With regards to the years- I asked that earlier in the thread and got a definitive “it doesn’t matter”.
Hunt around on the listings. I don’t know if that’s the exact posting I purchased, but some sellers offer free shipping AND free returns. In that case, it’s risk free. Bolt them on and see how you like it.
If you pull the trigger, upload some pics!
So, I decided to go with the factory offering for the Deluxe. It's a discontinued part, but still available at some Harley dealers. Had mine shipped to AZ from a New Mexico shop. I like that they are a nice tubing OD (i.e. not wimpy), but they are perhaps a bit on the squared off side. I'm sticking with them for now. It's part number49360-08
I did not get the saddlebag guards for saddlebags--although those could be an later addition. I wanted extra frame protection, rider protection, and good "handles" for picking the bike up, if necessary. This afternoon I carefully tipped the bike over to see what ended up resting on the ground, and found that the these new rear guards are not anywhere close to contacting the ground when the bike begins to rest on the front engine guard. In fact, in the rear, the bike is resting on the fishtails. I notice some of the other saddlebag guards pictured in this thread have the lower part of the tubing closer to the bottom of the bike. For example, JefferiesHD1's beautiful green machine has rear guards that come down just above the pipes. When you lean your bike over, will that rear guard contact the ground before the pipes?
UPDATE: I ordered these eBay saddlebag guards that are designed for the Heritage Springer in the hopes that they would provide protection for the fishtails: https://www.ebay.com/itm/222712393211
Those I asked were skeptical about any guard contacting the ground before the pipes, but guess what? They work! The front engine guard contacts the ground first, followed shortly by the rear saddlebag guard and the pipes don't contact the ground:
They fit the bike differently than the official HD "Softail Deluxe" saddlebag guards (now discontinued, as mentioned previously). The right side was pretty straightforward, with the upper part of the guard bolting directly to the fender bracket:
The lower right connection to the passenger foot peg hole (sorry--please excuse newbie parts descriptions) involves putting the bracket of the guard behind the hole and using a long enough foot peg bolt to pass through the guard and leave enough threads for a nylock nut:
The left side is where you can tell that this saddlebag guard set was not designed for the Deluxe. I first attached the upper guard "flange" directly to the fender rail, but this placed the lower connection point of the guard so far inboard of the passenger foot peg hole that the nut would have interfered with the stainless steel fender liner. I used the chrome spacer that came with the HD OE guard set between the new "springer" left side guard and the fender rail to bring the lower guard mount up against the back side of the foot peg hole. I would have preferred to have the upper guard flange flush with the fender rail, but, unless you are looking for it, it's not all that noticeable. I was also concerned that the approximately 1/2" offset to the left would be visible, but you can see in some of the pics below that it's not discernible to the naked eye. Here is the spacer at the top:
...which allows to lower mount of the guard to be up close to the rear of the foot peg mount. Note that the spacer, when used with the factory guards, is usually used on the lower right mount, where there is a lot more clearance from the rear fender. There's not a lot of room on the left side before one is running into the fender liner. Again, just like the right side, a longer foot peg bolt is used and a nylock nut secures the guard:
Here are a couple of pics that show the new shape of the "springer" saddlebag guards. You can look at my previous post to compare with the OE guards (which did NOT provide protection for the pipes).
06-27-2019, 01:56 PM
