Crash Bar Mount

[fbn ent]

Anyone had any luck correcting a slightly misshapen (enough to crack the paint) crash bar upper mount? Slipped in the mud at Sturgis and went down plop...no speed involved but bent the bar....now the upper mount is tweeked dammit. Nobody will ever see this thing but would rather clean it up and repaint it. Bad set up if you ask me....yes I know....this won't be a write off.

[Breeze]

My friend did the same thing. Bent the bars and ripped the tab. He pounded it flat, ground the gap open a little and had it welded.  That was 10 yrs. ago and he hasn't mentioned it since. Also hasn't been down since, so no testimonial to strength, of which there was none to begin with.

[smoserx1]

Had a rear one bend on me when my bike was 3 months old from a dog T-boning me.  Straightened it myself with a large Crescent wrench and maybe a pipe for leverage, can't remember.  I do remember reading someone saying that was considered a bent frame and I could have had the bike considered "totaled."  Sounds like BS as the frame was about $1700 then and labor maybe 10 hours at perhaps $70/hr in 1999?.  Dog owner's homeowners paid for the repairs, about $900 and I made a couple of hundred or so as I replaced the stuff myself.

[fbn ent]

My friend did the same thing. Bent the bars and ripped the tab. He pounded it flat, ground the gap open a little and had it welded.  That was 10 yrs. ago and he hasn't mentioned it since. Also hasn't been down since, so no testimonial to strength, of which there was none to begin with.

The mount is so light that the mount on the bar (backed by a welded on nut  ) can, and does, lever on the frame mount stretching/bending it. Just another poor design.

[koko3052]

Pound it back Randy, tig it & slap some paint on it.....you will need something else to do this winter besides shovel snow. Just around the corner!    Yes another piss poor design from moco.

[fbn ent]

Yeah Bill BUT...I need it this weekend. Road Glide you know. I'll figure something out for the interim. As for the Winter thing, I'll be riding in the desert. 

[Hossamania]

Depending on how it's bent, can you make a press using some bar stock and threaded rod with some nuts and washers to pull it back into shape?

[Coyote]

They are engine guards, not crash bars. 

How mine was repaired on the 2012 bike I bought from auction. This damage was what totaled the bike as insurance won't do the repair.

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[Coyote]

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[fbn ent]

Nice! All that with the fender on? Think I'll take mine off......

[Coyote]

He didn't need the fender off as it was damaged and to be replaced. For those that have been to Sacramento Harley, this guy was their head mechanic and a friend of mine. Monty did this for me in his home garage not too long before a wrong way driver took his life.

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[fbn ent]

 

[fleetmechanic]

On a couple of ours I bent it back and used JB weld on the separated end.  Neither one has recracked in several years.

[fbn ent]

Well...just worked around the fender and straightened it as much as I could. Couple coats of paint and it's ready to go. Again....cheap ass design that only drives Insurance rates up when the dealer condemns the frame  .

[Buglet]

  I don't think is is as much the dealer as the insurance company. I just had the insurance company call me on a bike to change the frame the guy said he hit a pot hole and nick the cross member. I have more bikes come in with bent cross members from driving over curbs or getting loaded on back of a truck or trailer worse then this one. I guess I have a frame to change.

[PoorUB]

Yep, my '05 and '10 Ultra's had been through ditches, down dirt farm roads, darned near high centered it a few times going off road but had the momentum up to slide it over the hump and keep going. If insurance was going to replace the frame every time one of them got a scratch on the underside of the frame they would spent more time in the shop then ridden! I remember meeting up with a bunch of guys and they got a kick out me rolling in with weeds and grass hanging off the underside on my Harley. Sorry, I bought it to ride!

I have seen a few totaled out sport bikes still ridden with nothing more than a scratch in the paint. Apparently insurance companies don't want to take the chance that there might be more wrong.