Part of a little winter project that is about over, getting the girls bike back into reasonable shape. The crash bar had dented the front fender; now I've gotten things setup so that is impossible. My buddy had some problems w/ the paint when fixing the original fender (likely clearcoat got put on too soon or was incompatible w/ the primer, upon pin-striping I found after a full week of being cured and sitting inside, the paint is soft enough to remove with a fingernail, durr).. Original fender, although looking great dent-repair-wise, I found is still a little tweaked. Looking online I see for as little as $50 I can get new sheet metal, that's barely more than the chemical stripper, nevermind time, I'll burn cleaning this thing up and getting it straight. So our plan is to start over with a new aftermarket fender that's not coated in 3/4 cured paint and to be more careful about things this time.

Anyway - so goal here is not absolute perfection, if I want that some day I'll find a nice used match, it's getting it decent. Looking at fenders though I see there are a bunch of choices - stock looking, shorty, and other things too. I am thinking maybe a shorty would be really cool, does anybody run one and are they comfortable enough w/ debri/water? I see these lowbrow customs shorty fenders on Ebay for like $50 shipped. Anyway - anyone have a recommendation on brand? Thanks!

 

I used an eBay Nightster fender, like the "holes" in the mounts and fitted perfect.

 

Thanks - I think that is similar to what I'm looking at, minus the holes. Basically is cut back some on the backside, close to stock on the front. Does it work OK?

 

My wife hit the grandaddy of all potholes on her Dyna and did the same thing. I picked up another fender at a swap meet for $20. Of course it was the wrong color, so I gave it to my painter to finish the next time he was doing black parts. Can't tell now, and put Progressive springs in the front end, so we're good.

 

Ya I could get a used one or aftermarket new stock-looking fender, just was thinking maybe I'd get something different since I got a choice so figured I'd ask for everyone's .02..

On this crash bar I was able to trim the upper mounting tab, pull it closer to the frame and re-positioned the holes similarly, also mounting it atop a rubber stabilizer/brackets instead of below, and then on the bottom I slotted the holes (since they were longer lined up after moving the crash bar up) and used a little simple custom bracketry out of steel plate to make the bracket longer so it wasn't just held on inside a slot. I got the crash bar up about 3/8 and about 1/2 inch closer to the frame, now it 100% clears the fender.

FYI - if you are just talking about the replacement springs, like for lowering, I don't think they do anything to prevent the crash bar & fender scenario, other than maybe making the front end a little stiffer so it's a little harder to do. Basically it's a shock travel/clearance problem and the springs only change stiffness to my knowledge.

Checking for clearance is very easy BTW - just remove the caps on the forks and lower the front until hard bottom (or in my case I lowered the bike onto blocks, then for the rest of the way jacked up on the front wheel under the stand). Of course if you remove the fender first and then check to make sure it fits after, you avoid accidentally hitting your fender if it will not clear. The only reason it happened in the first place is I trusted a shop to put a crash bar on there that would work right and they did not, takes 20 minutes to check, I don't get why they didn't do this.