Added A Sissy Bar And Backrest To My Road King Classic

After taking my wife and my mother for a ride on the back of my 2009 Road King Classic on the 3rd of July, we all realized that two-up riding is fun.

For those of us who are in the drivers seat - me - it's more fun.

For those of us who are trying to stay on the passenger pillion without slipping off the back - my mother, wife and anyone else who happened to jump on - it's not as much fun so much as a terrifying.

I'd imagine that slipping off the back of a motorcycle that's going about 40-50 miles per hour would be very bad.

So the consensus is that passengers would feel much more secure riding if they either had something to hold onto, or if they had some kind of backrest that would keep them from flying off the back of the bike when it got moving. I, on the other hand, did not want to have something permanently bolted to my bike. I like the looks of the solo seat too much.

To that end, the wife and I drove over to Dillon Harley here in Omaha to see what we could buy to address the problem satisfactorily.

After talking with Dan Von Seggern at the Dillon Brothers Harley parts counter and explaining to him what we needed, Dan pointed us to part numbers 52627-09 and 52886-98c.

52627-09 is a Harley-Davidson brand detachable, standard-sized sissy bar that fits Harley's touring motorcycles, such as my 2009 Road King Classic.

52886-98c is a Harley-Davidson brand smooth passenger backrest pad that conveniently comes with the hardware required to bolt onto the detachable sissy bar mentioned above.

If you order the 52886-98c smooth passenger backrest pad from here, be aware that it will not look like the picture shown on Amazon. It will look like it does in the pictures shown below:

Once I put together the detachable sissy bar and passenger backrest combo, a process which took all of 5 minutes with an appropriately-sized allen wrench, I took it outside to my bike and put it on.

Fortunately, when I ordered my bike, I had them put on the Harley-Davidson 4-Point Docking Hardware Kit - which is part number 54205-09, for your convenience should you decide to order it for yourself.

I would highly recommend getting that kit when you order your bike, however, as it makes attaching and detaching hardware designed for it incredibly easy, even if you have no actual mechanical aptitude yourself.

Here are pictures of the end result:

The seating for the passenger was now, according to my wife and my mother, comfortable.

Even babies like it.

Since the whole setup is designed for the passenger on your motorcycle to keep their balance and not feel like they're going to fall off every time you accelerate off a green light, I put it to the test with my mother, who volunteered to be a crash test dummy.

After taking mom for a quick spin around the block, she pronounced the new passenger seating to be "just about perfect," with the only thing missing being a cupholder of some kind.

The cupholder thing will not happen. She will have to deal.

Here's the mileage of the ride we took, before and after:

If you decide to buy this setup for your own bike, take care to pay attention to the installation instructions. You connect the black front brackets on the sissy bar to the black bracket holders located to the immediate inside position of your rear shocks. Once you locate these (picture/other side), which can be a bit difficult if you haven't had your saddlebags off, installation is a snap.

Taking it all off takes less than 2 minutes. Putting it all on takes less than 4.

Overall, I would say that the detachable sissy bar and passenger backrest combo is a worthwhile purchase for anyone with a Road King or Road King Classic that plans on taking anyone for a ride.

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My First Ride To Work

Rode into work on Saturday.

I'd already ridden for about an hour that morning.

I made a quick stop to check out the new Dillon Yamaha/Honda/Suzuki/Kawasaki dealership that opened up today right next to the Dillon Brothers Harley-Davidson dealership.

I quickly realized a few things:

• Don't let your shirt hang open while you ride. Button it up. Sucks at highway speeds to have your shirt blowing around.
• Secure saddlebags before you go.
• I need the Detachable Solo Luggage Rack ASAP.
• If you have the Harley Profile Sunglasses/Goggles, don't forget to bring the case containing the clear lenses for the ride home at 11 at night.

Great ride home. Lots of fun. I went the long way, via surface streets and took my time.

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A 2009 Road King Classic Is Now Mine

I couldn't sleep very well Thursday night, knowing that at noon, I'd be taking possession of my brand-new 2009 Road King Classic.

So, it wasn't quite Christmas eve, but as the long hours stretched out it sure felt like it was.

I finally got some sleep, only to find myself waking up at dawn. I looked at the clock and immediately found myself thinking back to the past yearly ritual of enduring the last day of school and how it felt to watch the clock slowly mark out the passage of time. I told myself that I'd better find something to do or I'd drive myself nuts.

For a while I kept myself busy by working on a few projects and got a few things done.

I remembered that I needed to shop for some motorcycle insurance, so I looked on the Internet for some of the more-recommended motorcycle insurance companies. I called GEICO and after talking with the insurance agent for a while, signed up for motorcycle insurance through GEICO for $736 a year, which would drop to about $360 for renewal next year. I was told the amount would drop once I got a year of riding under my belt.

At the time, I didn't care about what anything cost. I just wanted to get everything done and make sure that I had no hitches when it came time to pick up the motorcycle. I was pretty much the perfect customer for anyone selling...anything.

Well, after wasting time doing this and that, the time finally came for me to head over to the dealership to finish everything. My wife dropped me off, and after making sure that I'd be OK, that the bike was OK, that everything was fine - she took the kids and headed home.

Jason Davis, using one of the 2009 Road King Classics on the floor, went over the entire bike with me, explaining each feature on the motorcycle and some general maintenance tips that'd come in handy. The guy knows his stuff and had an answer for every question I had.

Once I was in the finance office with Mark, everything went smoothly. Mark even managed to save me a bit of money. I mentioned what my insurance cost was and Mark let me know that I could save some money with a 15 minute phone call to their own insurance group. He dialed, I talked, and 15 minutes later I had a policy that was half the price as what I'd paid GEICO.

5 minutes later, I cancelled my GEICO coverage. They were nice about it, although it'll take 10-15 days to get that premium back onto my credit card.

I wrote my check, signed my name and shook everyone's hand as they handed me the keys to my new baby, who I will call, "Wheelface."

After Jason loaded 3 huge boxes of parts into my parent's Highlander, I climbed onto my new ride and took off for a little ride before heading home and showing it off to everyone. My two boys both wanted a picture with the new motorcycle as well.

Buying A Motorcycle In Omaha?

If you're in the market for a new or used Harley-Davidson or Buell, I highly recommend you give Jason Davis a call, or shoot him an e-mail. Jason kept me in the loop throughout the entire Harley-buying process, explained things to my satisfaction and helped get the ball rolling again when it had stopped briefly in the service department.

If you stop into Dillon Harley sometime, let whoever you talk to know you read about my experiences with Jason Davis and with Dillon Brothers Harley-Davidson in general.

Let me know what they say.

I'm off to ride.
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