I've never done a "double rail" sissy bar before, but Dick Allen did.........
No time like the present - my take-off on Dick's bar design. Credit where credit is due.....
There's a reason why tall sissy bars went out of fashion, along with tall birdshooter pipes. See, the problem is that real tall sissy bars look cool, but they act like giant tuning forks, and the bar will usually crack right at the mounting point between bar and fender. Why not just go with thicker diameter material - say 5/8" bar vs. 1/2" you say - well, thicker diameter material actually accentuates the tuning fork effect on a high bar. Trust me on this. Also, you guys know you should be using cold rolled bar for this, not hot rolled, right? Stay out of Home Depot for your sissy bar material, OK? Hit the steel yard. You have a lot (literally) riding on your choice of materials!
Dick Allen's idea was to use a tall primary bar, of say 5/8"" dia. material, with a shorter secondary bar of say 1/2" dia. material (along with a rubber isolator sandwiched between, and connecting the two bars), to lessen the "tuning fork" vibes of the main bar when you rode solo, and to add some support to the main bar itself for passengers leaning on it, and for carrying heavy travel gear when you hit the road. Pretty smart, that Allen guy.......
Two awesome posts Rich, had no idea the keyboardist hoodoo continued so far with the Dead, almost Spinal Tap-ish and the sissybar/molecular physics/soundwave modulation transfer theory/explanation is wild, cheers mate.
ReplyDeleteLooking good. I'm sure you'll also remember that Randy Smith did the same style of double bars on his Hawg Wild Pan and Extreme Unction WR. I wonder who did it first?
ReplyDeleteChris, well, Randy and Dick were buddies, so who knows?
ReplyDeleteLike I've said on a previous post here, it looks like the DA double bar in the above photo wound up on the back of Randy's "Ilean" sidehack bike. You need to ask Joe H. if he knows.....
Nice work, Rich! I shy away from tall sissybars for the exact reason you eluded to - it is hard to design them to last. Your customer ended up with a cool bar, that will stand up in the real world. Thats why I love you!
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