[josephort]

I'm hoping to put a grab bar and/or luggage rack onto my trusty old twinstar- a 1981 cm200t. Checking out local possibilities, it seems like I'm going to have a hard time finding the part for my particular bike, so I'm wondering if other models have similar enough frames to be compatible. My understanding is that all twinstars (cm200, cm200t, cm185) have the same frame, so a rack from any should be compatible. What about other cmXXX bikes from a similar year (250, 400, 450)? Small cbs? Others?

I initially posted this question on another forum which I will not name that's more specifically about these kinds of bikes, but seems to get less traffic, so I figured I'd try here as well. If that's not kosher, I apologize!

Thanks for your help!

 

[hogcowboy]

You can make just about anything work. Might take longer bolts and spacers. Almost everything on my bike was for a 400. But it's been too long for me to say what other frames are close enough. I was lucky in that I had an accessory store nearby that I could take parts out to the bike and eyeball. Would have got very expensive shipping things back that wouldn't work if I had to order. Fortunately the internet wasn't big back then.

 

[josephort]

I was lucky in that I had an accessory store nearby that I could take parts out to the bike and eyeball. Would have got very expensive shipping things back that wouldn't work if I had to order. Fortunately the internet wasn't big back then.

Yeah, that's one of my main problems- I've so far had no joy finding anything local, so it's all gotta come off the internet. I'm glad to hear you've had success putting 400 parts onto a twinstar. I'm hoping someone will come along and say, "bikes x, y, and z all have identical mounting locations on the frame", but if not I may just cross my fingers and get whatever seems like a good deal...

 

[hogcowboy]

Remember though, all that 400 stuff was heavily modified to "make it" work. Lots of cutting and welding or bolting together of different materials. Was not a just mount and ride deal by any stretch of the imagination. Lots of trips to the hardware store to find anything that "might" work. Kinda broke my heart when the guy that bought said he'd take most of it off. He could have found several cheaper already stripped or stock. But he paid my extra high price so he got it to do what ever. My guess is he thought with that much done it was taken care of more. He should have realized with all that that I ran the snot out of it. Almost always full throttle. Oh well.