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so when i bought my bike, the previous owner took the passenger pegs off and put them in a box of parts. i have the pegs but couldn't find the mounts, so i take a trip to the local HD shop. first of all, they say they only come in chrome...i have a night train. but whatever, i need them, i get chrome. the girl rings up the total and it seems kinda high, so i ask about it. the bolts that mount the peg mounts to the bike... $11.50 A Bolt!! fricken ridiculous. i'm like, screw that, so i go to Ace to get the same bolt for much less. i find the right size, bring it home, for $1.50 each, and they don't fit in the mount. bring it back to Ace with the mount and the guy looks around for a bit and says they don't have it, the threads are goofy so only the HD bolts will fit!! are there no other options? do i have to spend $11.50 for a damn bolt??
Not to kick you while you're down, but H-D does make black rear peg mounts. I have them on my Bones. They are no different than any other, but they don't show up in "the book" for a Train, so the overpaid and under educated "parts guy" won't know to sell them to you. I did replace my peg mount bolts with hex head bolts from Ace Hardware because I didn't have a torx long enough to fit down in the mount. I guess you have a clueless "helpful hardware man" as well.
I went to Ace and bought chrome bolts for my Deuce with no problem. I think they were 3/8 16, not positive though. I also bought chrome button heads to fill the holes when I'm not running my passenger pegs.
there are no such thing as Harley specific threads.
might be a metric bolt on your HD. You have to find a nice old school hardware store that has every type of bolt.
I needed a mounting kit for my saddlebags. I got the HD kit for 39.95. I could see through the plastic bag it was just four bolts and four spacers. I went to Ace, paid about $10 for everything I needed and took the HD stuff back to the dealer for a refund.
I am a Machinist by trade, and there is no such thing as a HD specific thread. Most likely it is a Standard thread and the Ace hardware you went to just didnt have the right bolt to fit or it may be that the hole you are trying to put the bolt in may have trash in the threads if you can find out what size bolt it is (3/8 16 NC) for instance you can get that size tap and clean the threads up. If you have a Manual for your bike it will tell you the bolt size.
I inquired about passenger floorboards for my FatBoy and was told Chrome and $300+ was the only way to get them so I got a cheap aftermarket set. I wasn't really happy with them cause I kept banging my calves on them while backing up. Well, I'm casually talking to my favorite parts guy, and he says "too bad you don't like black, cause you can get them for like $125, and I looked at him and said how? He looked up all the parts, and it took a little while, as I remember none of the parts were in the catalog, they seemed to all be the "replacement" type parts. He knew most of the parts off the top of his head, the pans, rubbers, and the mounts were the only one he really needed to look up, and he double checked the numbers to make sure everything was right. Boy, was happy leaving the dealership that evening!
Oh, Check Ace Hardware for bolts, the larger ones have Chrome and Stainless Steel. Sometimes the Chrome only comes in course thread (at Ace) and not the fine thread and that might be your issue. The smaller Ace's seem to only carry the popular sizes to reduce inventory also.
You can always get a parts catalog for the stock part numbers. Gotta be cheaper that buy the chrome one that you don't want and ridiculously priced bolts.
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