Motorcycle Seat and Sissy Bar Installation – Lifestyle Cycles
Sometimes when you’re going out for a ride, it’s you plus one. For those trips, it’s worth installing a set of pegs and a seat-hell, even a sissy bar to keep her on the bike as you cruise the highways. We know everybody has good cause to double up at least every now and then, which is why we decided to make our long-term test bike, the American IronHorse Legend, comfortable for a passenger. We headed over to Lifestyle Cycles, located in Anaheim, CA, to add a second set of footpegs, a pillion seat, and a tall sissy bar to our Legend. When ordering parts for your bike, take into consideration tire size, desired sissy-bar height, and the style of pegs you’d like.
Service tech Anthony Walton started with the sissy bar. We are using the Tall “A” package, which comes with the bar, two fender mounts, the bolts, and a set of templates. Make sure you use the right template for the model of motorcycle you have. Some packages come with two sets that will work on a different bike, such as the Tejas, Slammer, or Outlaw.
Before the mounting brackets were installed, Anthony ran a tap through the threads to make sure they were clean.
Last was the passenger seat pad. The pad has four suction-cup pads to hold on to the fender and not scratch the paint; make sure the pads and fender are clean before placing the pad on the fender. There are two different sizes to pick from: a small, thin pad or a thick tour-style pad. In this photo we used the thicker pad and found it to be too tall for the look we were after, so in the end we went with the thinner pad.
Next, we installed a set of pegs. You will also need to get a set of clevis to mount to the frame (part No. AME11003606; MSRP: $60).
Anthony placed the peg into the clevis with one flat washer and one presser washer; this will help keep the peg in an upright position when not in use.
With the bar in place, it was time to focus our attention on the back pad. This pad has a formed bracket that fits to the bar and the back of the pad with two 1/4-20 fasteners and two flat washers. Anthony placed the pad on the front and the brackets along the back until it fit with the bar. He then installed the hardware with a little thread locker.
Then the 3/8-inch bolt was installed with blue thread locker through the inside of the frame to the clevis and torqued to 60
The thin pad fit the tall bar better and is the same price as the touring pad (MSRP: $130).