I'm about to order a tiebar for an alpha generation II -- the only one I've found so far within my budget is the http://imcomarine.com/ca_store/index...cPath=92_10_53 (includes tiebar and alpha gen 2 saddles and slightly longer anchor bolts for the trim cylinders to allow the saddles to fit)

Are there any other tiebar options I could consider?

I would go to maschine shop and have one made ,,i believe your pins will still fit and then u can by the 2 almost new sadles i have .
Cost ........complette ~ 250-300 !!!!!!
And u have the same thing.

I guess many people don't bother with a tiebar on an alpha setup at all so not many (only the one) manufacturer of a saddle mount tiebar?

That's what I'm thinking, A saddle would be all you need if anything on an alpha. A upper bar has a few more parts than the saddle.

Latham said they don't do saddles for the alpha -- only a plate kit which looks sweet but runs over $1300 which is way overkill for my budget (I'd rather get smoother steering first, since right now all I have is mechanical with the power assist mercruiser stock) and this boat is only a 60 mph boat max.

IMCO is the only manufacturer I can find that does an Alpha Gen II saddle setup. It's not a bad deal and looks nice, but I'm just surprised that I can't find any others--since the gen II alpha has been the same since 1991 I would have thought there would be at least a few options in the market.

P.S. your setup looks great -- in a few years hopefully I'll have something that nice to work on