Hepco-Becker Topcase and Rack Install

by

Tim Ryan

I ordered the Hepco-Becker Junior 45 Topcase and rack from John Borella.  I had the items for about a month before I had enough time to study the situation and spend some time installing the product and documenting the process.  I hope others find this info helpful.     

FYI, John tells me that this kit will not work if you have aftermarket pipes installed.

Here is the topcase with all parts and instructions lain out.  The instructions are in German, which I don’t read, so what follows is the translation to English which I had prepared.  While not perfect, I do not think I could have done the install without the English translation.  Things went pretty smoothly.  It was difficult to loosen the originally installed bolts attaching the front of the sidecase mounts, and the three bolts attaching the middle of the rack supports proved a pretty tight fit, but by starting out with everything loose I was eventually able to get all three bolts threaded.

Luggage carrier                   

Aprilia Futura

66989 Hoehfroeschen  b. Primasens
Birkenstrasse / Industrial zone
Telephone: (06334) 9216-0
Telefax: (06334) 9216-80
http:// www.hepco-becker.de

Article Number:       

650.771 01 01 black

The kit includes the following components:  

Installation Instructions

The luggage carrier is compatible with the original cases

Preparatory jobs

Dismantle the bench and the rear light holder.

Fastening the luggage carrier

Unscrew the rear light from the holder and remove screws of the supporting strap at the top. Set the ALU distances dia. 15 X dia. 9 X 20 mm in the deepenings and screw the strap of the luggage carrier. Use the flange head screws M 8 X 50 and round locknuts for this purpose. Screw the rear light back into its holder.

Fixing the pipe adapter

Front: Use the Flange head screws M 8 X 30 at the front threaded joint of the original case holder.

Center: Use the flange head screws M 8 X 25 and large diameter washers, dia. 8.4 X 25 mm, between the rear light carrier and the frame.

Fit the three large diameter washers (as spacers) at the central threaded joint of the rear light holder. Use the flange head screws M 8 X 25 for the threaded joint.

Rear: The supporting straps at the top are threaded to the luggage carrier at the bottom. Use the flange head screws M8 X 20 along with locknuts for this purpose.

After the installation, check whether all the threaded joints are firmly fixed!

Please pay attention to the enclosed service instructions.

This picture shows most of the relevant bolts involved in the installation.  I have lain the original equipment bolts next to their replacements; the exceptions are the two in the center foreground.  These two bolts originally fastened the front of the sidecase mounts on the underside of the bike.

You can see the spacers in place where the forward end of the rack attaches to the rear light assembly.  In order to access the original nuts to loosen the bolts, it is necessary to undo the two bolts directly below the spacers, and the one in between as well.  These bolts attach the actual rear lights and lens assembly to the overall rear light/grab handle assembly.

The three M 8 X 25 bolts can be seen below the previously mentioned bolts, and the middle one takes 3 washers as “spacers.”  The left and right ones use just one washer each, and these are where the center attachment points of the rack supports are.

                               Here is the rack completely installed, without the seat.

                                                             …from the rear.

                                                 Here is the topcase only installed.

                                                         Topcase only installed

                                            Topcase and sidecases installed

                                          Topcases and sidecases installed

                                                          The Futura is ready to fly!

Cockpit view:  Radar detector and GPS V on RAM mounts; 10 GB MP3 player (about 200 CDs).  Y jack allows radar detector audio signal to come in on same channel as MP3.

The topcase will not hold two of my full face helmets at the same time with the lid closed.  It will close over each one of them individually.  This is a bit of a disappointment as I had expected it to hold two full face helmets at the same time.  Overall, I am happy with the product, although it has no road use by me at this point.