Road Trip Season | Gearing Up With Drag Specialties, Windvest, and T-Bags
Junior and his Fat Bob with its new windscreen, luggage rack/sissybar, and travel bag are ready for a road trip.
Windvest’s windscreen is available in multiple heights and widths in either clear or smoke tint and comes with black or chrome mounting hardware and stainless steel hardware.
Drag Specialties has all your sissy bar needs from short to tall, narrow to wide, with varying types of sissy bar pads. Junior ordered the fixed side plates, short sissy bar, oversized pad, and luggage rack. Mounting hardware was included.
T-Bags has a vast line of motorcycle touring luggage, and the Expandable Bag with Top Roll and Top Net seemed to make the most sense in Junior’s mind. Its rugged construction and versatility were crucial in his decision to go with this setup.
1 To start the installation, Junior mounted the Windvest brackets to the 1-1/4-inch Fat Bob handlebar. The brackets mount on the outside of the risers.
2 Next, Junior test-fit the Windvest screen to where the brackets were mounted.
3 After deciding on a location, Junior installed the Windvest screen to the chrome mounting brackets…
4 …and adjusted the height and angle of the windshield before tightening down the hardware. Once he found his desired location, he tightened the two Allen bolts to the windshield and installation was complete.
5 Moving on to the sissy bar installation, Junior needed to loosen the fender strut covers and turn signals from the fender struts. The sissy bar side plates install in between the fender and the fender struts.
6 Junior started the installation by mounting the sissy bar pad to the short bar. Four button-head Allen bolts hold the pad in place. But first, the luggage rack needed to be installed before tightening the pad to the sissy bar.
7 The luggage rack was mounted underneath the backing plate of the sissy bar pad with the provided hardware. With the sissy bar/luggage rack setup installed, Junior moved on to mounting the side plates.
8 Junior installed the side plates one at a time and loosely tightened them down with the stock hardware. You may want to use some padded tape on the insides of the side plates to prevent them from scratching your fender.
9 Once both side plates were installed, the sissy bar/luggage rack was slipped into the slots in the side plates. The sissy bar was then tightened down to the side plates and the sideplates were then tightened down.
10 Junior wanted to see how well the Expandable Bag fit on the Drag sissy bar. The T-Bag has a mounting strap on the back of the bag that slips over the sissy bar. The bag mount has three zippered widths to fit variably sized sissy bar pads. Once he figured out the best width, Junior installed the T-Bags Expandable bag.
11 Junior liked how the Expandable Bag looked in its conventional position…
12 …but he wanted to see how it fit when flipped around, sitting on the passenger seat. He also installed the Top Roll and Top Net to gauge how well it would support his body when riding.
13 Junior also wanted to see how well the provided rain cover fit over the Expandable Bag and the Top Roll bag. Like a glove.
14 Junior said this is the way he’s going to go. Not only does the bag provide much-needed support on long hauls, it fits more gear than he needs. Overall, Junior is extremely pleased with his Fat Bob’s new components. He’s ready to hit the road.
Being that riding season is right around the corner, Junior Hoseman needed to gear up his ’11 Dyna Fat Bob with some essential items for making weekend trips more practical.
He perused the internet and several magazines for general ideas of what would make the most sense as far as being able to take gear with him without compromising the look of his stock Fat Bob. Junior didn’t want to go too drastic by adding hard saddlebags or a fairing of some sort. A simple, functional windshield and a good touring bag would suit him just fine.
Junior assumed that finding a windshield would be simple; however, since the Fat Bob has a beefier front tire and wide glide frontend, finding a screen to fit wasn’t as easy as he thought. He stumbled upon a Windvest 16-inch clear windshield ($390) that fit the Fat Bob without looking too cumbersome. Windvest manufactures quality windshields made from thick, scratch-resistant GE Plexiglass that mount to 1-inch and 1-1/4-inch handlebars with billet aluminum mounting brackets and stainless steel hardware. Windshield heights are available from 14 to 16 inches tall, and Windvest just released a shield that’s 16 inches tall and 16 inches wide ($447). Customers can choose from clear or smoke tint screens as well as chrome or black powdercoated hardware to match their specific handlebar setup.
Now that Junior was making some headway preventing those headwinds, he was also in the market for a good touring bag that could be easily removed and transported once he arrives at his destination, like a suitcase. T-Bags makes some of the most innovative motorcycle touring luggage and accessories that are user-friendly, large in capacity, and easy to transport. Junior liked the Expandable Bag with Top Roll and Top Net ($247.95) since it featured a large storing capacity and also included backpack straps for getting his gear from bike to camp, or hotel, or wherever he pleases. The Expandable measures 20 inches tall by 14 inches wide and 10 inches deep with a 2 cubic feet storage capacity when expanded. Its accompanying Top Roll allows another 0.5 cubic feet storage capacity and measures 14 inches wide by 10 inches deep. The two can be coupled together nicely via the Top Net for longer trips and storing more cargo. The Expandable bags are made from colorfast 1680d nylon and mount over variable-width sissy bars up to 14 inches wide, and luggage racks aren’t necessary. If Mother Nature decides to make an appearance, both bags can be covered with the supplied built-in rain cover that features a reflective strip for letting others know you’re there. The Expandable Bags were just what Junior needed for weekend trips; he just needed a way to mount them.
Drag Specialties has been making sissy bar setups since the company was founded. Junior knew Drag would have something that would suit his needs and sure enough, he was right. After looking through Drag’s Fatbook, he found a combination of items that were stylish and would fit the T-Bag well. He liked the rigid mounted sissy bar side plates ($94.95) since he’s planning on doing a lot of » traveling and didn’t need something detachable. To install into the side plates he didn’t want something too dramatically tall, so he decided on the square short bar ($79.95), which along with the side plates are constructed from 9/16-inch steel and chrome plated. A sissy bar pad was also needed so Junior went with an oversize pad ($104.95) with more meat for the T-Bag to hang onto. The large pad measures 9-1/2 inches tall by 8-1/2 inches wide and features a high-grade vinyl covering. Last but not least, Junior also wanted a luggage rack ($71.95) for a bit more peace of mind when hauling cargo. Drag’s rack is made from chrome-plated steel and works well with multiple Drag sissy bars.
Once Junior was geared up and ready to hit the road, he needed to install the new goods on his Fat Bob. Installation of the sissy bar setup, windshield, and T-Bag took roughly an hour in his home garage with basic handtools. HB
Source:
Drag Specialties
Contact your local dealer dragspecialties.com
T-Bags
(800) 957-6288 | t-bags.com
Windvest Motorcycle Products
(408) 377-7323 | windvest.com
