I'm wanting to make a bagger out of my 81 4-speed. Does anybody make brackets that will work for newer Harley hard bags on Shovelhead rear fender and struts? Will the new newer bags work on older FL supports?

 

hi. not sure what body type you have .head said fx.in 81 they had fews bagger flt.flh and some fxr .call dyna now.rear end do not change much.check on those.mrfuji

 

I have leather Road King bags on my 80 using modified Shovel brackets. I put the same bags on my Project Dyna using the earlier (both loops of the bracket stay behind the bag) Shovel bag brackets. The older brackets required a tube to be hose clamped to the bottom runner because the newer style bags stick out farther from the sides of the bike. To use Dresser hard bags the Shovel mounting studs would need to be cut off and attachments points made for the new style fasteners. I used the stock mounting studs and drilled holes in the heavy plastic used as the inside part of the bag.

 

Nicely done I snagged a brand new set of late hard back leather bags I'm planning on adapting to the shovel , your's gives me a nice starting point .

 

Looking at those pics, the only "issue" I see installing newer style hard saddlebags is that they will sit way too high with the oem shovel brackets being the newer bigger.
Smaller shovel bags already seat too high IMO.
That's good info anyway

 

Keep in mind not everybody is into all that slammed low bullshit ,some of us actually ride these things in more than straight lines .

 

"U234" ... You've done a great looking mod with the saddlebag mounts ... and as "TwiZted" said, not everyone is looking to lay the scooter down on the ground so it looks cool on bike night but you can't get it in or out of the driveways and you have to get off the damn thing and walk it to go around a corner .... Functionality is important Brother ... Nice Work !

 

I just talk about the position of the saddlebags, not the overall height of the bike.
Shovel saddlebags sit pretty high and they leave a big gap between them and the exhaust.
They are shorter than newer ones, so they look fine on shovels.

If you use moders hard sadllebags with the shovel mounts, being them taller, they would really look high!

overallvery low baggers (or bikes) that drag everywhere and can't turn make no sense to me

 

Thanks for the pics. That is some good input. My bagger project has begun. I'll post some pics as I go along. Currently I'm using a mid- 90's fat boy front end, modern bags and shovel era FL rear fender. Trying to figure out wheels. Front one is easy, appears shovel wheels are hard to come by.

 

Anything with 3/4" bearings will work except for a few of the really weird enclosed chain & FLT wheels which had funny offsets most anything from 1999 back can be made to fit including the newer brake systems , been there done that to lots of shovels already . You can buy new wheels to fit under $200 anywhere too .