Kimjon

Fully committed now: That really cleaned up the front end. Much nicer now. Some bike porn shots It sits pretty well. I'm much happier now, with it tight like than. Just think, to get 6mm clearance on that internal bracket, the fender sits 25mm off the tyre ( I just measured it). So if it had to be mounted on the tabs with 50mm clearance, then the fender would have been 75mm above the tyre.

So my mig welder ran out of 0.8mm wire. Luckily I had a roll of 0.6mm, so I changed everything over to run that. Then it shat itself...and the roll feeder made out of cheap plastic fell to bits! A bit of "Coronanenuity" and it's now working again. Nothing a few old springs, a lathe and some galvanized washers couldn't fix... So onwards with the build: I machined this stuff up on the lathe, then stuck it together with the metal hot glue gun. @cletus An arm for the otherside all bent up. Then I jimmied it up with spacers and tape to set the required clearances etc. Tacked together And fully welded together inside and out. This bracket (factory) runs underneath the fender. It's about 6mm thick, so allowances need to be taken into consideration, I couldn't just gap off the tyre and fender and ignore this protrusion. See how close that bracket gets. But because it was taken into consideration it's not a problem. So that's it, fender now mounted as close as I'd dare to, with about 6mm gap from underside bracket, about 25mm from fender to tyre.

Could be worse.

It might become one of those items that's there for wofs and weirdly gets misplaced for 11 months and 29 days until the next one is due...

My mate is a very good painter, so I'll drop it off and pick it up when done. I doubt I'll be given much choice, as everytime I mention a concept he looks at me sideways and shakes his head in disbelief. We're at a stage where he can't look at me anymore as the disappointment is threatening our friendship. I really like poo brown metallic colours, like rootbeer or candy cola. This kind of thing: My friend...ummmm...yeah/nah, not so much. As long as it's not candy apple red, black, orange, yellow or silver I don't care what colour. Well maybe a little...

What, you don't like 1990's flames??? Dam it, I'll have to rethink my colours now

I was going to see how rigid the cantilever was. If needed I'll machine a plain oil life (sintered bronze plain bearing) into the spacer on the other side and mount off that with a connecting rod. I like the idea of a bump stop though. Will have to think on that one...thanks!

Any input is always welcome. We all see things through a different lens and sometimes the answer is obvious to anyone but the person who is looking for answers. Calc wise, I'm 95% confident. It's never going to fully compress those springs, just like your car never will either. But theoretically if it did, then theres approx 50mm of compression there to be had where the fender is mounted (87mm of tyre movement at the axle). So the fender has to be mounted bare minimum 50mm above the tyre if using those factory tabs on the front end. Which would look like this (or worse). Ugly!!! May as well be a MX bike with a fender that high... So I've mocked this up today, which takes the geometry out of the equation as it moves the fender over from the springs to the axle. Then its just 1:1 ratio. As in the fender moves with the tyre, the gap never changes. It's not finished, needs a tweak or two, but it will work. I just wish our laws were as relaxed as the US fucken A. Then I wouldn't run a front fender at all.

V1.0 Still sucks cock... but I'm stuck with either terrible high boy fender or persevering with this concept. I'll walk away from it and come back to it again later. Sometimes that's enough to allow for: A ) to accept this is an okay solution Or B ) a better idea comes to mind.

Next up, a problem I could solve. My mailbox had the correct banjo bolts in it this morning. Supplied free of charge because the dumb fucks sent the wrong ones a few weeks ago. Should just bolt straight on eh... WTF!!! That's the forward control, the rear was even worse. So I need to machine at least 1mm off the front banjo bolt, and 4mm off the rear one just to get them to fit. So: I made this collet to hold the bolts without fucking the fine thread. Mounted in the chuck. Machined down and a new countersink cut in, just like they came from the factory...but now shortened the required amount/s to fit. Front finished And the rear. So that's one less thing to do. Makes me wonder how people get on building this stuff if they don't have a lathe? Pretty much everything I buy online doesn't work first time, nothing just "bolts on" like its sold to you as.

Righto, did the real maths. So, ruler is back to front...but imagine it's the other way around and zero is where 3.5" is, then: 2" ÷ 3.5" = 0.57 ratio. What this means is for every 100mm the tyre moves, the guard only moves 57mm. Now looking at the springs, the average gap is 5mm. It ranged from 4 to 5.5mm but 5mm is good enough to use. There's 10 gaps, so: 10x 5mm = 50mm So maximum tyre movement is: 50mm ÷ 0.57ratio = 87mm suspension travel. Now...This is the fender mounted 30mm above the tyre. Looks okay, but not great. However 50mm, which is what's actually required for it not to contact the tyre will just look dumb! So that means doing what Beaver describes above, radius off the axle. Now I've confirmed that...just gotta make it look good???

