Shed day

Great day in the shed! Started off slowly, making a matching strut for the other side of the fender.

Then came the tricky job of holding them in place while I tacked the struts to the end washers.

Took them off the bike for welding up and spent a long time cleaning them up with the dremel. I've recently squired some little tungsten carbide grinding tips that are brilliant for cleaning up welds.

Really pleased with the result. There is a bit of flex in the fender, but overall it feels nice and sturdy, so I won't worry about a third mount for now.

After that I wanted to do something different so I started turning up some lugs to support the seat springs.

I drilled a recess into the underside of it so I could fit a bolt through for fixing the springs onto

Tried it on the bike and I'm happy with the result. As per usual tho, I've only made one and it will take me about 2 hours to make a matching one for the other side haha!

Boxing Day fun times

Nice Boxing Day afternoon in the shed. Spent a long time figuring things out as usual and my first attempt was a waste of time. Was thinking of trying to make the sissy bar out of one long piece that bent right over the rear fender, but after messing about heating up bar with a gas torch and bending it round stuff I think I was being a bit over ambitious and decided to stick with 'keep it simple'.

I decided that simple was one strut either side using the existing mounts on the fender. So I started by cutting two bars the same length and bending them both a bit at a time in the vice. I put some heat in them with the propane first to soften them up a bit.

Then I turned up some big washers on the lathe.

Then there was the usual amount of looking and sharpie marking before I cut the bars to length and filed down the edges so the profile reduced to match the washers.

Didn't get as far as welding, and I only did one side, but you didn't expect me to get it all done did you?!

Weld in a comfortable position

After another hour or so of looking and moving things around ever so slightly I finally manned up and committed welding the rear fender to the bracket.

 

Just tacked it in place on the bike and then came up with this ridiculous contraption to allow me to weld the inside seam.

 

It actually worked really well! Also seem to have got my mojo back for TIG welding, I had the gas down low and the power way up high.

I was going to make some little triangular insets for the gaps at the side but instead I just blobbed it up with a thick weld rod. I am going to round those corners off so doesn't need to be perfect. Next I'll clean this up and start thinking about that brace!

Small nail

Got a little further with the rear fender to tonight. As usual spent the majority of the time lining things up and tweaking the position of the read mudguard. Is it central? is it too far away from the wheel? etc.

I go round in circles for so long then I think bugger it, get out the sharpie and make some marks on the basic bracket I'd cut the slots in. Hacked into it with the angle grinder to get the basic shape, but that's as far as I got tonight. Next ill tack it in position on the bike then take it off to weld.

More nails

Continued work on the rear fender mount tonight. Started by cutting the slots in the plate.

Then I used the plate to hold the bungs square while I tacked them in place.

I was experimenting with the flow rate of argon as I seem to be rinsing it at the moment, hence the oxidation!

Wasn't too happy with my welding, seem to be struggling with it at the mo, so bought myself a TIG welding DVD for Xmas! Anyways I cleaned them up a bit, am not too worried as you won't be able to see them when the brackets on.

The daily nail

The cheeky hour and a half in the shed is the best. Not a lot of progress but another nail and all that!

Drilled out the holes in the cross rail to 14mm, but my lugs are 15mm! So a little lathe action was applied to get them to fit nice and snug.

Was going to weld them in but I got distracted figuring out my adjustable bracket, which I mocked up out of cardboard of course!

Rear fender

Spent a long afternoon in the shed, but didn't feel like I got much done tbh!

The cross rail that supports the seat is just tacked in place on the TC bros hard tail, so I cut it off and tacked it in the correct position.

Then I spent a long time thinking about how I'm going to mount the rear mudguard. Some tea was drunk and several coats of thinking applied. Decided to mount the bottom of it first so cleaned off the tab that was originally on the mudguard.

I'm going to fit some bungs into the lower frame rail that I can mount a bracket off that fits to the fender. So I turned up some 15mm bungs and tapped through 8mm. I then marked the hole locations on the frame and cut the cross bar out (as it was also tacked in). I'll probably put it back in the same location, but it will be a lot easier to drill off the bike.

Really don't feel like I got much done for the amount if time I spent in there, but so much of it is just looking and figuring shit out!

Tank lugs

Got the rear tank mounts welded on tonight. I mocked it all up on the frame and added a 0.5mm washer between the seat bracket and the tank lugs to give a bit of space for the bolt to tighten up without clamping the seat and stopping it from moving (hopefully!).

Some of my welding was good, some not so good so I'll give it a clean up and a once over if it looks like it needs it.

Little by little

Got a cheeky hour in the shed tonight, one of those nights where I was a bit frustrated cos I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but a bit further none the less.

I cleaned up my welding on the rear end of the tank in preparation for the lugs being welded on, but flapper work revealed some porosity so I went through a few cycles of re-welding and cleaning it up.

Still not perfect but then my dad turned up and told me to stop trying to get it spot on as I'd end up grinding half the tank away.

I decided that was sound advice so I left it there and will get the lugs welded on next time I'm in the shed.

Seat/tank mount

Good afternoon in the shed. Finished off making the frame mount for the seat and tank.

I then spent ages trying to line the seat up square to make sure the mount would be fixed on straight, before tacking it place.

With that on I could finally go back to mounting the tank. I fabbed up a couple of tabs to fit the back of the tank.

Obviously i started with a cardboard mock up to get the shape right!

They are just resting in place for now, I spent a bit more time touching up the seams on the tank. I need to clean it up before I can weld the tabs on.

Seat mounting

Started on the frame mount for the seat. Roughed out the shape in 10mm plate and drilled a hole to see how it lines up. I'm not going to mount it like that though, I'll weld the other lug I machined onto it so the seat bracket sits nice and neat.

It's just a starting point for now

Seat bracket done.

Cheeky stint in the shed tonight and I finished up the new set bracket. It's probably (definitely) over engineered, but now it's done I much prefer its chunky look.

Obviously I had to bolt it to the seat and do a mini mock up! That's the best bit!

Seat bracket 2

So round 2 with the seat bracket and I beefed things up. Turned some bar down to 18mm and made similar lugs to before, then I cut the seat bracket out of 5mm plate instead of 3mm.

This time I remembered to clean up the steel before welding it, but I still managed to weld the tip to the workpiece!!

Anyways it's a way off finished but I'm much happier with this effort!!

Seat bracket

Worked on the seat mount tonight. The plan is to weld a tube onto the frame that the seat and tank can both mount off. So I welded my little lugs onto the seat bracket, using what will be the frame mount to space them out.

I got the result I wanted, but like a tool I forgot to clean up the metal so the welds are crappy, and now I've done it I don't think it looks substantial enough. The plate is 3mm and the lugs are 15mm dia with 8mm holes. I think I might remake it in 5mm plate with bigger lugs...overall I'm not happy!!