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I have followed this post for awhile and still could not find an answer about the crash bar and lowers on a softail. So I bit the bullet and bought a used touring crash bar and come ebay lowers and began work. The crash bar will not fit with out some modifications, but it will work.
The pictures below are when I first mounted everything up, but I was not happy with the height of the lowers and have since raised everything up some.
Some points to note...
-If you mount the crash bar to the stock upper mount point on a softail the lowers will sit to low and foot room is cramped, not to mention dangerous as it is hard to find the brake pedal and shift without hitting the vent control with your foot.
-Custom brackets are required to mount the lower mounting bolts also and will not go in the factory softails holes. In my first attempt I simply made brackets to extend the crash bar out about 1 inch forward on the lower mounts (can be seen in 2nd pic) and it worked, but again they were too low and had to make changes
-The touring crash bar mounts about 3.5 inches higher on the frame on the touring models. I made a bracket out of 1/4 inch stainless to raise the upper mounting point up to match the touring models
-By raising the upper mounting point, the lower mounting point for the crash bar would no longer align and I had to move and remake brackets for the lower mounts, and they would no longer reach the factory engine guard mount. I had to remove the foot pegs and use the front most bolt that holds the foot pegs on to hold the new bracket.
-Some trimming was required on the right side lower fairing to clear the brake reservoir and pedal shaft.
It is not a very hard task to get this done, if you have some mechanical ability you should have no problem doing it.
The bike is currently in the shop getting a new ring gear and starter put on, (117 like to kickback if you forget the MCR's) so I don't have pics of the final set up right now, but will try to get them up later on.
Last edited by rickyk138; Jul 31, 2017 at 10:12 AM.
Reason: typo
Nice to see at least somebody make the attempt to get OEM lowers on a Softail.
Like anything I knew it could be done.
However I figured that it would be a PITA to fit or otherwise there would be more reviews of those who have done it.
I ended up going with the Leather Pros lowers and beside the price **ouch!!** I'm very pleased with their function and look.
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2003 Softail Standard Bagger
