Two Wheeled Tales: The Flags Return to the Bike!

My Electra Glide had an aftermarket receiver system which bolted to the frame, and allowed me to fly two large (3' x 5') flags for runs and such. When I switched to the Street Glide, I was out of luck. Nobody made an aftermarket setup for flying large flags. So, each year I'd kick around ideas, as well as look on-line for anything that would allow me to fly flags again. And I kept coming up empty.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. A friend of mine forwarded me a run flyer and said "See you there!". I looked at the flyer...what the...its staging at our Post...on Sunday morning?!?!? How come I haven't heard anything about this? So I reached out the Post leadership and guess what? Nobody knew anything about it!!

Oh boy...

What was the run? It's a rolling rally for our National Anthem, in response to all the bullshit that's been going on with NFL players and their protesting. The event is asking for bikes, cars, trucks - all heavily adorned with American flags, to come join us. The ride will leave our Post, ride past Gillette Stadium, then return to the Post. It's being organized by a Boston PD officer, and co-supported by the Boston chapter of the American Infidels. Come to find out they've been doing press releases on this, they've got a local country star singing the Anthem, they were working on having a radio station broadcast from there....yeah; this thing was gonna be big.

So what happened? How come we didn't know about it? Well, long story short, it turns out they had cleared it with our bar manager, but she'd neglected to pass the word along to anyone else. Egads. Can you imagine the bad impression it would have given everyone if they'd arrived tomorrow morning to find an empty and locked Post?!?

So after a flurry of emails and phone calls to get everyone on board (as well as get an off-cycle delivery from our distributor so that we're stocked up!), it looks like we are good to go. Post will be open early, staffed to help anyone that needs it, parking lot and yard have been cleaned up, along with a myriad of other logistics - all set to go. In fact, we even went above all of that; we're gonna throw a cookout for everyone, afterward.

The organizers are aware that they caught us with our pants down (thanks to our bar manager!), but they're more than impressed with how quickly we've gotten everyone on deck and are throwing the welcome mat out for them.

Ok Dave, this is all well and good, but what does it have to do with the title? Something about flags returning to your bike?

Oh yeah! Thanks for reminding me. Well ya see, after all the crazy running around yesterday and this morning, I was like "Dammit...I GOTTA figure something out so I can fly the Flag!!"

And then it hit me...I could use parts of the receiver setup that was on my Electra Glide...

and mount them to one of the detachable back racks...

All I'd need to make it secure was some steel underneath to bolt to. Hmm...this could actually work!

A quick trip to my local Home Cheapo and I had some flat stock in-hand. It was go-time!

Some measurements, a mark to cut on...

Let's see...where did I leave that hydraulic cutting shear...
Oh, here it is...

Yep; that shear sure makes short, easy work of cutting steel....

It was when I was drilling out the holes that I discovered that not only did I not have a drill bit that was big enough, I didn't have a drill with a big enough chuck to drive the bit, if I did have one that big!

Damn. I know! I'll call Aaron! (There's a reason he's called "I got a guy", because whenever you need something; Aaron has the solution.

A short (and somewhat wet) ride over there and soon we were in his neighbor John's workshop, drill-pressing a 9/16's bit through my steel (sounds kinky!).

Some dry-fitting on the bike to make sure things would line up properly...

...and a couple of longer-than-stock bolts, also courtesy of John, and I was in business!