What problem are you having? I found that you have to assemble the whole back rest and bars, leaving everything loose, then slide it on the back fender, slide in the bolts under the fender, then tighten everything up.. took me and a helper.. I couldn't get it to fit any other way...

I loosened one side and removed the other to assemble mine. Heed the warnings about scratching the fender.

My question is does your bike have the correct side rails for a backrest? If not, you will need to get those as well.

my bike has everything to assemble the backrest. The problem I am having is: I cant seem to get the bolt under the fender loose. Does anyone no what size it is? Also I am having a terrible time getting my hand underneath it so that I can secure it properly. Is there any tricks of the trade or special tools that can help me?

thanks again everyone

2011suzukis40 wrote on 05/22/12 at 18:53:51:


Mine was a 12mm.

2011 I just took one side rail off to replace a turn signal.  The nuts are 12 mm, like Greg said.  My big fat hands and arms didn't want to go in there, I got my son, with his skinny arms, to get the bolt started from the inside.  I used a flashlight to look under the fender as well.  I thought about jacking the bike up off the wheel, to see if that would give me a little more room, but son came to the rescue.

This is a racheting box end wrench. gearwrench is a brand name, but craftsman (sears) has them as well and I am sure others do by now.



Rounded off the bolt, maybe some vise grips.    I hate it when that happens.    But it usually does, at least to me.

I just installed the rails and backrest I got from Builttolast on my 07 this weekend.  The thing is built to FIT...no extra room for sure.

It is a pain, as stated before, 12mm, if you can get the bike up the back wheel drops down and good sized hands have more room.  I still had to get another set of hands on it to keep from scratching it up till i got everything seated.

Seems it would be a simple task..........but not so in my experience. Looks great though and very solid once installed.

Good luck.

And ratcheting box end wrenches are a God send.

Yep, bess227 I forgot to tell you how to install it (I was busy as hell the last few weeks).. assemble everything loosely, slide it on, install the bolts under the fender, then tighten everything... took me a good hour to figure that out and I was using spliced turn signal wires so I had to have someone hold the side bars... you need a helper... no need for the dealer ship though, you can do it with a good helper, and I suprisingly didn't even scratch my paint..

I have small enough hands (big handed guys don't know the kind of work I can do ) that I can just reach under the fender and get the threads started on the bolts with 2 fingers..