Just realized anyone younger than 40 probably doesn't get jokes from 1980's movies.

Yeah, something like that looks like the answer. It's fine line at this point. The risk of ending up here is only a few bad styling decisions away from happening.

Google searching and I found my theory confirmed. This is what happens when the fender is mounted on the springer arms and set to low.

Here's the problem. Without actually measuring it, it looks like a 2/3rds ratio. The rocker is attached to the fork legs on a fixed pivot. The wheel axle is right on the end. The spring forks are about 2/3 the way on the rocker. So example: Say the front tyre hits a huge 100mm bump in the road, the front axle goes up 100mm. The fork tubes go up 0mm The springer tubes go up 2/3 of 100mm = 66mm. Problem: The fender mounts to the Springer tubes. So if you have a nice tidy 15mm gap set between the fender and tyre at normal ride hight, then you hit this hypothetical 100mm giant bump in the road, the fender only moves up 66mm, but the tyre moves up 100mm. Maths is fun: 100mm tyre movement - 66mm fender movement - 15mm true fender gap = 19mm of interference between tyre and fender resulting in killing the rider (me). Sad face!!! Solutions: 1) mount the fender a mile higher than the tyre and look like a total cunt. 2) create a pivot point off the axle, so the fender moves with the axle and maintains constant gap between the tyre and fender irrespective of travel. I like solution No2. But that means heaps of work. Hmmm???? Balls!!!!....

Arghhhh my eyes...my eyes...it hurts so much! Ugly as fuck front fender. I paid $30 for it at a swap meet, possibly around $28 too much? God its ugly. But some dumb law in NZ about needing one apparently exist? I'll give it some time to grow on me, but yeah/nah I'm not a fan.

Got sick of working in the shed, so fucked around on this for 20 minutes. Its amazing how you don't think of much else - just live in the moment when there's a slight element of risk associated with an activity...love it! Will get back on track with the harley build soon. But nice to have a distraction for a while.

And finished the LED rear lights hidden in the seat. And from a few paces back you'd hardly even notice it when it's not turned on. This performs a heap of functions like: • Dim red when lights are on • Bright red when brakes are used • Left and right turn signals • Hazard lights. My certifier will have the final say: if it's okay...its staying - If it's not enough, then I'll go to plan B.

Got the sheetmetal hidy-hole seat pan thingy finished off and painted. I hammered a recess in it to allow the cord to go through. The seat needs to hinge forward so I can access the oil tank, so bringing the wires out the front by the pivot point will allow for this to happen.

After smashing out that sheetmetal, I wanted one more quick win to finish the day. So I solved an issue that arises when the handlebars are on full lock. The paint on the frame will get chipped by the fork stops hitting the painted frame. Easy solution: And the other side Testing it out: Fuck yeah, perfect! Time for beer...

Next up I built this hidden space underneath the seat to hold an LED rear brake, lights, indicator light strip. Cardboard goodness. Metal shaping up. Bit of a cunty compound curve going on...but got there in the end. Taped in place for a dry fit. Couldn't help myself...powered up. Bright as fuck! So yeah, I'm pretty stoked with that. Be a good back up to the other lights, but subtle enough to not subtract from the looks of the bike.

Running out of things to do, so I redid my exhaust bracket for the 3rd time. Looks no different...but it's much better/stronger now. Then I found myself in a dilemma. Left or right? All the bikes in magazines have the license plate on the left...by they're mostly American, so I figure we drive on the opposite side of the road here in NZ, so I'd put it on the opposite side to. I think it balances the black on the exhausts. But in an ideal world I'd rather not have it at all. But yeah, apparently for wofs and shit you need one...

Wiring, done.

Redid my headlight mount. Longer, sexier and has a step in it to index the parts so nothing can rotate by itself under any vibration. Small things, but keeping me occupied.

Okay, my first attempt at installing a remote oil filter/cooler was in risk of getting a friendly love slap from the drive belt. It looked okay and ticked most boxes, but its placement put the hoses way to close to the rear belt...as in pretty much on it with only 5mm gap, so on deceleration it could slap the oil lines, which would not be good. So I made V1.2: But I wasn't in love with it. It seemed a bit back to front to me. Plus the aluminum was a bit thin and I wasn't too sure about its resistance to fatiguing? So on to V1.3: And I'm calling it a win. It now has the maximum amount of clearance required and still sits outside of the frame, so when I dump the oil...it wont spill all over the nice bits. Here's V1.0 and 1.2 about to be archived: