Sissy bar mounting mark 3!!

Ok so I got the extension to the cut-out section of the rear mudguard welded up and cleaned up;

Next was to tackle the way it mounts up to the sissy bar. This is the current set up;

And the little 'tabs' off the fender are the weak point; I've already had to weld one side up! So I chopped them off and removed a thin piece of metal that acted as a sort of reinforcement to the fender.

This gave me the idea to add some reinforcement of my own! So I grabbed a piece of 5x20mm steel flat bar and after much huffing, puffing and hanging off it in the vice I came up with a piece that matched the shape of the fender;

Welded in;

Then I turned up and tapped some M8 bungs to weld into the mudguard, and through into the reinforcement bar. The pictures will explain better;

 

This provided a near invisible connection in the fender itself, but with plenty of 'under the hood' support. To finish it off I chopped the old mounting points off the sissy bar and added some simple washers.

Needs cleaning up a bit but I'm pleased with the result. Should also provide ample strength to support a pillion or luggage attachment!

Bits and bobs

Been tinkering on both bikes this week. The front right caliper on the bandit was leaking, even though it managed to get through its last MOT with no problem, it didn't inspire stopping power confidence!!

It wasnt a big job, especially as I found some spare seals that I had left over from when i was building the bike, so I whipped the caliper off and had a look.

I cleaned it all up, there was nothing clearly wrong, but a bit of much or paint under the seal could be enough to let some fluid pass under hard breaking.

I re-greased/lubed everything up as necessary and put it all back together. Bled the brake system and hey-presto the bike seems to be able to stop without weeping!

I was tempted to start making new headlight mounting brackets, to pull the new unit closer to the frame, but then I thought that if I get a new dash setup for it I would have to do this anyway so I just left it as is for now.

So that's the bandit for now. Just needs taking for an MOT! Pulled the neglected XS out of its corner and made a start on the to-do list on the wall. First up was taking the front mudguard off and tidying the cables.

Yes, it is just a bit of wire twisted round the cables! Held on by the two fender mounting points.

A lick of black paint and hopefully it will be invisible.

Next I decided to tackle to rear fender. As when the chain gets slack it catches quite badly!

So the plan is to extend the cut-out up about an inch to hopefully prevent future damage to the paintwork! I marked up and cut out a piece with the angle grinder.

Next I need to reinforce the edge with some 5mm steel bar. I've got a little curve ready to be welded in, just need to go and pick up some new argon first!

Bandit Headlight 2

Been continuing with the headlight. Mainly just sorting out the wiring. The stock light was used as a sort of 'dumping ground' for half of the wiring loom, so with the new light in place (which doesnt have any magical secret compartment) I had to move the loom behind the headstock.

There is this sort of space below the tank, just behind the headstock, above the engine. I mashed all the wires I could into that area and then spent a bit of time extending wires as necessary. Then I attacked it with a few zip ties to try and organize it, but without much luck, it was still fairy lose and in danger of sitting on the engine.

So I came up with the solution of a sort of plate for it all to sit on, suspended between the frame rails. I started with a cardboard template as per..

Then it was a process of basically looking and marking out with the sharpie, chopping bits off and repeating as necessary to get the right shape.

Fortunately there are some tapped holes in the frame at almost the right location for fixing it to. But they where at a funny angle, so I had to do some bending wizardry on the 1mm sheet.

Rounded up the corners to protect fingers and hay-presto here is my simple wire storage/heat shield bandit mod;

Hard to take an effective pic of it in place, but you get the idea...

The wires are still a mess, but at least they are safely out of the way. As the sheet is only 1mm thick it does bow slightly under the weight on it, but no one can see so I dont really mind

That's the headlight sorted for now (assuming it passes MOT!), but I'm not overly keen on the way it sticks out. This is mainly due to the stock speedo/tacho arrangement that pushes the headlight forward. In an ideal world Id like to swap them for a much smaller/neater electronic unit, then I could make some new brackets that would hold the headlight much closer to the forks.... but I don't have £130 to splash on a fancy dash!

Bandit Headlight

So I snatched up a generic headlight off the 'bay for the bandit. I felt like the original light dated the bike quite a lot and so changing this up would keep people guessing more about its actual age.

The stock light:

Unfortunately the bandit uses the headlight as a sort of wiring loom storage position.

So there is a lot to get rid of! Fortunately I can re-position alot of it behind the headstock, in the space above the engine/below the fuel tank.

Also the new light was a similar width to the original one, so I could use the same mounting brackets.

I'm pleased with how it looks, I was worried that the speedo/tacho wouldn't look right but actually they fit quite well. I still need to figure out the headlight/full beam wiring up and also i need to extend some wires from the new loom position to reach the headlight.

Rear tank mount

Right - thanks to Papa's ingenious insight (off the customXS650 forum) I realized that it would be a lot easier to use the rear top engine mount for the tank - rather than a new fixing point under the frame (cheers papa!).

So I used some 10mm steel and made up some little lugs to weld under the tank. One of which I tapped out M8.



This pic shows a 5mm tab that I later replaced with 10mm...



So with a lot of difficulty I managed to get a tack in on the lugs while the tank was mounted. Unfortunately the tank seemed to be very thin at this point so it blew holes in the steel almost instantly...



Bearing in mind ive already sealed this tank twice... ach! I had it flaming and everything haha. Also meant that the welding was poor, and with the metal being such a large contrast (10mm thick to approx 1mm?!) made it very difficult, so please excuse the poor show!



I got them on eventually but you can see where I chased holes in the thin steel. Think I'd probably flapped it down to less than 1mm in places...



Next I turned up some spacers on the lathe and welded them onto the existing top engine mounts that I had made...





And that's the tank re-mounted! Showing it fixed on here with some M8 bar with lots of nuts and washers on it, going to pop down the bolt shop later and get a 120mm long M8 bolt for it.









I like how discreet and secure it is. The tank now sits a little higher overall. Which is a good thing, as I could see where things like wires had rubbed the inside of the tunnel and scratched the paint off in places. But now it stands well clear.

Back in stock!

M8 threaded 'top-hat' bungs back in stock today. I've got a bigger order so shouldn't run out for a while this time!

Ideal for creating fixing points in your frame or otherwise...

Get them here!

Tank mounting

Its been a while! Partly because I was in the shed every night over the summer, GTA 5 has come out, and I have been tinkering with my dad's bike and my bandit, so left the chopper alone for a little while.

Anyways as Im sure you have noticed Winter is here and I have a list of niggles and issues to sort out for next year.

So I went in the shed last night for a few hours, didn't get far but made a start adjusting the tank. Basically even though the rear mount looks nice with the seat/tank sitting on the same mount, it doesn't work all that well. If you have it tightened up so that the tank doesn't vibrate - the seat bracket bends rather than rotates. And if you slacken it off until the seat can move freely, the tank makes a scary amount of noise!

Firstly then I removed the rear brackets and saw just how much bodging my dad had covered up with the filler!



In my head I thought I could get away with a fairly typical threaded mount in the top tube, but there is no where near enough room!



So I decided that an under-tank mount is required. Again though, this is an already busy area - with lots of wires, fuel pipe, crank breather etc all in close proximity.





Also you can see the fuel tap is right in the bloody way! Anyways that is as far as I got last night, just lots of thinking and lining up for now, but I think that I shall use a sort of tube arrangement under the rear of the tank, so i can slot a long bolt through a corresponding tube welded under the top frame tube..

Thoughts and other solutions appreciated!