Sissy bar question?

[JoshKeast]

Hey everyone, I recently bought this awesome badge and wings sissybar off of ebay. The description said it is off of an XS 650. I will be modifying the brackets to work on my 81 special. The question I have is:
Does anyone know the thread size for the mounting holes from the vertical bar to the brackets?
I had to buy the brackets from one guy and the bar from another so of course i'm missing bolts. I could take the whole thing into menards and just start tryin bolts but that doesn't sound very good lol.

[DGXSER]

Pictures go a long way in understanding what your asking about. But most likely, you will still need to take some measurements of the hole sizes, and if you can get how many threads per inch or mm, it would do alot to limit what you need to buy. Otherwise, it will probably end up being trial and error.

If the holes your asking about are on the bike, then a picture will help as to what holes your asking about.

[jetmechmarty]

I don't know how you're going to get a XS650 sissy bar on a XS1100. Having both bikes in the garage, I know the size of the seats and stock grab rails isn't even close.

IIRC, my XS11 luggage rack is held on by 8M 1.25 bolts. I don't work with metric hardware very often, so I could be grossly misremembering.

[JoshKeast]

The process for inserting pictures in this forum kinda sucks. I've never really even heard of photobucket or something like that. I'll try to get something going later on tonight for pictures. However the holes that I am talking about are not on the bike but on the sissy bar itself. The ends of the sissy bar slip into the stake pockets on the brackets, a bolt is then inserted through the stake pocket on the bracket and threaded into the upright on the sissy bar.

If I can't make it work I guess I'll have a sissy bar up for sale lol.

[fredintoon]

- - - If I can't make it work I guess I'll have a sissy bar up for sale lol.

>
Hi Josh,
nah! Go out and buy an XS650 for your in-town riding, you know you want to.

[Joab]

>
Hi Josh,
nah! Go out and buy an XS650 for your in-town riding, you know you want to.

I happen to have a very nice set of boxes full of disassembled XS2 for sale...

[JoshKeast]

Nah, it would take me about 30 seconds to ride around my town, and the nearest city is about 15 miles away, one motorcycle is enough for me. I don't know how some of you guys have 6-10 motorcycles, thats crazy.

[Jfries]

Nope that's passion.. I only have 1, but I have been looking for more for when this one is done.

[fredintoon]

Four at least

Nah, it would take me about 30 seconds to ride around my town, and the nearest city is about 15 miles away, one motorcycle is enough for me. I don't know how some of you guys have 6-10 motorcycles, thats crazy.

No Josh,
that's practical.
I'd say four bikes is the minimum for an average rider's needs.
1) A small dual-purpose with carrying capacity for trail riding and grocery shopping.
2) An XS11 for highway fun rides.
3) A real antique (at least pre WW2) for sunny Sundays
4) Something modern (much as we love them, a 30 year old XS11 cannot be said to be totally reliable) for taking off to the coast.
Then there's the specialist needs for scooters, sidecars and even trikes
and we haven't even discussed competition bikes.

[JoshKeast]

You guys are CRAZY!!! lol

Well I won't be needing to buy a 650 or sell my awesome sissy bar. It took about an hour of bending, straightening, drilling, cutting and polishing, but i made that 650 sissy bar fit and it looks GOOD on my bike. I ended up just retappping the original mount holes to 1/4-20 and putting some chrome bolts in. I took the brake light off of the original aluminum grab bar, made a new bracket, and mounted the brake light essentially in the same position it was in, it's just mounted to the fender now instead of the grab rail.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Once I get the bike road worthy and polished up, I'll take some pics and open a photo bucket account and get them posted on here.

[Nightengale]

You guys are CRAZY!!! lol

Well I won't be needing to buy a 650 or sell my awesome sissy bar. It took about an hour of bending, straightening, drilling, cutting and polishing, but i made that 650 sissy bar fit and it looks GOOD on my bike. I ended up just retappping the original mount holes to 1/4-20 and putting some chrome bolts in. I took the brake light off of the original aluminum grab bar, made a new bracket, and mounted the brake light essentially in the same position it was in, it's just mounted to the fender now instead of the grab rail.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Once I get the bike road worthy and polished up, I'll take some pics and open a photo bucket account and get them posted on here.

glad you worked it out for you, goes to show you a little hard work and the right tools you can accomplish anything

[skids]

Awe, sissy bars are for sissys! :-) I had one that was part of the speial seat but the PO had dumped that bike so many times that it was all worthless. Into the trash bin it went.