Detachables. They sound great, and in many ways they are. For the first time buyer, the pros and cons are not always apparent when it comes to buying detachable accessories for your Harley Davidson motorcycle.
When considering the options for adding a passenger pillion, sissy bar and back rest to my Harley, a detachable sissy bar sounded like a great idea. After all, I was adding a sissy bar to my bike at
my girlfriend’s request, so a detachable sissy bar that could be removed when she wasn’t riding with me, which is most of the time, seemed like a practical choice, and worth the extra money.
As it turned out, even when my girlfriend wasn’t riding with me, the detachable sissy bar stayed on the bike. It proved to be a convenient way to bungee things to the back seat during my daily commute to work. Okay, so I spent a little extra money for a functionality that I only used when I washed and waxed my Harley. No big deal.
Like most Harley Davidson motorcycles, the bike begins to reflect the needs and personality of the rider. Mine is no different. One of the first accessories I wanted to put on my Harley was saddlebags. But not just any saddle bags. They needed to be hard mounted, and they needed to look a certain way. What I came to learn as I scoured the options in the Harley catalog, was that most of the hard mount saddlebags they offered didn’t work with my year bike if equipped with a bobtail fender or detachable sissy bar. The saddlebags that didn’t work, were the styles I wanted the most. Had I known this, I definitely would have reconsidered the detachable sissy bar option.
Lesson learned. As I created the list of other accessories that I hoped to embellish my bike with, I cross referenced each to make sure that they would work together, and I wouldn’t find myself in the same “I wish I had known” situation I found myself in with the detachable sissy bar.
Ultimately I did find an awesome set of hard mount saddle bags that were exactly what I was looking for from Boss Bags. They worked with my detachable sissy bar and provided plenty of storage.