Jersey Big Mike
100K mile club
No its much easier than that.Guess the OP lost interest? Funny thing is over the past few weeks I've been thinking about this. With the wife and young kids I don't get much weekend time so I use the bike all the time to go to work and it's a real pain in the ass to pack my bag then strap it to the sissy bar, then pull it off at work. A few times it has ended up sitting on my fender and now I have scuff marks I have to buff out. Also I don't want to take it out for a quick store run or anything cause I'd have to bring the bag and worry about it getting swiped off the bike in the parking lot.
So I actually started thinking about selling the chopper and getting a used road king or something, love street glides but too pricey used, but I just can't do it, I love the chopper too much and not ready to let it go but can't afford a second bike. So I started thinking about making an entire take off rear section with a new fender, a set of Harley hard bags and new struts. Something that I could pull off with 4 strut bolts and a plug and bolt the original chopper fender back on when I wanted too. Call me stupid, crazy, an idiot, it ok,I never do anything to please anyone but myself, but I think if it was done right it wouldnt look bad and be a lot more functional for day to day use and still be able to return to full chopper mode . Even went as far as to buy a cheap left side saddlebag to get ideas, don't know if I'll go though with it or not but I have to try or I'll keep thinking about a more practical ride and I would kick myself in the ass if I sold her.
What I did to run hard bags on my K-9 (previous) was get an extra set of struts (jic) and I drilled out 2 of the holes and then tapped them the rest of the way. Bought a set of easy brackets and mounted the studs to the struts so that all that shows when the bages are gone is 2 little nipples on each side, barely noticable.
If I were to do it again (and I'm thinking about it) I'd make my own ends for the easy brackets or use a thin nut on the outside.
First time I changed the direction of the bolt in the stud and had a NUT on the inside of the fender -- not really enough space, much rather have the socket button head bolt on the inside of fender ( lower profile, smoother -- nut can really rip up a tire)
PM me if you want more detail.
