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If you have an FJR with a Givi rack and box, you may want to be very careful about how much you load it and what sort of valuables you put in it. I used the rack to mount my auxiliary fuel tank. The tank held almost ten liters which, at about 1.5 pounds / liter, totals about 15 pounds. I believe the rack capacity is 11 pounds. I think engineers generally consider the working load to be 50% of breaking load. So, while I was overloaded, I would not think that 4 pounds is that much for the size of steel tubing used for the rack. The rack finally failed at some point riding through a construction zone. Not terribly bad and typical of what most riders expect to experience a few times each year.

In looking at the breaks, I can noted the following:

• Rust has formed on both sides. That tells me that they both cracked some time ago. 

• You can also see that the tubing appears to have snapped. I would have expected something more like the sort of bending normally required to break a piece of normal tubing. 

• Both breaks occurred right behind the welded on cross brace. I'm no metallurgist but my guess is that the welding tempered the tubing and it became quite brittle.

Before

After

Left side

Right side