Im making a rear fender for my 82 FXE and due to my limited knowledge of fabrication, i made some brackets to make it frame mounted. Looks decent and all, but when I sit on the bike, the fender rubs the wheel pretty bad. So since I have a spring seat on it, I was going to replace the shocks with some struts from DK Customs. Recently a friend of mine said that when putting struts on a bike with a swingarm, the swingarm bolt will eventually fail due to it not being made to withstand the bumps so hard. And when it fails, well that could mean bad things while riding. How likely is this?

 

your spine will give out before the swingarm bolt if you are hitting chuck holes that hard

you need 3 inches of movement on the wheel to the fender / just re do the distance so it does not hit

and if you sit on the bike and it hits your shocks are junk

 

if you have a spring seat you may be fine.. depends how heavy you are and what springs you have

 

Im 180lbs and have a LaRosa spring seat with the 3 inch springs. I will show a picture of the bracket I made and maybe someone will have a suggestion? Again, Im not the most talented or have a ton of tools, but Im willing to give it a shot if I can.

 

what i see is your frame is straight to the floor and the swingarm angle is fine for a strut, i would not be concerned about the bearings they are tough and can handle what your doing -- jz

 

There is no doubt that it is harder on the frame and the swingarm when running struts. However, if you hit a bump hard enough to break anything, that will probably be the least of your troubles.

I am 55 and have run struts on my bike with a spring seat for thousands of miles. No problems for me or the bike.



I'm 190 lbs. and I found the best ride was with 3" barrel springs like pictured below with our Solo Seat System.



All that said, I think you may be happier keeping your shocks and mounting your fender on the swingarm instead of the frame. That way you can have the fender close to the tire And have your rear shocks.

That is what I ended up doing on my ride. You can see all the details of how to mount the fender to the swingarm at this link-

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...-makeover.html

 

Thanks for all the help guys. Kevin, your build involved welding which I know nothing of and really dont have anyone around that does. So Im thinking I will go with struts again.

 

Usually, when guys mount their fender that tight to the tire, the fender is mounted to the swingarm. That way, you can still keep the shocks (good idea). BTW, I like the look of that Shovel.

Oh, sorry...I didn't read that Kevin said the same thing. Good luck with which ever way you go.