Need Fender help / ideas

[weekendrider]

hotrrd,
I think tonyc is reffering to fenders with lotsa side skirt.
Think Indian Chief front end.
It would balance the bulk of the back.

 

[tonyc]

A valenced fender covers the side of your tire. Like your rear fender

 

[hotrdd]

Has anyone here ever built their own fender at home or do I need to find something close and start chopping it?

 

[hotrdd]

So I am re-thinking the rear fender on my bike and really like the look of the tight radius fenders that are on most of the hard tails, but since I'm keeping my softail I would need to configure this a little different to tie to the swing arm. BUT what I'm wondering is if the rear fender is bouncing up and down with the rear wheel how does that impact trying to carry luggage? Will changing the fender limit me trying to carry some weekend gear on the rear of the bike or are others still attaching gear to the fender and letting it bound around?

Something like post #4
http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170

 

[jamesgs4]

That is called a hugger fender, I believe, and you wouldn't want to carry any weight on it without some beefy vertical supports connected to the swingarm. also, the fender itself would need to be pretty thick, to be on the safe side. Notice the pie cuts travis used to tighten the radius, that's how you do it.

 

[hotrdd]

I'll need to think about this approach more because I definitely want to be able to take some gear with me for some longer trips.

 

[jamesgs4]

Well, with a set of fender struts on there you should be able to carry some gear. And as long as your fender isn't flimsy, you should be fine.
My bike has a removable luggage rack that I made out of 1/2" steel rod. It plugs into the end of my seat rails,and hangs on the garage wall when not being used. This way I get the fender I want, without having to beef it up or worry about it supporting weight.

 

[pahako]

hotrdd, what kind of seat is that, and how did you mount it? I am considering a similar setup with a solo seat and a luggage rack on the fender. That seat looks alot more comfy than most of the stuff I see on here.

 

[hotrdd]

Pahako – This isn’t exactly the seat I wanted personally because I’m not in love with the looks but I have to admit it’s comfortable. It’s actually an old Harley Fatboy seat that I just had cut down to a solo seat and recovered. It is just bolted to a metal seat pan underneath. Right now the seat pan is held on with some simple latches that I bought at the hardware store for a few bucks. Though this may change because of the way the battery box was enclosed and with this seat I am left with about 3”-4” inches of over hang on the side that I need to fill in. Right now I’m leaning towards some sort of toolbox or tool bags to fill that space and give me storage but that would mean moving the latches. I had someone cover the seat for me as I didn’t know anything about upholstery but in hindsight every time I’ve paid someone to work on this bike I have ended up paying too much money and ended up with something I didn’t like. Lessons learned.
*
When I do the luggage rack I’m going to try and design something that comes off quickly or something that might foldup onto the fender and not look ridiculous. I’ve decided to go with a custom fender with a better radius but am not mounting the fender to the swing arm. I’ll be leaving enough space for the shocks to compress. I wanted to leave the fender mounted securely so that if I decide to ride with a pack on it can rest on the fender and I don’t have to worry about the fender bouncing around. Do you have any luggage rack idea’s to share?
*
Which raises an interesting question? Should I radius the fender so that it looks perfect sitting in the garage, or with my body weight on it? If it’s with my weight on it I would need to move the whole fender up an inch or two????

 

[pahako]

My bike is stock right now, but if I can clean up the rear fender area, and put a solo seat on, I was thinking of putting something like this on the fender. I don't know how it will look on the stock fender though. http://www.jpcycles.com/product/7100220

I guess if it was me I would place the fender so it looked good when I'm off the bike looking at it. You'll never notice it when your on the bike.

 

[hotrdd]

I like the looks of that rack but also want something I can side mount some pelican cases to as well.

 

[hotrdd]

Next question - I have a fender that I am cutting up that has a better radius but the sides only come down about 2 inches, I need them to be about 6 inches to get the right radius look. How should I attach the extra metal?

1) butt weld it and then grind down the weld.
2) overlap it and weld, leaving me with an edge OR
3) overlap it, glue the overlap and then rivet?

What glue do you use to put metal together?

 

[jamesgs4]

indian fender?

 

[hotrdd]

Wow! Ilike it but that might be a little tough for me to do that tight bend in my shop. I assume there are some specials tools for this?

 

[jamesgs4]

post a pic of the fender you are working with

 

[hotrdd]

This is the fender that I am working with right now. I've cut it in half so that I can narrow it to about 7"and then I will shorten it a bit as well. The question is how should I go about adding more of the side "skirt"to the fender? My first thought was to just shape a new single piece and start welding it.

 

[hotrdd]

One of the other thoughts I had was to just overlap the metal, and spot weld some carriage bolt heads on top to give the fender a heavier "military" look. I might have to fab this up just to see what it looks like.

something like the bottom image but heavier, think steam engine...
http://www.woods-metal-shaping.com/metal-shaping/fenders/

http://steelguru.com/uploads/reports/image013-01-11-2009.jpg

 

[jamesgs4]

Ahh now I get it, I see you are going for the taildragger look.
if you overlap, you don't need glue, just weld it. the rivets will only be for show, so you could do them after it is all welded up.

 

[hotrdd]

If I don't do the rivets then I also won't overlap the metal. If I decide to not overlap should I just butt weld the metal together?

 

[hotrdd]

Have two questions but here is the first one. Not sure what the rear arms that hold the fender on the bike are called but how can I tell if they are "level"? My one thought was to put a level on the rear wheel and get that level first and then do the arms. Would that work?