Clearing Hurdles

Spent the necessary time to get my new rear fender mounted and make the sissy bar I've had in my head into a reality. I haven't run a rear fender on the bike for about two years, but with the need to strap gear on for the Long Road it was time to change that. The fender came from Kustomwerks and was intended for use on the front. I trimmed the fork tabs with the plasma cutter and it was ready for rear wheel application. I've used several Kustomwerks fenders on customer's bikes and they are well made, thick 13ga. steel with the radius cut just right to match up to the tire. They don't cost a fucking fortune either and you can order from them online. Thumbs up all around.

Next up was sissy bar fabrication. I hadn't made one in a while and it is time consuming. I made the mounting bungs last week, so now came the more challenging part: bending the uprights.

Right side bent and tacked into place.


Left side up and tacked.

At this point, some tweaking with a bitchin little gas torch setup I just got was needed to get the two sides lined up and symmetrical. This is where a good eye-crometer comes in handy.
Once I was satistfied with the position of the uprights I bent the top piece and set about trimming/grinding the uprights and fitting the top piece into place.

Boom goes the dynamite.

The pics make it look pretty easy, but anybody who's done something like this from scratch can attest to the work it takes. But if I can do it, with absolutely no formal training in metal fabrication, anybody else worth a shit can too. I bent the steel using a Harbor Freight special hydraulic pipe bender, followed by minor tweeking with the aforementioned torch. A lot of the time involved is checking and rechecking your postion/alignment before welding. You don't want the bar to look good from the front and then realize too late that it's crooked as fuck when you see it from the back. Good weekend of work, 6 weeks to launch.