Update: Well, as much as it sucks, it looks like I will bow to the input of others. I'll be redoing the front mounts to: A) add more surface area underneath and B) to drop the front of the tank just a bit more. I dig the slant but enough others have pinged in that I figure they may be on to something...
I messed around with several mounting options when I settled on this tank for Sakura. Unfortunately the two I most favored just wouldn't work out. My original plan was to weld some new cups into the tunnel and use some S90 pucks as they are nice and small. Sheet-metal's just too thin on this tank, I tried a test bead on the front tabs that are no longer there.....burned thru....several times. So I cut'm off.
I wanted then to add a piece of 2.5" exhaust pipe split in half and just run a big brass wingnut in the front and rear....but again, the sheetmetal woulda blown thru quicker than the Govonator and a bag of coke.
 |
| The tank in question |
So off to the toolroom to whip out some carved brass mounting points. The ones up front will carry 1/8" or so of silicone rubber to damp vibrations and give the tank a soft place to sit.
 |
| Pretty simple, they slip over the OE frame pegs (ground down a touch) and are milled to fit the shape of the tank underneath. Since they are gonna show I figured I might as well make'm look nice. These will get some appearance work and a nice dulled out polish finish. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| For a dinky little piece this ended up being kind of a pain in the ass to get milled. The backbone mics at 1.712" .......not a standard cutting tool size and I didn't want to fuck with a boring bar just to cut a relief like this so I used my handy (hurkin' big) 1.5" 6 flute cutter and dithered off to each side of axis by .105" and it settles down on the backbone pretty well so I'm good with this one. A notch was milled out for the tank peg to drop into and then some 'extra' material was cut away to give it a nice shape. |
 |
| The peg actually sits in deeper than in this pic, I needed to grind down a goopy factory frame weld just a touch, now it's nicely seated. |
 |
| I really like the way this came out, it's nice and simple but the tank is suddenly very solidly located on the frame. The plan is to add a leather belt with a nice brass buckle, bolting it under the rear mount and splitting to two narrower belts up front to flank the filler neck. I may add a small leather bag to the belt for incidentals....but we'll see how it looks without first. |
 |
| So for now here's how the tank will sit on the bike. I like the slight upward slant, it beats the generically flat bottom most guys seem to want unless running some kind of peanut tank. Set up as it is, I'll be able to fit all the electrics except the battery under the tank in the tunnel. The only way I could see myself raising the back up any higher would be if i ran into some clearance issue with the reg/rec but I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be a problem. If it looks a little gappy up front, never fear..I am planning for a pair of old school oil filled coils to fill the space on each side. |
And now for the REAL reason you're all here........From the always pleasant diversion: Bonjour Madame
 |
| Laundry day never looked so good |
 |
| I really need a vacation there... |
 |
| I think it can be salvaged.... |
No comments:
Post a Comment