I've been searching everywhere for a luggage rack or top case rack for my '96 GS500E. Seems like all of them are made for the F's or '97-00 E's. I found one on ebay that's made for a '93-94 GS500. Anyone know if it will fit my '96? Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370226924226&crlp=1_263602_263622&ff4=263602_263622&viewitem=&guid=5e72f52b12a0a47a0966d5f6ff440da7&rvr_id=145858884472&ua=M*F%3F&itemid=370226924226

Secondly, does anyone know any other racks that would fit a '96? It's my daily driver so the bigger the better. More storage space outweighs coolness.

1989-2000 is all the same. Same frame, same plastics, all interchangeable. Only difference was the color. 2001 the plastics, seat and tank changed. Hence mounting points for racks changed, too.
You have 2 basic GS500 styles: 1989-2000 and 2001+
A 93/94 bracket would fit anything from 1989-2000

Not sure about that 93-94 rack linked above.  Givi currently lists 01 and later racks and the 97-00 racks but previously had a 96 and older rack that was discontinued.  They listed the 96 and older racks along with the 97-00 racks so there must be some difference.  Probably could be adapted.

Other possible racks would include the RevsPerformance rack and the Ventura rack.  Not familiar with the RP rack but son JP put a Ventura rack on his 97 GS that he got from eBay and it looks good and solid and he has a small give case on it.

http://www.revsperformance.com/renntec/sports_racks.htm
http://www.ventura-bike.com/

Could make your own.  I made one for my 97 GS that I used for years with soft luggage.  I found a Suzuki rack no longer made for my 02 GS and had to add some bracing when I put a 33L Givi case on it.



If I needed another rack for a GS and no longer had the GS factory rack available I'd just make a simple rack to carry the Give baseplate that comes with the Monolock cases.  The Givi on my 02 GS hasn't been off for over 6 years and 70k miles, wouldn't leave home without it.

Bot sure of the reason for Givi having different years from 1989-2000 unless it is the color. Renntec lists 1989-2000 as the same. So does Five Stars.
I know the plastic tail pieces and the grab handle are the same. Those are where these things get mounted.
Maybe someone with a Givi knows what their difference is.
http://www.jfmotorsport.de/shop/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=174_189&products_id=1109
http://www.renntec.co.uk/suzuki_gs500_carrier.html
Since these list the years the same for 1989-2000 I don't know why Givi separates them.

I found Rev's Performance a while back & didn't think much of it because it's really just not what I was looking for. Too small & the grab bar looks awfully obtrusive. But then when I was looking for a fabricator in my area, who popped up on google maps but Rev's Performance, about an hour north of where I live. So I emailed them today to see if they make the racks in house & if they could possibly fabricate me a more versatile luggage rack. I mountain bike a lot & can get my bike on the back seat with no rack, but it takes forever & nudges my back. So something large & flat with a lot of tie down points would be ideal. When I get the money I want to have something large enough to use the universal adapter for the 2x2cycles.com bicycle rack. With the knowledge that the frames were the same from 89-00, I may just try something that claims to only work for 97-00 & if it doesn't work I'll just ship it back. If it did work, that would open a LOT of doors. The jfmotorsports.de rack looks perfect...just simple & flat. I'll wait to hear back from RP & let y'all know what's up. I did a search & the lack of racks for the earlier GS500's seems to be a fairly common problem, so hopefully this will help out some fellow mechanically-stupid 89-96 owners.

Quote from: samburger on September 29, 2010, 06:07:13 PM
I mountain bike a lot & can get my bike on the back seat with no rack, but it takes forever & nudges my back.

Screenshot or it never happened.... I'm an avid mountain biker and am quite interested in how you rigged this up. I have a truck with a good rack on the back... but bike on bike action? Hot.

  I meant to post a screen shot in my last post. Not many people believe it can be done, so I keep this picture on my phone:


I got the idea from a guy who teaches at my moms school & rides a touring cruiser of some sort (maybe a Goldwing?). He explained that it can be done on any motorcycle (with the proper tie down points), as a bicycle frame is only about as long as a touring motorcycle is wide. I've taken this rig at speeds of 80+mph on the interstate (though for that I zip tie the bike as well as bungie, just to be safe). My local trails are about 20 minutes of back roads away so some taught bungie cords are sufficient for daily rides. Oh, & to answer the question most actual bikers ask about this rig--it takes about 15 minutes to get the bike on the motorcycle from scratch, & about 5 to take it off the motorcycle & put the wheels on. When I get back home I just leave the bicycle as is & take it off my motorcycle so that I can just plop it back on the motorcycle next time I hit up the trails. This cuts the loading time down to about 5 minutes.

It ain't pretty & it's a little time consuming, but well worth the trouble for now. I'm hoping to have a luggage rack by the cold season so that I can ask for a legitimate motorcycle-bicycle rack for Christmas. Again, 2x2cycles.com is the dream.

I bought this luggage rack from wemoto in the UK for like $125 with shipping & handling. The dollar conversion killed me. It was strange on the wemoto site, this rack was for a '05/06 GS500 but mine is a '08 GS500 and it fit perfectly! I've attached photos below.





Wemoto sells some pretty awesome racks for all sorts of bikes. My contact there was Ralph:

ralph.s@wemoto.com

He was kind enough to measure the screw holes to ensure I ordered the right part before he shipped the product to the US.

Really happy with this rack. I'll never wear a backpack again now!

The only GS500 rack I found at wemoto.com was this one:



That's the SW-Motec rack from Germany, you can get those from TwistedThrottle in the US:

http://www.twistedthrottle.com/trade/productview/238/210/

Quote from: gsJack on April 27, 2011, 10:22:39 AM
The only GS500 rack I found at wemoto.com was this one:



That's the SW-Motec rack from Germany, you can get those from TwistedThrottle in the US:

http://www.twistedthrottle.com/trade/productview/238/210/

The rack looks like this on wemoto.com;