Motorcycle Explorer October 2014 Issue 2 | Page 72

Do It Yourself
Dave Pickering and the “I’m sure
it’ll be fine” DIY idea for a top box.
I
’m sure you’ve seen the top boxes from
all the main players that cost anywhere
from £250 up to £1800 but every now and
then you see some rider with a chopped up
shopping trolley welded to the front of the
bike or glued to the back. It all looks a bit
too much like hard work and rather ugly to
be honest and something that I could do
without on my bike.
E
ven with that said I do like the ingenuity
of riders to make things, the beer can stove
was a cracker and you have something that
does the job for pennies or cents! Well, I
was at a bike meet and one rider, Dave
Pickering, has come up with a bit of an idea
and that is to turn a tupper box into a top
box and this one looked rather cool,
waterproof and does the job. Not only that
but being tupper it’s transparent and I
think is a great aid for getting through
customs without having to ditch out all
your kit!
N
ow I had all the same thoughts as you
perhaps are having now if you’re into
engineering. If I stick that on the back of a bike
that is going to sit at 90mph plus on the
autobahn when I pull over is it still going to be
there or am I going to be getting some rather
irate Audi driver swearing at me in German
because the wind shear ripped the whole thing
off and bounced my diy top box off his shiny
new car... or worse, trashed his windscreen and
caused an accident! Dave is on a 250cc bike and
it’s going to be interesting if nothing else to see
how his bodge it box gets on!
H
e will be taking this idea on a bit of trip
from England down to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan! Playing in the Stans
is one of those amazing bucket list rides and
it’s going to be interesting to see how this
homemade project stands up to the abuse. So,
let’s have a look at what he’s done!