Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Crazy idea and question on foot pegs

I have the Triumph floorboards on my TBA and love them...most of the time. On really long rides, I'd like the option of moving my feet even farther back under me as a change of pace.

I've looked at a couple of options such as trying to modify some of Kuryakyn's clamp-on highway pegs and mount them to the frame behind the exhaust pipes. However, I got to wondering today if there's any way the foot pegs from a standard Bonneville or Thruxton could be mounted on the TBA? Not the shift/brake linkages, just the pegs. Any thoughts (other than "Hey dummy, it's a cruiser. Get used to it" )

You know that is not the craziest idea i've heard.

Having ridden sports bike for years, I still have a hard time getting used to my feet being way out in front, I have often thought how nice it would be to move my feet further back from time to time. But I have always said to myself, as you quote "its a crusier, get used to it".

Given the opportunity to have to have an alternative place to put my feet would suit me well.

Arsenalfan

I have been known to drop my passenger pegs and put my feet back on them as a short change for long trips. Careful though, I have cramped doing that once or twice. Couple things I noticed, I get a little engine heat for those cooler days and when caught in any light mist the legs stay dryer.

"I have been known to drop my passenger pegs and put my feet back on them as a short change for long trips"

Ditto

Yes, that works but I'm looking for pegs I can stand up on ;-)

I know just what you mean. when you see a bump coming it would be nice to be able to stand up a little and let the bike take the jounce instead of your spine.

Ironic you should mention that now. Roper and I have been discussing just such a thing. I think it's a good idea too. We'll get into high gear and let you know of our solution.

Sweet! Keep us posted!

Tod,

I think I've got the solution to dilemma. Here's what I did a couple of years ago.

The frame on our bikes has a place to bolt a center-stand onto. Triumph, for some reason, has never offered that option. So, I designed and constructed, using 3/8 inch steel, a bracket in the shape of a Z or an N actually that bolts to that opening and rests on the top of the frame. It's very secure. The other end has a 1/2 hole that holds a Harley(yeah, that's right...they make nice bikes and parts...no Harley bashing from me) 3 1/2in solid, chrome foot-peg extention with a female-end that a beautiful chrome Kuryakyn 3in wide foot-peg bolts into. The pegs end up coming out and located at the rear of the primary cover on the left side and about half way back on counter-shaft sprocket cover on the right side.

This arrangement allows me to stand up and stretch on long rides and is a great place to put your legs if you see a major-league bump headed your way.

And they look fantastic too.

Dwight
(I do such good work...if I do say so myself)

dwight...is there any chance of getting some pics of that??? i have always looked at that location as being the starting point hahahahaha

Check out these mid-controls for the America from Raask:
Raask Mid-controls for The America

I emailed Raask and asked the cost. They replied the distributor in the US was "Omar's Cafe". I emailed Omar for a quote. (pretty cool place)
Omar's Cafe/Raask Distributor

I'll post what Omar sends me. I'm interested in sitting upright if the cost isn't TOO high. Raask stuff is usually first place but pricey.

Hi, I noticed the really nice picture of the relocation kit on another post on this forum, and I was also interested, not so much for the riding position, as for the fact that the relocation would give another inch of ground clearance on each side (evil :-) At the risk of making this a lengthy reply, following is some email responses from the Gent at Raask about this kit. From the context of his reply, my questions are evident, so here goes:

Hi Michael, yes 20 mm up and 100 mm back or 1" up and 4" back.
Best regards, Sivert Raask.

Hi Michael, I think the pegs will fit you very good, hold your feet in the same position I gave you and find out.
Thanks, Sivert. (RS, I'm 5'10" and I was asking if I would get scrunched with this)

If anyone has the nerve to do this, I'd love to hear about the comfort factor, the install seems pretty easy. My biggest concern with this kit, is that now my mufflers would drag the concrete vice the pegs, and that seems like a somewhat precarious position to be in. Anyhoo:

I was thinking about a full set of running boards from a 67 Beetle...

But in all seriousness, IF it could be done, some type of sliding mount for a footpeg would be great, but the construction would have to be pretty stout for that, if the rider wanted to put his full weight on it to stand up when going over large bumps. It wouldn't do to have them buckle at 45 mph!! Another option, although it might mean losing some ground clearance, would be a peg mount bar like Küryakyn sells (see link), but modified to fit our bikes.

Dwight,

That sounds great! Pics please!

