack fitted, the original top suspension mount bolts were too short. I fitted a spacer between the rack and pannier holes for the bolt to go through. I had to drop the rear subframe to get the bolts out, so took the opportunity to fit new bolts from the outside in. A much better idea for future removal of the bolts without having to drop the sub frame.

Blooming pictures! I just deleted them and rotated! I give up

Hi Windmill John, when I fitted my pannier rack I thought my wrangling was due to my bikes specific geometry but your experience precisely mirrors mine. Eventually I decided to drill through the number plate bracket in-line with the slots cut in the strengthening plate that comes with the fitting kit. That way, as in your second photo only slight tension is needed to force the stay to line up and bolt through. This leaves the number plate without a mounting point so I simply lowered the number plate to allow drilling through the thinner standard plate as the strengthening plate tapers. Eventually I'll re-mount the number plate on an aluminium plate somewhere nearer the original position but I concluded that structurally it was more important to tie the back end together when applying touring weight.
It seems anyone thinking of fitting the GIVI PL9052 pannier rack is going to have a significant struggle to make it right...plug and play it is not! ... no complaints about GIVI, I consider the quality of the rack and fittings as first class, the issue is with our cherished machines.

Hi Roobarb,

I’ve fitted Givi racks to a number of bikes, Always a perfect fit, then fitted my home made adapter brackets to take my Nonfango luggage which I’ve had for years; can’t justify buying other panniers when I have some.

Strangely, or maybe not, the left rear bottom ‘misalignment’ is not in line with the slot in the strengthening plate, but the right hand side is. This is one of the reasons I don’t want to drill though and have holes out of alignment through the number plate. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a concourse person or anything like that, however misaligned holes is not something I want.

Once I get my adapter plates on there and test with luggage, I’ll see how I feel about not fixing those bottom back two.

Still, overall, I’m pleased

Looking at your picture, your panniers are bigger than my current ones. I originally got a set of three, top box plus panniers. Those panniers were the same size as my top box, 50 plus litres!!
The ones I currently have, have done us well for European trips; sorry picture is not an RE. 40 degrees in Portugal!




John