ZN1300 Markland Backrest Install

		ZN1300 Markland Backrest

Last Update 8/22/08

I bought a used Markland backrest off ebay for my Voyager and went to install it when I found what the issue was that the last person had with it. These are not available new for some time now but if you happen to run across one for sale and buy it, here's how you can modify it to work right. The first image is the pivot screw that came on it originally. The backrest is made to fold forward so your passenger can get on as it would be difficult indeed for them to get on if it didn't flip out of the way.

The issue is that this screw is just not up to the task because it's too small and wasn't designed properly with enough strength to handle someone leaning against the backrest and putting however many pounds of constant pressure against it. It doesn't take much pressure to bend it and after it bends, the backrest doesn't want to fold forward anymore. This bolt is 1/4" with a sleeve over it that provides a wear point when it pivots. As you can see there's four positions you can mount this in and I found the rear hole to be most comfortable for me.

Since the sleeve is 3/8" in diameter I simply bought a couple of 3/8" bolts from the hardware store and some nylon locknuts for the backside. There is a clearance issue here with the seat, so don't get bolts that are too long where they dig into the seat. Alternatively, I may just turn the bolts around and put the nuts on the outside but I was afraid if I did it that way it would be easier for someone to slip the nuts off and steal the backrest. If the nuts are on the outside you only need a crescent wrench to get the nuts off and the backrest part can be slipped off. The way I have it mounted you'd need 2 wrenches of the right kind to get the nut off. This is probably not a concern for most of us, but I thought about someone walking by one day when it was unattended and 'needing' my backrest.

I tapped the 3rd hole to accept a 3/8" bolt while the brackets were still on the bike and re-installed the backrest.

Now it works properly and there's no way I'm going to lean against it hard enough to bend these 3/8 bolts.

A 2nd problem I noticed with the backrest itself is that it has some up and down adjustment but there's nothing to positively hold it in the position you want it. If you slide it up because that position is most comfortable, it tends to work its way back down to the bottom position as you're riding. There may be a few good ways to effect a cure for this but since I needed it in the highest position I merely used some tiewire to hold it there.

If you have any of these backrests for sale that will fit the KZ1300 or ZN1300 please contact me with your price as I'm a buyer for items like this. david@kz1300.com

NOTE: On these newer browsers I've noticed that they don't always display my large images in full size when you open an image from the thumbnails. Once you click the thumbnail and open the larger image, if you 'mouse over' the image you should see a " + " symbol or some other indicator like a box with arrows usually on the bottom right edge of the image. If you click on the indicator, then the image will expand to it's full size which displays full screen on computers that use a 800 x 600 resolution setting for the monitor. If you click the indicator again it will go back to the smaller image. Some people use a resolution setting of 1024 x 768 or higher on their monitors and for those users the images will appear smaller than full screen in size. You can change your monitor settings easily enough if you desire. Also, the indicator I've noticed is slow to appear even after the image appears to of completely loaded. The indicator in Netscape seems to be a lot faster to display than the one in Internet Explorer.

Return to Z1300 Technical Articles Sitemap