So after I made the driver backrest I was asked about a passenger backrest. They seem to run from $300 to $750, which is outright robbery in my book. Plus lots of designs won't work on my bike because of the mods I've made. So I set about making my own. I normally don't share projects that are still in progress, but I haven't decided which way I want to go with this one. I can make it a backrest only; I can make it a rear rack only; I can make it both; I can make it a trunk mount which would have a backrest on it; I could make any and all of those things interchange on the part I already built. Plus I'm bored and I figured you might be too.
Edit: normally I like to do these projects with only stuff laying around, but this time I dropped $28 on a 1 1/8” annular cutter, which is now one if my favorite tools.
First thing I did was turn some aluminum mounts to cover the hateful tapered bungs that the passenger grab handles used to mount to. These all had to be hand fitted to the bike because of the sloppy welding. The shiny area is 1.125" diameter by a spot over .250" wide, with a .125" lip.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr
And installed them on the bike. You can see how little room I have because of how tightly I have the bags mounted. There's even less room when the bags are on.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr
Then I made a bracket that slotted into those spools. This bracket took a long time, was built with an idea instead of a plan and almost zero measuring. There was some cleverness though. I made the whole thing from some scrap 1/4" steel a neighbor gave me that came off her exercise equipment under a recall. The front hook was welded on the bottom of the bar using fusion tig @200a, which was fun. The distance to the rear spool was critical and hard to measure, so I made the rear hook parts first then put them on the bike. Put a spot of superglue, then put the front hook and bar on and let them set. Then took the assembly off and tacked it in place, ground out the superglue and welded them solid. The rear cross bar is bent multiple directions in the heedraulic press and welded on to follow the curve of the seat. There was a lot of 'Well, it's only metal" and cutting apart to reweld differently. I ended up moving the crossbar back 2" and cutting the side bars to angle the rear crossbar down about 25*. I'm basing this on my considerable seating area, but I'm building this for the smaller bottomed and they're nowhere to be found so fitment is challenging.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr
In operation, you slip the front forks onto the front spools, then push the rear forks down onto the back spools.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr
So as usual my design criteria were to use (s)crap I had laying around, make zero mods to the actual bike, and make it easily removable/returnable to stock. I still need to add a latch to the rear hooks, and I'll probably weld some grab handles to it as well. As said above, I'm now trying to figure out whether to make this just a backrest, a rack, both, or a trunk mount. No hurry, so I'll cogitate on it for a while and check ebay to see what catches my eye for inspiration. As they say on the youtubes, like, comment and subscribe below.
Edit: normally I like to do these projects with only stuff laying around, but this time I dropped $28 on a 1 1/8” annular cutter, which is now one if my favorite tools.
First thing I did was turn some aluminum mounts to cover the hateful tapered bungs that the passenger grab handles used to mount to. These all had to be hand fitted to the bike because of the sloppy welding. The shiny area is 1.125" diameter by a spot over .250" wide, with a .125" lip.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on FlickrAnd installed them on the bike. You can see how little room I have because of how tightly I have the bags mounted. There's even less room when the bags are on.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on FlickrThen I made a bracket that slotted into those spools. This bracket took a long time, was built with an idea instead of a plan and almost zero measuring. There was some cleverness though. I made the whole thing from some scrap 1/4" steel a neighbor gave me that came off her exercise equipment under a recall. The front hook was welded on the bottom of the bar using fusion tig @200a, which was fun. The distance to the rear spool was critical and hard to measure, so I made the rear hook parts first then put them on the bike. Put a spot of superglue, then put the front hook and bar on and let them set. Then took the assembly off and tacked it in place, ground out the superglue and welded them solid. The rear cross bar is bent multiple directions in the heedraulic press and welded on to follow the curve of the seat. There was a lot of 'Well, it's only metal" and cutting apart to reweld differently. I ended up moving the crossbar back 2" and cutting the side bars to angle the rear crossbar down about 25*. I'm basing this on my considerable seating area, but I'm building this for the smaller bottomed and they're nowhere to be found so fitment is challenging.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on FlickrIn operation, you slip the front forks onto the front spools, then push the rear forks down onto the back spools.
Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on FlickrUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on FlickrUntitled by Uncle Grr!, on FlickrSo as usual my design criteria were to use (s)crap I had laying around, make zero mods to the actual bike, and make it easily removable/returnable to stock. I still need to add a latch to the rear hooks, and I'll probably weld some grab handles to it as well. As said above, I'm now trying to figure out whether to make this just a backrest, a rack, both, or a trunk mount. No hurry, so I'll cogitate on it for a while and check ebay to see what catches my eye for inspiration. As they say on the youtubes, like, comment and subscribe below.
