Boxing Day fun times

Nice Boxing Day afternoon in the shed. Spent a long time figuring things out as usual and my first attempt was a waste of time. Was thinking of trying to make the sissy bar out of one long piece that bent right over the rear fender, but after messing about heating up bar with a gas torch and bending it round stuff I think I was being a bit over ambitious and decided to stick with 'keep it simple'.

I decided that simple was one strut either side using the existing mounts on the fender. So I started by cutting two bars the same length and bending them both a bit at a time in the vice. I put some heat in them with the propane first to soften them up a bit.

Then I turned up some big washers on the lathe.

Then there was the usual amount of looking and sharpie marking before I cut the bars to length and filed down the edges so the profile reduced to match the washers.

Didn't get as far as welding, and I only did one side, but you didn't expect me to get it all done did you?!