Triumphrat

03cruiser · 07-28-2005

I've been wanting to put a backrest on my 03 Speedy but the $250 Triumph wants is a little steep for this Air Force SNCO. So last weekend I attended a "Motorcycle Swap Meet" here in south/central Illinois. On a side note, "Motorcycle Swap Meet" in my area means "Sell All Your Old Hardly Ableson Parts For Way Too Much". There wasn't on part in the whole place that didn't fall off an HD. Anyway, I did find a backrest in very good shape that came off an indeterminate yaer/model HD and decided to make it work for my Speedy. Luckily the one HD badge on the assembly was easily removed and quickly tossed back to the Wide-Eyed seller. The link below is to a picture in the albums of the backrest dry-fitted after mofification. If the link doesn't work, just search "03Cruiser" in the albums area and it should pop up. I am definitely open to comments/suggestions. The whole shebang will be gloss black to match the bike when I'm done. Any Comments???

http://www.triumphrat.net/albums/album843/ady.jpg

[ This message was edited by: 03cruiser on 2005-07-28 15:16 ]

ssjones · 07-28-2005

Nice job. Can you provide a close-up of how the supports bolt to the Triumph fender? If others can duplicate this setup, you just saved everyone a lot of coin. Your pad looks like it would be a lot more comfortable than the Triumph pad. Nice work!

03cruiser · 07-29-2005

No problem. The brackets were originally a 3-hole setup. I cut off the rearmost hole and drilled another hole to match the rear fender configuration. Then I had to bend/shape the brackets to work on my Speedy. Really it was very simple.
I painted the brackets a gloss black to match the bike and baked them in my oven (ceramic paint needs to be cooked for a while to strenghten it). I'm just waiting for it to cool down so I can See if I need another coat of paint. I'll post pictures in the Gallery of everything when I get it done.

03cruiser · 07-31-2005

The pics are in the Photo Submission area if you want to take a look. I think it looks pretty good. It will definitely be comfortable for my daughter when we go riding.