Harley Double!

Back in the days when I was still single, I used to ride solo all the time. I even bought a solo seat to show off the rear fender of my bike. But, after I got “hitched”, I no longer can do that anymore. I have a passenger now. Its my responsibility to make sure the passenger, i.e. my lovely wife, can ride safely and comfortably in the back of my bike. After putting it off for several weeks (actually months but who is counting…..), we finally went to a local motorcycle accessories shop and purchased the necessary parts for the backrest or what we call it a “Sissy Bar”.

You gotta handed to those folks at Harley Davidson. How those engineers at Harley came up with a thousand pages catalog for its motorcycle accessories is beyond me. First you have to locate the type of the bike your looking for in the catalog. Then, to purchase “one” product, somehow you need to need to buy 4 or 5 “components” in order to put together the “one” product you want. For example, for my sissy bar, you need the following components:



2 side plates (Left & Right),



sissy bar upright,






backrest pad,



and docking hardware.




Now, for a motorcycle mechanics, it might make perfect sense to them. But for a motorcycle accessories novice like me, I was confused as hell.

I decide I would like to install a detachable sissy bar. I figured when I ride solo (which I think will happen very rarely), I can simple take it off. Also, if it is not detachable, I would not be able to put the bike cover on my bike since the backrest is setting up high. So you need to pick one out of 10 side plates that’s available in the catalog for your bike correctly otherwise it wouldn’t work. Second, you need to pick up the upright correctly otherwise it would not fit the side plates you just picked up. It may ended up too wide or too narrow depending on the size of the rear wheel of your bike. Last but not least, this is my favorite part. You need a docking hardware! Why? How could anyone possibly put all those components on the bike without the nuts, bolts and screws? OH YES! Harley charges you extra for that! You’d imagine the parts you purchased comes with necessary hardware, just like when you purchase a TV stand from Targets it comes with nails and screws in the box. OH NO! You need to purchase them from Harley additionally. And, somehow they figured you already knew that. So if you did not order the docking hardware, you are “SCREWED”!

But, that’s no big deal. The docking hardware, which consists of 4 bolts, 4 spacers and 2 washers (as seen in the illustration above), is a steal for merely $24.95. Now if I were go to ACE or Lowe’s, I can get them for less than half of the price Harley charged me. And, the hardware from ACE would be chromed rather than galvanized like the ones I got from Harley! Believe me when I tell you, you’ll notice the differences when you see it.

The much anticipated 4 “components” I ordered finally arrived last Saturday. I went to the bike shop and picked them up. I figured I can do this on my own. How difficult can this be? 4 bolts go into the tail bone of my bike, slide in the side plates, insert the upright and screw the backrest pad in and “fini”! Can you imagine my surprise when I found that I can’t even take the screw on the rear fender out of my bike? But, not to worry. I got friends. My buddy Steve, who is good with the tools, came to the rescue.

Steve is a biker himself. He has installed (and removed) many accessories on and off his own bike. For him to install a sissy bar is piece of cake. When I called him for help, he replied, “Get your little butt over here and I can do it in no time.” He then went on and said “But hurry up because you are already 3 beers behind. You would want me to do this for you while I am still sober, wouldn’t’ you?”

So, I rushed over there, took out all the parts (including the screws from the docking hardware). And that’s when we realized: the screws from the docking hardware are way too long! Its at least 2 inches too long and the screws are touching the rear tires thru the fenders. Well, I guess I still need to make a trip to Lowe’s after all. Both Steve and I were cursing all the way to and back from Lowe’s. You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t the engineers at Harley measure the required lengths to install any accessories before they put them in the catalog? Can anyone please explain this to me because I am totally baffled?

Anyway the sissy bar came out fine at the end. Steve with his wisdom and aptitude with the tools figured out a way to put it on. To thank him for his assistance in this little project, which took approximately 4 hours, I took him out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. As to Mrs. Harley Howie, she is as happy as she’s ever been. We finally can take longer bike rides, not just to our neighborhood biker bars. On Sunday we took a trip to Delray Beach, FL, which is about 30 miles north from where we live. We stopped in a bar / restaurant in the downtown area for lunch. Ordered a few hot wings, French onion soup, fries and couple of cold draft beers. Ironically, the final check for our lunch came out less than the price of the Harley docking hardware.