While I was riding home from work today, I noticed my Givi rack was making more noise than usual. It shouldn’t be making any noise! Noise means something is loose. Not good.

Last year, on the way up to Alaska, I had trouble with the topcase mount wiggling loose on the rough Canadian roads. I was tightening it, and the rest of the rack, every few days. After I got home, I put some new thread locker on, and the problem went away until today.

The problem isn’t helped by the rack design. It’s a Givi rack on my 2001 SV650. There are only two mounting bolts for the topcase mount, and they are lined up. This causes the topcase to eventually wiggle back and forth along the line of the two bolts. Time to fix it for good. Bring on the power tools!
Two more bolts should add enough strength to keep it from wiggling. I decided to remove the rubber bumper and drilled a 1/4” hole through the rack.

A quick dig in my pile-o-spare-parts, and I found two bolts, washers, and lock nuts that fit just perfectly.

A little blue thread locker and it they were ready to tighten up.

With four bolts, things were much more solid. The bolts were about the same height as the rubber stoppers, so the top case went on snuggly.

All put back together and no more movement or wiggling. Nice.

I use the topcase constantly; it is super handy to have locking waterproof storage. Other than the wiggling loose occasionally, I’ve never had a problem with it. I’ve ridden with it on the bike for over 40,000 miles. I’m not fond of wearing a backpack while riding either. The sidecases don’t see as much use, but they are very handy for stashing all my riding gear or Costco trips.