After several months of searching for a viable highway/crash bar I was still undecided. The only thing I had seen on a motorcycle that I really liked was the setup on the Road King. I was goofing off on EBay one day and did a search on motorcycle accessories which led me to a set of Y2K Road King bars which I bid on and won for $125. I figured that if I could not make them work I could always resell them on EBay.
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by Tom Bishop
Instructions
Installing the bars
- I began the project by setting my Silverado atop the home made motorcycle stand I made with the aid of Tidy’s Tips site.
- I then fabbed a pair of mounting brackets which attached through the same holes as the floorboard brackets. I left about a inch and a half extra to mount the bar to. The material used was 2″ wide stainless bar stock.
- I “hung” the bars by drilling a hole through the top bracing above the rectifier and using a stainless attachments.A series of fender washers between the top bar mount and the frame allowed the bar to be rigid, have supportand avoid touching the motorcycle frame crossbars.
- After hanging the bars, I simply marked and drilled the two mounting holes in the brackets for the bar’s lower mounts.
A machine shop cut the arches I drew on the brackets (to better fit the highway bar) with a plasma cutter.Stainless is amazingly hard stuff!
Stainless bolts, washers and nuts were used in all applications.
Comments: The Yamaha Big Bars look good from the pictures I have seen on the forum and I did consider a pair of them. The Cobra bars I looked at were one dimensional and did not have the curve/flair look I wanted, the look the HD Road King has, Cobra’s cost more too.
Earlier, I had very good luck scoring a set of HD Heritage softail classic saddlebags off the internet and fabbed my own brackets for them. They turned out so good, that I thought I would do the HD highway bar as well. I am glad I did. I hope that these few pictures aid those who consider this mod. It is worth your time and effort.