Todd

The Raask wouldn't slide and it you would probably lose the floorboard mount. Read a piece in this month's Motorcyclist. One of the editors describes the perfect bike as one you can stand up on the footpegs without holding onto the handlebars. Triumph already makes two of those, the standard Bonnie and the Tiger. I bet the Raask setup is out of my price range, but we'll see. Sort of like what HD did with the new Street Rod.

Newt,

If I knew what I was doin' with these new-fangled digital cameras and how to download, I'd post some pics.

Okay, that does it! I've got to learn how to download pics into websites!!!

And you'd be right about the starting point for this set-up. I originally was going to drill holes into the frame or try to find some kind of a clamp set-up, but this is absolutely by far the best solution.

Dwight
(and besides, I've already promised Ed(The Great Defender in the ongoing Wisconsin Salt Wars) that pics of my bikes would soon be forthcoming. Got to do it...Got to do it)

I coundn't possibly in good conscience order from a site like Omar's with such extremely annoying sound files embedded in each page.

Guess I need to upgrade my IE, I don't hear anything!

Dwight, if you do a search you might find some help downloading pics... you're not the first one to ask.

Oops, had the volume down. Heard a few than turned the volume back down! Reminded me "Omar" never replied to my request for pricing on the Raask controls, which aren't listed on his site....

Ya know guys, the more I read this thread, the more I believe that if I could learn to download pics and you guys saw the brackets that I built for my bike that simply attached to the missing center-stand holes and if I could make them in bulk, you guys wouldn't stop sending me money for them.

Dwight
(I'm tellin' you, all modesty aside, this is the perfect set-up/solution, and they're really not that hard to make)

Dwight, send me an email with the pics, I'll post them here.

Oh, and make me a set please ;-) I'd pay big money to solve this problem.

Todd,

That's a good idea!

My wife Judie says that she knows how to download pics to email them, so that just might work.

I'll get those downloaded within the next two days.

Dwight

Todd,

Okay. I've taken some pics of the pegs on the bike and removed the one on the left side and put a tape measure next to it to give you the idea. The right side is just the mirror image of the left one.

Now, do you want me to send the pics to your "homepage" address shown on your bio, or some other address?

Remember, you're not dealin' with a computer "Rhodes Scholar" here, so any help on sending these pics, would be greatly appreciated.

Dwight
(BTW...I'm also sending a couple of pics of my '70 Streettracker. Thought you might like to take a peek at it.)

Dwight!

You were right to think I would find out about you taking pictures! I have spyware on your computer that will tell me when you post them! (NOT!) But I am honored that you paid homage to the Wisconsin Winter Warriors! For this, you shall keep your head nave! I am looking forward to seeing these creative workmanships of yours.

ed

ed,

I'm glad you saw this note.

I've got to go to work now, but I'll also try sending you some of 'em tomorrow. Maybe you can post 'em for me if Todd doesn't.

Dwight

Send 'em to my homepage address and I'll post 'em up here 5 min. later.

Todd and ed,

Did ya get 'em? Did ya get 'em?
Huh? Huh?

Dwight

OK, at long last, here are the pics of Dwight's genius work on foot pegs. These are EXACTLY what I want so if anyone out there is willing and able to fab a set of these for me, I'm buying (hint: Dwight? Brent?)

















BTW, Dwight: What's the story on those hard bags?

Todd,

Those bags were manufactured by Buco in 1964, never used(N.O.S.) in the original carton, and I found them on an Ebay auction a little over a year ago. Won the auction with only a $94.00 bid, perhaps because it's final bid minutes were during the 3rd quarter of last years Superbowl. Bags such as those usually go on ebay for two to three times that. I also designed and built the triangulated aluminum brackets that hold 'em onto Bonnie's flanks.

I'm glad you agree that the footpeg bracket and the position on the bike is, in my view, the perfect place for them to be. They should have been painted black though(you can see the surface rust, can't ya), something which I never got around to doing.

Oh, as you can see they're 1/2 inch steel...not 3/8 as I earlier stated. Maybe over-engineered a bit, but better safe than sorry.

I think that if you'd plot this out on paper and take a scrap piece of 1/2in. steel, that you could get at a metal yard, and take those plans to your local machine shop, they could probably make them for you at a very reasonable price.

Oh, one more thing! Note that the upper inside of the horizontal section has a 45 degree groove ground into it. That's so the frame, which kind'a curves out, doesn't make the bracket angle down, and allows it to be perfectly vertical.

Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Dwight

excellent work Dwight!! Much better to over-design something than have it snap when you hit a bump going 70! Definitely hit it with some paint!! Do the pegs fold up nice? I would think I would be whacking my calfs on them leaving a stop or something.

Benny,

Thanks!
Yep, they fold up quite nicely and tuck out of the way completely. The left-side kind'a folds into a little niche right behind the primary-gear cover, the right-side flush with the counter-shaft sprocket cover. You are right though that when deployed in the down position, you do have them slightly touching the inside of your calfs at stoplights. I just place my feet out a few inches farther on the pavement, when they're down.

Dwight

Awesome street tracker! Whats the story on this beautiful machine? What that a '68 El Camino? Also looks very nice.

Could you give me the measurement lengths of the 3 pieces.
They look quite easy to make ,glad you told me about the 45 degree bevel .I have just been making a dummy set in wood to see exactly where the bolt holes needed to be.On the right side the bracket seems to go up inside the sprocket cover close to the chain.

The measurements I used were 2.5 inch,5.0 inch and 2.5 inch
one butt welded the other welded on the inside .,is the width 1 inch material????.
Look forward to hearing from you soon
Steve

Al,

Well the love of my life(okay, the mechanical one...not the living one, namely: wife) started out as a 1970 Bonneville T120. The guy that I bought it from in 1997 told me it was a basket-case that he had picked up around 1993 and he had wanted to make a dirttracker out of it. He had a couple of the guys at L.A.Triumph start working on it about 1996. At the time, L.A. Triumph had just recently opened for business selling the new to USA, Hinckley Triumphs, and as a side business was for a short time rebuilding old Meriden Triumphs. The ironic thing is that I watched the bike being reborn when I'd drop by the shop to have my '95 Sprint serviced. I would ask if the bike was for sell, but Bob and Adrian who were building it, would say, "Nope, sorry Dwight. this rich guy's having us build it for him. He's got us using the best of everything on this puppy. He must have at least 10-11 grand in it already."

I remember being there the day they finished it and rolled it out into the showroom. It was a thing of beauty! It kind'a broke my heart to know that this bike would be residing in some other guy's garage and not mine.

However, fate is a quirky thing.

A little over a year later, I was riding with the So.Cal Norton club on a run to see the Otis Chandler Car and Motorcycle Museum in Oxnard, Ca. I had just finished looking at one terrific collection of machinery and I walked outside to see a guy in a pickup with this very bike in the bed of the truck. He had a For Sell sign attached to it.

It turned out that he lived in a huge house in the Naples section of Long Beach with a canal boat dock attached to the back of the house. However this beautiful house only had a two-car garage. He had already in his garage the requisite Harley RoadKing, a beautiful old Ducati SS750, two dirtbikes and a humongous SUV of some kind. Ron(my ultimate benefactor) said that he had just bought a Jag XK8 for his wife and he needed room to park it, so he would reluctantly have to sell the triumph and the dirtbikes to make room for the Jag.

I think he took pity on me, for after I came back from a short evaluation ride, he could see that I was in love. He wanted 6 grand for it, but I had only 5 to spend. He said that he would sell it to me for the 5 because he said that he could trust me to take very good care of her.

Over the years I've changed a few things on her, must noticeably the front brake, the tail-section/seat, mirrors and some of the paint. Bob and Adrian did a great job on the engine as it's been a very reliable bike. But riding it is absolutely one of my great joys. It handles better than most modern bikes due to it weighing only 340lbs WET. That's about 40lbs lighter than a stock Bonnie of the same vintage. Many parts on it like the forks(Baders from a Bultaco) and rear hub(also Bultaco), aluminum and fibreglass shortened fenders make it a light and powerful(and torquey) wonder.

Dwight
(Sorry, this has run on for far too long. I'll tell you about the '69 El Camino another time, if you'd like)

Steve,

G'day mate!

Depending on what exhaust system that you have, I don't think 2 1/2 inches on the end that the peg attaches to is tall enough. I know on my stock Triumph Longs, that wouldn't be enough in height to clear over the pipes. But the other dimensions that you stated sound about right.
I think you'll see, looking at the pics with my hairy hand holding the tape measure, that you've just about got a handle(or footpeg...as the case may be) on it.

Cheers,
Dwight

Anyone that's interested in Dwight's brackets, please chime in for a quick headcount (interest only, no need to commit to buy anything). Dwight has agreed to let me pursue getting a few sets made up (some powdercoated black, some chrome) to see if there's any interest. I'll keep everyone posted.

Todd