OK has anyone put side plates, a sissy bar & pad on a late model bike? I finished putting one on my Super Glide today and it took about 2 hours longer than it should...and HD's farking instruction sheets are getting worse!!

Putting the side plates on took ages - partly my fault as I've lowered it 2 inches and put a 180mm tyre on - I had to undo the shocks to get to the screws under the mudguard. Then neither side plate fitted neatly back on the bike. They are supposed to fit neatly under the chrome support trim and the instructions don't tell you to remove the two steel washers at the front of the guard, (which are glued on). If you leave them there your existing screws won't be long enough ... but again, nothing in the instructions about that...  not to mention you need two people to hold all the bits while you are screwing it back up, or the side plates can slide down the guard, scratching it.

Anyway, once the b*st*rd plates are on I find the sissy bar won't slide neatly into each side - the two plates are pointing inward as though they are forming a triangle - so I had to bend them outwards to make the sissy bar go in on each side, and it took a few hefty taps to push it into the side plates.

the whole time it felt like something was about to snap, bend or break and I'm thinking "should it really be this hard when I spent hundreds on this genuine HD sh*t, that's supposedly made exclusively for my bike..??!!!"

 

makes you think twice about installing these shiny bits yerself...maybe that's on purpose, to get you into the dealers    OK whinge over, feel better!!

did you buy the kit through a dealer in Oz, or from US. Believe that there is a different P/N for export bikes.... well there was one for FXDB and FXDBI.... and for the FXDB there is also a different kit if you have a 180 rear tyre (explained in parts book)

Was this detachable? I put the mounting/docking hardware - ie. the new screws that go into your back fender but have 'knobs' for the sideplates. I put the sideplates and sissy bar and pad all together off the bike...

Sounds like you had drama and if you only had HD instructions, life can be hella difficult!! They should list the tools required on their instructions too, but that would require a whole other page (Torx, hex, phillips, flats all required; in metric and imperial as well).

Yeah I hear that! I posted a couple of weeks or so ago about crap fitment of the Chinese made junk parts HD are using these days, along with their poor fitment instructions. I only use them as a guide anyway, and you gota read between the lines a bit most times. I too think they purposely leave the instructions a bit vague these days just to get the weak to have it all done at the dealer workshop.....

I had to bend the mounting tabs and open up the stud holes in the tab to fit a riders backrest mounting kit to the fender mount on my 09 Ultra....piss poor manufacturing I reckon.

In the positive I did find the kit and fitment instructions for the heavy duty TP hinges to replace the crap stock hinges to be good.

Nah, its not the detachable bar Mapleleaf. (jeez, I wouldn't want to be taking the bastard on and off all the time! )

Uncle Ho, yep did all my homework re correct parts for my FXDi thru internet research and Sydney & Canberra dealers. Of course in the end, genuine parts were a lot cheaper from the US, even with the postage, courtesy of our shekel being around 93 cents US when I bought the parts. I saved about $60 all up on the sideplates, the "mini" sissy bar and the little pad to go on it.

However, I was gracious enough to buy a $13 HD badge to go the back from my local stealer

...and now after all that trouble, my wife still won't get on the back!!!   where can I get one of those T shirts that says "if u can read this, the bitch fell off..."