First, let me say that this may not win any awards, but it is functional and comes right off after use. I wouldn't recommend it for highway speeds, but it will work fine for procession speeds. I'd recommend stowing the flags in a saddle bag, etc. when hitting the freeway.

I made this complete for under $30 with all parts from Home Depot and it took about 1 hour plus paint drying time.

Since there aren't any great large flag solutions for the Sportsters I decided to put something together. My next project will be to make a similar holder using metal and welding the parts using the quick connect sissy bar side plates. I think this will be a much stronger solution and can be powder coated and made to look alot better and function at higher speeds.

But if you want a quick solution, here's an idea:

Some of the basic parts I started with:


Trial fitting of the parts and checking to see if the paint will stick (and it does pretty well, but it will need touch ups from time to time).


Pieces put together, glued and painted.


Installed on the bike. Everything is in place excepted the final strapping to the sissy bar. I was originally thinking of wrapped hose clamps to ensure it won't move around, but I am thinking of some insulating rubber around the cross piece strapped with heavy duty zip ties on each side. This should keep it in place and keep it from rubbing too much with a rubber bumper of sorts between the sissy bar and the PVC pipe.


The collapsed paint roller that has been painted and I have installed the quick links with hose clamps. I then trimmed the hose clamps and painted everything flat black.


And finally, the final look. It is night so I don't have any better photos yet. I'm off to the races for the weekend and have a PGR KIA funeral on Monday, so I'll get some daylight photos of the whole thing and post them next week.


I hope that gives some idea of how I did it and at least inspires you to do your own project. Share any ideas you have and let's get this thing fine tuned to share with everyone.

The best part of this is that it comes off in about 30 seconds to be stowed when not in use.

Ride safe!

David

 

That's pretty clever. Better yet, it's low-rent (my favorite)!

 

Good job....and at a nice price.

 

Not bad at all - we'll call you "McGruber" for now...

Thanks for sharing.

 

Just be sure to check the planned procession speed. The Ride Captain should know that info. We sometimes get into fairly high speed processions. Other states don't do that. I dunno about TX.

 

Very good idea. I've been toying with something like that to put on my Streetglide passenger backrest. I'll try a version of yours.

 

Here's a shot with the final version in place.



This shot only shows 1 flag, but it has both flag poles installed. I used a piece of pipe insulation to wrap around the cross piece that rubs against my ssisy bar so it will cut down on rubbing the finish off my sissy bar and vibration. I zip tied it against the sissy bar with 4 criss-crossed zip ties.

I took a test run today and it seemed to hold up well at 50mph with the flag unfurlled. No separation in the pvc joints, etc. Tomorrow I'll be running it with 2 flags and hopefully no issues there as well. I will be keeping the flags secured with velcro ties until I can get 2 covers made for full protection.

I'll post an update after my first real world test with both flags.