Swingarm mounted fender... who's running one?

[VonFuct]

Okay, my bracket/inner fender support keeps breaking on me so I'm looking for ideas on doing things a bit better. Please excuse the booger welds, they were put on last time it broke to get me home and lasted about another 50-60 miles before they broke as well. What seems to be happening is the whole fender/sissy bar assembly tends to rotate forward bending the bracket down and eventually breaking it in two. So, any ideas or pics of how you've attached the front part of the rear fender to the swingarm?

 

[650Skull]

in this link. May have to Send a message to get some more details.
http://www.xs650.com/threads/rear-fender-question.46867/page-2#post-470358

 

[gggGary]

yeah the bracket is acting as a lever,folding the thin front edge of the fender, attach brackets to the legs of the swing arm so they are in line with the front of the fender instead of going way forward to the swingarm gusset area.

 

[fredintoon]

Okay, my bracket/inner fender support keeps breaking on me so I'm looking for ideas on doing things a bit better. Please excuse the booger welds, they were put on last time it broke to get me home and lasted about another 50-60 miles before they broke as well. What seems to be happening is the whole fender/sissy bar assembly tends to rotate forward bending the bracket down and eventually breaking it in two. So, any ideas or pics of how you've attached the front part of the rear fender to the swingarm?

Hi VonFuct,
forgot that the XS650 is also a paintshaker, didja?
Here's how I'd make that attachment bracket:-
Double up on the bracket's swingarm attachment bolt so there's another one on t'other side.
Make an L-shape bracket from 18 or 20 gage sheetmetal with each side beaten over into a mebbe 3/8" wide lip.
Bend the bracket when it's still flat. Once the angle is right beat the edges over. Best you torch them red to get them round the
bracket's main bend.
Make the bracket overlap the fender enough to bolt it on with 4 bolts in a square.
Each and every fastener to have a plain steel washer/flat rubber washer sandwich between each surface.
M5 or M6 bolts with Nylok nuts for the bracket to fender joint. M8 or M10 bolts & blue Loktite for the bracket to swingarm joint.
You didn't post a photo of the sissybar assembly but every fastener there should also have a rubber sandwich in it's joint and
you should add a triangulating strut each side to resist the rotation forces.

 

[VonFuct]

Well, here's what we came up with for now, rebuilt the bracket and boxed it in. Still wanna run an inner brace under the forward lip of the fender but ran outta time before work.