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Display Mesage #-94573


Newbie; backrest & trunk; which years red?
Written by "Gregg L. DesElms" on 8/15/1996 at 11:55 am

At 06:28 8/15/96 -0500, Steven D. Turner wrote:
>
>My ride is an 89 PC800(25,000 mi),it has the tall Honda solar
>stove windshield,

Get a Rifle.

>the common scraping inside the trunk from the rear tire,

I'm sure it's been said in this group before, but the scraping on the '89 is
a design defect that Honda acknowledges as THEIR mistake and they will
retrofit a '90 trunk assembly onto your '89 free, just for the asking. (At
least they did in my case after I had placed a helmet into the left side and
the tire rubbed all the way through the black plastic of the trunk assembly
and took the paint off the helmet, too. By the time I finished with the
Honda Regional Service Manager, Honda bought me a new Shoei RF200 as well!)

>
>I need info on luggage rack/backrest, large trunk mounted on
>luggage rack.

I'd be curious to hear what others have to say about that too. I will say
this about the backrest...

I was very unhappy with the short backrest accessory available from Honda.
My passenger(s) said it was very uncomfortable and not useful. I wanted one
that would match. So the first thing I did was climb the ladder of Honda
bureaucracy, kicking, screaming, stomping and threatening to hold my breath
until I turned blue until I had finally gotten someone to have a few yards
of the '89 PC800 seat cover material shipped to me directly from Japan (it
was not cheap and they asked me never to make a request like that again...
really).

But once I had it, I removed and disassembled the short backrest and used
the metal plate inside as a template and on a 1/4" sheet of masonite I
widened the angles a little and I projected the basic shape of the plate
into a much taller backrest plate -- one that is about 3+" across the top
and the same width as the existing plate on the bottom. I marked the
location of the bolt holes from the existing plate and drilled them so that
the mounting bolts would slike freely through them. Then I put the short
backrest back together and remounted it on the bike. Then I cut out the new
plate template from the masonite. I then took the masonite piece to a sheet
metal fabricator and had them make a 3/8" steel plate version with the sharp
edges buffed off and nuts welded to the backs of the bolt holes.

Finally, I took the bike (with the Hondaline accessory backrest mounted to
it), the new steel plate and the few yards of material to a professional
(good quality -- I shopped around) automobile upholsterer. I pointed to the
existing backrest, handed him the steel plate and the material and said,
"Here. Make a taller one of these out this stuff." The upholsterer already
had the foam padding and everything else he needed (he's an upholsterer,
after all!). And he knew how to make the seams look exactly like the Honda
seems, and he put velcro on the flap, etc., etc. It was PERFECT.

I did it more than three years ago, but as memory serves, the whole deal
cost less than $200, including getting the material from Japan.

I've never thought an accessory trunk would look right, but I'm game to hear
if others have found a way.

NOTE: A while back I posted the phone number of someone selling a red PC800
in the south Chicago suburbs (it's still for sale, by the way). I didn't
know the year but it was red with a darker gray trim. Someone e-mailed me
back (I can't remember who now) and said it had to be a '96. But I just
wanted to say to whomever that was that I saw a '96 yesterday and it's the
wrong red. The one I saw had the real pretty candy metallic red, deepened
by multiple clearcoats. The '90 had a silver trim, so what does that leave,
'94? Isn't '94 the only other year Honda made a red one? A little guidance
from anyone out there who knows would be helpful. Of course it no longer
matters to anyone, but now I'm curious.


Gregg DesElms
deselms@primenet.com

Message Thread for message #-94573