Rear seat w/o grab bar

[mother]

Is there a way to keep the rear seat on the bike but get rid of the grab bar?

[biz]

yes. just take the seat off and unbolt the grab bar.

[james4396]

Mom ... don't forget to put the bolts back in.

[mother]

but then the seat is all flippty floppity

[racinteach]

I make a little bracket that bolts in there to hold the seat down..

[Dante]

Check out the hardware that comes with one of the "solo" seat covers (usually painted to match). There are some on eBay atm I'm sure... Basically, a notched strip of metal about 1" wide that runs from side to side, even comes with notches to fill in the gaps on the sides where the pillion handle comes out from under the seat.

Might we ask... why do you want to pull the handle off? I find it quite useful -- something sturdy to grab hold of on the back of the bike when I'm putting it up on the rearstand and need to stand it straight up.

[mother]

no real reson, just like the way it looks without the grab bar better

[enos79]

It really helps if you have the solo tail, then you can swap back and forth between the seat and tail with using the pillion handle on either one.

[racinteach]

nice to have the handle when putting the bike up on stands by yourself...otherwise you have to grab the body work and hope it ain't freshly waxed..

[mother]

What are some options for the solo seat?

[LowSpdWobble]

i have the rear seat without the grad handle...at some point my bike had a seat cowl and it got lost...but i still have the side plug thingies. I like the way it looks, but there are times that i wish i had a grab handle...and i'm sure passengers appreciate the handle as well.

[spasonatwin]

You can cut the grab bar (or score an extra on the cheap from someone who's done the solo cowl thing) down flush, and either polish or paint the ends: You just need a dremel and a little bit of patience. If ya wanna see a picture, just lemmie know. I painted my '03 black, and I think the cut/polished looks pretty damn spiffy. :D

[Dante]

You cut the handle? Damn, your dremel must be tired! Can you post a pic, I'd like to see it. That metal is pretty damn thick. When I went down, my handle was bent straight up (bent the damn bolts that secure it to the subframe). That handle is pretty stout.

[slick]

do they make special spacers or plugs for where the grab bar is removed to fill in the gaps?

[mother]

the suzuki seat cowl i have has spacers (color matched too) and you can go back and forth super easy from rear seat to seat cowl

[LowSpdWobble]

i have an extra set of spacers that come with the seat cowl. It's silver though =/

[Punkbrad]

see the circle, they cover the hole left when you remove the grab bar, abd fill in with the color matched paint. it allows for the pillion seat or the cowl to be used like normal.

[spasonatwin]

Not the best pic, but I can't find the rest.

Just an example of a cut, sanded, and lightly polished grab bar. Nice thing about polishing it, I might add, is that it doesn't matter what color the bar -was-, and that it fits with the black quite nicely.