Joining Rear Fender and Sportster Seat

[D0wn5h1ft]

All my parts finally came in and I'm going to start getting this sportster seat fitted on my bike. I'll be posting pictures of my progress and looking for feedback/ideas on how I should tackle this.

Here's a picture of the bike unmodified with the seat just sitting there:



Obviously, there are some things that needs to happen to get this to jive properly. I love the way the seat and the tank lines up already. It has nice flowing lines right down the length of the bike. The seat actually sits more flush than it appears but there's the gas cap drain nubbin-thing at the back of the tank I have to chop off/shorten to get it to sit correctly without holding it in place.

Then there's the mess of a rear fender. I already have my virago xv920 fender in so the TDI box mount is no longer there:



The issue now is getting this hinge junk and stuff out of there:








I'll have to wait until I disassemble the rear fender to get a better idea of how it is all put together but it looks like I might be able to get away with not chopping the frame! If I can get rid of all of those brackets and nonsense I'll just join the chrome xv920 fender with the black, stock inner fender and leave it like that. While I'd prefer a fender that is all chrome, I don't think it will look that bad with the chrome meeting up with that black inner fender.

What do you guys think?

[D0wn5h1ft]

Swapped out the rear fender just now for the XV920 one and did a little temporary mock up. It's looking like I'm going to be stuck with shortening the frame to make this look good. I really didn't want to have to do it because I'd get to get the original seat mounts but it doesn't look finished with the fender way out there like this. Unless anyone has any ideas about what to do.

The good new is that the rails on the bottom of the seat roughly match up with where the frame is so some blocks cut and wrapped around the frame plus some super heavy duty velcro combine with a nice bolt through that mounting point on the back should keep it nice and snug on there.

Keep in mind, this is still without the lowering shocks I got for it.

[IanDMacDonald]

That seat looks great Gabe! Can't wait to see how the bike looks in my mirrors on the track . What is the bike next to your's?

[D0wn5h1ft]

That seat looks great Gabe! Can't wait to see how the bike looks in my mirrors on the track . What is the bike next to your's?

My roommate's '77 KZ400 cafe racer. I've been trying to help him get it running but it's been plagued with problems.

[IanDMacDonald]

Ahh. I have an '82 440 somewhere. Worst bike I've ever owned. Tell him to start with those old butt tires . . .

[D0wn5h1ft]

So, what do you think? Should I be shortening this frame? I don't think it looks very good as is...

[crazy steve]

I'd get a longer fender; Harley Sportster fenders aren't hard to find and relatively cheap, that way you wouldn't need to hack the frame. There's probably other, non-Harley fenders that would work too.

[D0wn5h1ft]

I'd get a longer fender; Harley Sportster fenders aren't hard to find and relatively cheap, that way you wouldn't need to hack the frame. There's probably other, non-Harley fenders that would work too.

I got to experimenting just now because I don't think I have the heart to cut her up. I think I might have found a compromise that wouldn't require me to modify the frame anymore:







I'll fab up a little bracket with spacer to mount the fender a little higher like I have it. It'll connect to where the passenger hand grabs normally mount there. What do you think, Steve?

on the topic of sportster fenders, though, I did find a really cheap one on ebay that might work out. Whether or not it would look good is another question:

[natemoen]

To make that setup look a bit better I think you would need to paint the fender the same color as the frame or else a good contrasting color for the frame.

[Schming]

Will the seat still cover the front edge of the fender if you move it to the rear one hole ?
That is, move the fender not the seat.

[crazy steve]

Both this bike....

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2205/...d2937579a3.jpg

and this bike...

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...829/IMG166.jpg

... are using stock Sportster rear fenders. The top one is a '94-03 version and it appears he used the Sportster fender struts/covers and welded the struts to the XS frame. The lower one appears to have the OEM frame modified. Both have been 'bobbed' shorter. The '82-93 Sportster fenders are nearly identical, mostly just the location of the mounting holes were moved.

Or you could get one of these aftermarket fenders...



... for something different. I got this one off eBay for $40 including shipping, but did have to do a fair amount of work to it as the stamping wasn't all that good. One upside is no mounting holes are drilled, so no filling unused ones.

These are almost the same width as the XS frame (within 1/8"); a bit of tweaking will be needed but not much.

[MaximPhil]

Hi Downshift,
I would raise the rear of the seat 1/2 to 3/4 inch ( which I think you already said) and bring the fender up at the front some if not all the way to the seat. Then add a reverse sweep of chromed metal to emulate the Sportster tail. May need to shim the number plate and light to be vertical.

No chance of picking up chicks with that seat though
Phil

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Gabe,

I like the XV920 fender, but I think all of that frame end and tangs and such will/looks ugly and detracts from the bling of the fender! Also the turn signals will look funny sticking way back there instead of tucked up just under the end of the seat near the shocks. The OEM frame sections were not designed for display, but to be mostly hidden UNDER the seat pan and grab rail.

I would cut the frame signal supports off and find something a bit more astheticly appealing as runners/rail to flank the fender from just behind the shocks rearward, as well as getting some other turn signals.

Good luck/work on getting it to look as good as you want/expect.

T.C.

[D0wn5h1ft]

So, I think I've made a decision after hearing some feedback. I'm going to keep the fender like it is in the last set of photos but I'm going to hack the old mounts in half and only leave what I need to mount the fender. From that I'm going to fab a mounting bracket for the fender.







Good thing I have some left over hot rolled bar stock to use!

[D0wn5h1ft]

Went to the campus machine shop with a bit of steel and fabbed up a couple of brackets to mount the rear fender with just like where the card board is in the last post. I have to go to MEPS so it probably won't be until Saturday till I get to mounting them and what not. I'll be sure to post pictures when I do!