Indian Larry Sissy Bar for a Beach Cruiser.

This is how I made a custom sissy bar for my beach cruiser. The cruisers design left the mudguard very flexible and there was no place for a rear light.

I used aluminium curtain rail to make the sissy bar. Its cheap easy to work and is strong enough to do the job.

I made the Indian Larry question mark last year as a practice piece when I got the fret saw, I added it to the sissy bar as I am a fan of Indian Larry's custom choppers. I also goes with the Indian Larry jacket I airbrushed.

The question mark is also sort of to do with my profile name, for those that don't no its based on a Bill Baily joke about the Dr Who theme sounding like Belgian jazz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nwbY_vikLw

Thanks for looking and I hope you liked my idea.

Step 1: Design and Materials.

I bought the bike about 2 months ago and am now getting round to doing some custom work on it.  I was looking for a classic town style bike but when I saw this just had to have it, nearest thing to a motorcycle I'm likely to own now.  I plan to do an electric pedal assist project on this bike when the parts show up at the right price.

For the sissy bar I used aluminium curtain rail, it comes in a large roll and is sold by the meter and is very cheap easy to work and yet strong enough to do the job.

I used part of a front reflector to make the clip for the rear light.

The Indian Larry question mark was made from 10mm plastic its some kind of polypropylene I think I got cuttings from a plastic fabricator.  I was made as a practice piece when i got my fret was and has been sitting around since so i decided to use it.

Tools used:

Saw
Hammer
drill
pop rivet gun
file or sander.

Step 2: Bending the Bar.

I straightened out about 1.5 meters of the rail and at the center point i bent it round a 4" pipe to get a long U shape.

As this is a custom job the ruler only came out to make sure the holes where symmetrically spaced.  All lengths where marked by eye and then transferred by ruler to the opposing side.

Bending the rail along the wide side is tricky and has a tenancy to try and twist. if this happens tap it flat again with a hammer on a flat surface and then continue. to make the bend i held the rail in a vice and just used hand force. I did not need to make a very sharp angle so mine turned out reasonably easy to do.

I checked the bar on the bike to make sure I was happy with the angle and once it was all correct i drilled holes at the apex of the bend to take a cross stay to attach the mudguard and strengthen the sissy bar.

Step 3: The Stays

To make the stays I flatten to strips of aluminium rail and drilled and shaped the ends, to bend the right angles i held the strip in the jaws of a 3" vice and once in the right position i used a small hammer to bend the aluminium, use very light taps as the aluminium bends very easy and is also marked very easily too.

I pop riveted the bottom stay on first and then bid some final tweaking of the top curve before i marked out the holes for the top stay.

Once the bottom stay was in place I as able to mark where to cut the sissy bar to length and where to drill the hole in the mudguard.

Step 4: The Light Bracket

I wanted to be able to use my ancient old LED rear light.

I used the back of a reflector as a clip, my led light fitted nice and securely into it.  I used the band saw to cut away the unwanted bits and then sanded and drilled the clip before riveting it to the light bracket.

The bracket was folder from the aluminium rail again, all done by eye to suite the light and decoration.

Once the light bracket was riveted in place I added the question mark with a 3mm bolt. I may change this to a black bolt if i can find one or a may just use a longer rivet and paint the head black.

Step 5: Fitting.

Once the sissy bar was complete I used wire wool to shine up the finish and remove any small marks from the surface.

First i found the position i was happy with on the bike and then marked the mudguard and drilled the hole.  I used 3 x 3mm washers between the stay and the mudguard this should help stop the stay from rubbing the paint of the mudguard.

Once the sissy bar was riveted to the mudguard I lined up the ends of the bar to the frame and marked and drilled the hole for the first side. once it was in place i measured the distance from the leg to the end of the frame tube and then transferred the measurement to the other side before I drilled and riveted it.

Once fitted it will need some tweaking of the angles to get it to sit nice and symmetrically.


Thanks for looking and I hope you liked my idea.