It's been cold here, and when it gets cold, my bikes tend to fall apart: this is an account of the latest incident:
There's of course nothing particularly wrong with the original monster bars.
.but sometimes you just wonder what it will look like with something different. and I bet it would look cool with some of my clubmans.
There tuned out to be a few problems with this idea though, first, the grip length wouldn't fit the original controls so I had to put some pretty good notches in brackets:
.not big enough
.better
Then the headlight was fighting with the brake cables for the same space, calling for some new brackets:
I had to make a template from the original pair, scan them into Illustrator and move the headlight mount holes 2 inches down and an inch out. Found some aluminum, and cut:
. these are my junk pair, I used a piece of stock that was already partially cut for another part and abandoned, that's why they have lines through them already. They weren't supposed to be a junk pair. but in the next couple of steps I screw them up pretty good
Mark where the bends need to be using the original template:
And place them in the break, it's good to do both at the same time to be sure they'll match
Check your' angle till they match the originals
Then the second bend. Note that these two bends return on eachother. so very wrong, this is that screwing up part I mentioned before.
So on the left is the second pair I had to make up, in the middle are Ducatis' originals, and on the right is one of the messed up ones.
The last hurtle to overcome was that massively gross gauge pod that all monsters are stricken with. Now that the bars are going to sit lower the pod is even more unacceptable than it was before. I tried to figure out how to go completely without it but I didn't want to loose the odometer or temp readout, so I'll just have to make a new pod.
This is what's the giant thing is packaging:
Size it is vs. size it needs to be
First step: scan for reference
Throw on some splines in Illustrator
Splines will give you the shape to start with but the most important part is to make sure to get some really tight measurements
Since I'm trying to take all the airspace out of the pod my measurements become very important, I want just enough room for the components without any extra.
My ProE part:
and surfcam
This is what $30.00 worth of plastic looks like
A little bit about machining two sided parts on a 3 axis machine:
The first side’s pretty self-explanatory: stick it to the table, flycut it to height, and run your’ program. After cutting the volume fill it with hot wax and wait for it to cool:
flycut it back to height:
and flip it using the 3/16 holes drilled in the part and table
and we have part:
first test fit, no gasket, loosely fit together… and very waxy
hmm… headlight may have to come up a bit
after a bath in some heptane to dissolve any remaining wax
it’s ready for final fit
I guess I got used to the headlight where it was, it may change in the future, but right now I’m not in too much of a hurry.
BTW. This:
Is why I like vintage bikes
