Hey Folks,

Looking for some suggestions. I recently purchased my first bike. It's a 2005 Sportster 1200 Custom. The previous owner did a bobber conversion on it. As much as I like the look I need to put the rear fender and stock seat back on. It was fine when I test drove it, but after riding it for a bit the spring seat was just not feasible for me. I am bigger guy and that just wasn't enough seat for me for more than about about a half hour. The problem is that with the conversion the actual struts that mount the fender were cut off the back of the frame. I have everything else to mount the fender. nuts, bolts, strut covers, fender, seat, seat retention nut, etc.... My thoughts were to find a shop locally who could cut and weld struts on for me using the strut covers as a basic template. Does anyone else have any other suggestions? I would appreciate any tips or ideas that you guys might have. Thanks in advance.

Neal

 

Damn, that sucks. But yeah, as far as I know welding is your only option. Unfortunately it's gonna make a mess of your paint.

Maybe somebody else will come up with a better option.

 

Thanks Rich, Fortunately I have some chrome strut covers to cover the welds and the fender is still in raw steel. So the impact to paint shouldn't be too bad.

 

Unfortunately, that's the only thing you can do (try to find someone who will make new struts and weld them on...hopefully straight in alignment).

This is a pet peeve with me. Not people cutting off the struts, but selling a bike with cut struts to new riders who don't really understand the implications.

I always try to disuade new sportster riders from buying a bike with cut struts. Plenty of other non-hacked up bikes available.

However, if the buyer understands this, then...okay by me. But usually it is a buyer not familiar with Sportsters who buy these chopped up bikes.

Good luck. Let us know what you came up with for a solution so that other buyers can find out what they will need to do also!

 

That's kind of odd, before I went with a spring seat, I was riding my stock seat. This is with my cut fender struts and cut fender. As long as the tab on the back of the "triangle" wasn't cut off, that's where the seat tab mounts. The fender struts would only be needed if you require going 2-up.


I'll try to find some older pics with the OEM seat on.

 

I have chopped struts and have a mustang seat mounted to the stock location. I cant mount a 2-up seat, but any one person seat should fit if the stock mounting hole location was left on the fender. See my sig pic below.

 

Thanks everyone. I was pretty certain my only hope was custom struts that were welded on, but wanted to check with people who were more experienced. Probably something I should have done sooner. When I bought it the back had no rear fender at all. I do have a replacement fender to mount, along with all the hardware. My biggest beef is with the company that sold me a replacement strut that truly should have been sold as a "strut cover." I'll keep you up to date once I find someone to do the welding for me. Thanks again for all the info.

 

Hey, I'm new, I just joined because of reading this thread. I actually laid my '14 xl1200v down a few years ago and my stock fender struts were trashed. I wound up chopping them off and have been riding solo for a few years, but want a pillion pad and sissy bar again. I've found a welder I trust to weld the struts on that I'm making out of 5/16x 1.5" steel bar. I'm using my HD sissy bar assembly to get the width correct and help keep it straight for the weld. Hopefully I'll remember to post pictures here when I'm done. Awesome thread guys!

 

2013 bobbed as well.....still have struts, but everything rearward of that is missing. ..also wish to have some extended steel welded like you are thinking. Would like two up option on a fender. Please post pictures of what you have.... very curious!

 

I cut mine off. Never thought about replacing them but my old fella is a welder, he said keep them handy incase you ever wanna put them back on. He said wouldn't be too much trouble to weld them back on.

Hopefully you can find someone who can sort it for ya. Goodluck.