I'm kicking around the idea of making my own Sissy Bar for my WG. Ive got a friend with TIG skills and the equipment available to me for the work. I am looking for any advice that yall can offer. Here is a pic of what I would like it to look like if possible. What angle do you think that the bar is? What material should I use for it? 5/8" mild steel?

 

If you use solid material, use cold rolled steel. Its easier to work with, and it welds up nice. Tubing, however is stronger and lighter than solid stock, but it is a bit harder to bend and work with.

 

I'd measure it with protractor for degrees of angle if that is the way you want to go. Me I would keep it the angle of my forks in-order to get the symmetry of what the bike has to offer.

If you use hollow tubing, you can always fill it with sand, let the sand be a little loose and free flowing, heat the pipe and free bend it or use something round to bend it on. The sand will help it not to kink up on you. Just some Old Skool tricks.

 

You are going to need a disco ball and those little umbrellas for the drinks and...no, that's something different.

 

I make them out of 1/2" mild steel, solid bar. It's plenty strong enough. The bends are heated up with a torch. If you have a good eye you can look at the bar and tell if it's symetrical otherwise you can use a protractor or something. When you heat it up to bend it, get the bar cherry red and heat it about an inch past where the bends will stop. Bend it nice and slow as you are still holding the torch to it. If you bend it too fast you'll end up with too sharp of bends and probably kink the metal. you have to get a feel for metal working, some folks pick it up easy, some guys never seem to get "The touch" for it. The bar on my old bike in the picture was made by bending both sides seperately, "eyeing it up" from behind, overtop, sideways....etc then TIG welding the two halves together. I smooth everything out with cloth backed strips of sandpaper before sending them out to the chromer. The chromer charged me $180 to chrome that particular bar and those exhaust tips I made (same picture), I thought that was a lot of money though.

 

I have a home made bar for my springer hangin in my garage the bar itself is 18 inches tall and looks nice but the flex it has makes it unusable for a passenger.. I coated it in wrinkle black but then just decided to get a cycle visions attitude stick this winter..

 

Do it man sissy's are back in style

 

I just met with a welder friend who is trying to track down some twisted steel that he can use to make a nice 3-4' bar for my bike. I have concerns about how it will affect the ride but I'm really looking forward to seeing the completed product on the bike. I may have to wait until spring, but it's not like I can ride anyhow.

 

Good advice so far. I'll add mine.

Buy extra metal to practice with. Steel is cheap.

Before you go fooling around with a torch, get some help from your friend who knows how to weld. A couple of quick pointers here and there will go a long way towards us not having to read about the explosion/fire/whatever.

Whatever you do, when your friend does any TIG welding, or any welding in general, DON"T watch him. Turn your back to it. "Arc flash" is not a term you want the doctor to explain to you.

Cover your body when doing any metal working. Long sleeves, boots, long pants, safety glasses.

Enough safety stuff. It's important though.

Now, when designing something that is going to be welded together, try to keep the mass of the parts to be fused as close as is practical. For example, don't expect to weld a 1/16" thick piece of sheetmetal to a 4" dia. solid steel bar.

You might want to mock something up first just to see how it looks. Make it out of anything handy and quick.

Think about adding a bracket for a backrest pad, tool bag, extra lights, shelf for a Tbag, or what have you.

When you are done fabricating, for a finish, I would paint it. Use it for 6 months and make sure it's the way you really want it. If not, easy enough to modify it. Hold off on the chrome for a season then get it done next winter.

Start a thread on the build and post pics of your progress.

 

Yeah I'm with you, I have been planning on a sissy bar ever since I got my 2010 WG. As one poster said he had one that was too flimsy for a passenger that might be taken care of by heat treating. One of the old bike wrenches in the area told me he makes them out of solid bar and then sends them out for heat treat. Makes sense to me. There is a company that advertises sissy bars alot on ebay for around 300 or so custom made, maybe that isn't such a bad price after all.