[Rich007007]

I have a 2004 VL800 and let’s face it, bikes in general are more attractive without the sissy bar (and without the passenger seat). But my wife and I enjoy riding together and the sissy bar is more comfortable for her and we feel safer with it on. But, when I know she isn’t going to ride, I take it off. This is where the problem lies. It takes me a good 20-30 minutes to take off the sissy bar and the passenger seat (and out it back on when she is going to ride). There’s gotta be a faster and/or an easier way to do this without tools or with as little tools as possible. I know that regardless, if I decide to take off the seat, I need to use the Alan wrench. Unless I find a screw/bolt that I can take on and off by hand.

As I am sure you all know, right now, we have to use both the Alan wrench and the pliers in order to remove the four screws for the sissy bar. A quick and dirty solution to eliminate the use of the pliers is to switch out the existing nuts with butterfly nuts. This method will now only require the Alan wrench.

But what if I don’t want to use the Alan wrench. I saw something at Home Depot that might work. It’s like a bolt without threads. The system is similar to this http://www.builderdepot.com/browse.ihtml?pid=114061&step=5&prodstoreid=1718. The difference is that the long pin looks more like a regular bolt. It is long and it has a head. It also has multiple holes. To keep this pin in place you slide in the fastener/hitch pin. I think it might work because they have multiple holes. This way when I remove the sissy bar, the bolt goes further in and if I were to use the same hole as before (since the sissy bar is gone) it would be loose. I just use another hole closer to the fender.

What do you folks think?

 

[DrBob]

You could just use a drill press to drill some holes in the stock bolts, and buy some pins to fit in the holes (ACE if Home Depot doesn't have them). Use a washer between the pin and the bar...pull the pin, slide out the bolt, and off comes the sissy bar. Unless the holes are threaded in the sissy bar, in which case those dowels and pins you saw at Home Depot would work.

 

[Rich007007]

Thanks DrBob. I'm sure I can find someone with a dril press. I'm going to start asking around.

 

[DrBob]

I'd laon you mine, but it is a bit of a trek from Miami

I made friends with the maintenance guy at grad school, and he has a drill press, air compressor, die grinder, shop vac, hammer drill, etc in the back room, and lets me use them all the time.

 

[Rich007007]

Maintenance guys always have all the cool tools. I need to become friends with one. The only problem is that they always end up being the crazy killer in scary movies.

 

[DrBob]

Jeez, you chop up a few teenagers and suddenly you're the 'crazy killer' type...

 

[Rich007007]

lol

 

[Uncle Bob]

Sissy bar, is that a place where they serve drinks with umbrellas in them ?