I keep mulling over this huge tire idea of mine and a frined of a friend made a suggestion on just welding mine up ridged just wondering if anyone had tried this and what their experiance was. Of course it will be a rough ride but I can live with that. I appriciate ya'lls input so thanks in advance.

 

Welding it up rigid?

Can you just use solid struts instead of the shocks to check out the ride? I don't know if you have ridden a hardtail for any amount of time but it ain't comfy! Take it from someone that rode a hardtail as my only bike for about 8 years.

 

imo you'd be better off starting from scratch then...why start with an expensive bike? Go buy a rigid frame, find a motor and go from there. I've never seen a weld on hardtail section for a dyna..(not saying it couldn't be done but you'd have to start from scratch) Keep the bob so you've got something to ride while you're building and for once you've had your vertebrae fused after a few years on the rigid.

 

Your missing the point of doin it. I'm doing this to widen the rear tire on my Bob so i can get the right look. I know it would be rough but my Bobs just a barhopper anyways.

 

Try fabbing up some struts first, ride it like that for awhile first to see if you can live with it.I rode a Triumph hard tail for a few years the ride wasn't as bad as you might think and with a big tire will be better.The harsh ride wasn't why I got rid of it, the vibration and high maintenance of a built bonneville motor was more than I could handle when I needed a reliable ride to work.

 

Perse Performance has the not-shocks...chrome struts that look like shocks, but are really just solid struts.
Perse Not shocks

They are almost $200, but sure look pretty!

I would just make my own struts like stated above...even if you had the final version done by a machine shop it would probably still be cheaper. You could design something pretty cool and have a one-off custom.

 

There are companies that make kits to get a 250 in back. Not cheap, but far better than making a rigid out of the Bob. Your bike, but I see no reason to take the suspension out.

 

if you're only doing it to get a huge tire in the back (which imo looks funny and is the opposite of what the bob is about but it's your scoot) why not work on making a wider swingarm work instead of a rigid rear section? Either one will take a lot planning,work and fabbing. If you're only using your bike as a bar hopper the rigid may be ok but I know I got sick of mine pretty quick.

 

A few options I can think of off the top of my head:

Get the weld on and do that, but I can't find one.

Buy a whole new frame. You could get one for under 1k and if you get one that has the same dimensions as your current stock one you could reuse the front end. From there you'd still have quite a few things to get, like a seat pan, battery tray, etc. Most of the stuff though would probably be the same if you went with a weld on though.

Pay out the butt for one of those wide tire kits.


Just remember that this is one of those things that you'll dump of ton of money into and get practically nothing out of when you go to resell. I'd think in the very end it would be cheapest to go with a new frame, since you could keep the stock one and put it back together if you go to resell and then just ebay off the rigid frame and parts, but you'll still take a big hit.

But like other people said if you decide you want to go through with it then money for struts are definitely worth it to see if you can handle the ride. Fifty to a hundred bucks for the struts are totally worth it even if you don't want to go all the way with the hardtail, plus you can sell them on ebay no matter what or just buy used ones in the first place. Lots of people make their own struts and end up spending like 10-20 bucks, so you could go that route too.

 

No offence but i think it would look like A$$.