vulcan rigid bar

[ATXzombie]

does anyone make theese besides west eagle? if you can find em they are 160 bucks

[SeaChicken]

you can make some with steel bar from the hardware store.

[dirtbag]

you can make some with steel bar from the hardware store.

eerrr, can buy erw or dom tube from steel crop stores and tubeing suppliers about as easy as plumbing pipe...

[SeaChicken]

eerrr, can buy erw or dom tube from steel crop stores and tubeing suppliers about as easy as plumbing pipe...

SocialMisfit has been running his for a while with a couple 1/4 or 3/8 steel bars with some spacers measured to lower the rear 3 inches and to my knowledge he hasn't had any problems. If you use the right thickness and your not stupid about the way you fab the thing you should be fine.

[dirtbag]

SocialMisfit has been running his for a while with a couple 1/4 or 3/8 steel bars with some spacers measured to lower the rear 3 inches and to my knowledge he hasn't had any problems. If you use the right thickness and your not stupid about the way you fab the thing you should be fine.

your talking about struts,sorry for the misinfo ,thought it was handlebars,160 for struts eeiiiii,yea make some from 1/4 or 3/8 flatbar for $5,you should be good even if your stupid...

[SeaChicken]

Its ok man. I meant struts but I was tired and just couldn't get the right word out.

[davidabl]

I've been considering doing this for awhile now, but i'd like to know what it does for the handling for better or for
worse. Obviously, rider comfort takes a big hit, but if doing it makes it feel like you're going faster at a given speed
it's good. If the handling improves without all the wallowing in the bike's rear it's very good.

[Jasonisdico]

Handling improve with struts? Lol. That's funny.

You would have no rear suspension to absorb road bumps and dips while in a turn, so your rear tire skips on the road. The energy that your shocks normally absorbed is now transferred directly up into your spine. It's nothing like a full hardtail(different geometry). And since the bike will be lower with struts, you can't corner as sharp without scraping and you drag over speed bumps.

All that being said, I ran struts for a year before hardtailing my Intruder.

[davidabl]

Right, I'd rather have a much stiffer shock back there to get rebound damping w/o wallowing-but that's $$. About $500 for a Hagon or Progressive.
If I went w/ the strut I'd raise my floorboards to compensate so I shouldn't scrape anymore than with stock.

[davidabl]

Seems to me that after you hardtailed your intruder the geometry would have been more or less like the Vulcan's
with a strut?

[SoNorthCustoms]

I just made some out of flat stock on my Vulcan about 8 yrs ago. Rode it that way for quite a while with no issues besides grinding the bottom of the pipes off on right corners. Looked cool at night with a spray of sparks though hahaha.

[IMG][/IMG]

[irish6x]

So back to the original question - the West Eagle rigid bar - anyone know the dimensions eye to eye? Not solid struts, the solid bar to replace the softail suspension for VN800...

[easyspeed]

If this is for a mono shock swing arm vs. a dual shock swing arm than I'd rather see it done with tubing. I wouldn't trust anything less than 1/2" plate if using anything plate, strap, or sheet metal.

Anyone taken the time to take a closer look? Jack up your bike and take the shock off? Measure what you would want i to i? Shouldn't be to hard to make one, but you would have to make some measurements and know the hardware sizes etc.

Also take into consideration that if you do lower it a few inches than you may have to lower your forks and maybe change your kickstand.

[Jasonisdico]

I know the geometry of a bike with struts SEEMS the same as a full hardtail bike, but it's not. Shocks are in place to absorb impact. When you replace them with something solid, that impact is trasferred directly to the bike, and to your back. When you hardtail a bike, that energy is dispersed through the whole frame. It is not designed to allow movement.