Bending Metal and Making Sparks

With our newly-modified exhaust from Cycleboyz, we needed to fab a bracket in order to mount it to the frame.  This would have to be a custom piece, and we'd also have to start from scratch.  These things always start with some eyeball engineering, a lot of staring and figuring, and finally a sharpie marker to mark the first bend.

While that project got underway, we went back after the electrical system, specifically wiring up some proper turn signals.

Battery first...  Once that was hooked up we needed to figure out why only 3 out of the 4 turn signals were working.  We were able to have a chat about positive wires, negative wires, currents, and shorts (the electrical kind, not summer wear!)

Meanwhile, on the exhaust front it was a case of measure, mark, bend a bit, measure again, twist, tweak, tap, hammer, etc, etc.....  The end result was a bracket that had 2 90+ degree bends in it... sorta like an "N" on its side, but not as sharp a bend.  With curves like that, we are hoping steel will do a better job and be more durable... bends like that tend to weaken aluminum to the point where it cracks and fails.

More electrickery... the boys got a chance to learn how to use a new tool... a spring-loaded wire stripper.  We'll need to lengthen some wires and of course add some ends to them, but we at long last finally found out where our problem was.  All 4 signals work as they should, with a hearty "click" from the signal relay.

Hammertime!

Yes, we do get to use some neat, delicate tools that do their job with finesse, and other times, well, we need to bash some metal around a bit, too...

Next step, some proper hardware and we might just start it up to see if it runs!

Increasing our Carbon Footprint

Not necessarily a good thing, but we are having some fun with carbon fibre on our project.  The end result might be a bit of "Mad Max", but we'll give it a try and see how it looks.

Rather than go with a traditional headlight, we are going to have a real "racer" look with a front number plate with a headlight cut into it, offset to one side.

Sorta like this...

However, we are starting with an oval numberplate shape, and using an aluminum one as a guide, we are going to replicate it in carbon fibre.  We came up with 2 options... one that uses a concave (female) mold, and another that uses a convex (male) mold.  We'd make 2, and see which one turns out best.  Prior to this meeting, Mr. S already made a female mold using fibreglass matt.

And we're off.  The pieces of carbon cloth were cut, and we spent some time polishing the molds with release wax, to make sure the epoxy didn't stick like cement to whatever we used for the mold itself.










We glued the male mold onto a piece of glass to ensure it was perfectly flat, and allowed a good surface for the excess carbon cloth to adhere to.











After 3 coats of wax on each mold, we then did a final coat of PVA release compound... as you can tell, we REALLY didn't want the carbon to be glued to the molds permanently!











Next step was to "wet out" each of the pieces of cloth with the epoxy resin, making sure it soaked the cloth, without being overly thick.  We were going to start with 3 layers of carbon.











Placing it on the molds.  We made sure that each layer was well adhered to the waxed surface of the mold, in order to follow the subtle, but important contours of the piece.

And now we wait... patience is required as once the 3 layers were put on each mold, it takes 8-12 hours for the piece to cure.... and then the REAL test.  Will it actually come off the mold???

In other news, our friends at Cycleboyz have come through again, tig-welding a stainless steel tab to our new megaphone muffler.  Will go about fabricating a bracket/strap in a future instalment.

No Session this week...

Waiting on some parts to come in, so no session this week.

Back on 2 wheels... for now

A bit of mechanical and electrical this week.  The rebuilt forks from last week needed to be refitted in the triple clamps, in order to ensure they were oil-tight and ready to go.  While that was going on, another student was testing some aftermarket dash lights to ensure they worked, as well as determining the color of each.  We are not sure yet how many of these dash lights we will use on our project, but we do have 4 -- red, yellow, orange, and green.

Just exactly how does all of this go together...?  Wheel, spacer, speedo drive, axle, washer, nut....

Once on two wheels, we repositioned the bike and re-installed the exhaust headers.  The main reason was to test-fit the new muffler (not shown).  We went with a megaphone one from Dime City Cycles (like our first project) because of the price and quality.  We made a few sharpie marks on it, and Mr. S will make another visit to Cycleboyz to see if they can weld on a bracket for us.  Being stainless steel, a tig welder is required, and their quality of workmanship is excellent!

Torquing down the exhaust manifold nuts.  The key here was to make sure the exhaust header was properly seated on the gasket, and that each side of the flange was tightened down to the same extent.  The headers are used, and the previous owner of these parts over-tightened things somewhat... there is a very slight curve to them.  Not that much pressure is required, especially if the gasket is in good shape!