Rallye navigation bracket photo thread

Was thinking about this thread and wanted to add one more thought, especially for the US folks who haven't gotten to ride a roadbook before: the equipment is less important than getting to do it.

A bunch of folks here in Colorado started with the cheapy plastic acerbis just about duct-taped to the handlebars and a mechanical odo, and had an absolute blast.

I think many folks think they need all this stuff before they can go try it, that's not the case. KISS, then once you're addicted, start raising the game.

Very good point, Ned!

It's not what you bring, it's the fact that you do it. We've had people with fridge magnets on their tanks on local rallies and they've had a blast. My first time went so wrong in all ways possible, but I was totally hooked by the whole experience.

Yay, and amen, Ned and David!

some budget versions;

The ultimate cheapy... K.Mart plastic lunchbox and wooden dowels:


Mk II: plastick lunch box with alloy dowels!


DIY manual roller in metal/combine ICO bracket and a plexi-glass screen.


Home made electric roadbook holder (for the DIY over achievers out there ) based on a satandard electricial housing from any hardware store... screw on fitted cover adds a degree of professionalism to finished result.


Another nicely finished manual roller...


And if DIY isn't your thing... but you still want "dip your toe in the water" and go the budget route - BEFORE you lash out on the latest Marcil DesComa replica nav' tower and electronic roadbook holder, remote control tripmeter and laser guided GPS navigation system... well the good old Acerbis manual roller (or the cheaper copies of it) mounted on the crossbrace has been serving both newcomers and experienced rallye goers alike, for nigh on 25 years...

Well said, Ned.

Ganshert built a bracket for my roadbook in about 5 minutes using some scrap steel, and it works fine. Of course I'd still like to build a full-on Rally bike, but the point is that I've been able to do a bunch of cool roadbook rides.

Mostly true but if you're loading your $8,000 bike into a container and shipping it to an event that cost $10,000 with a $1600 plane ticket on top, it certainly seems foolish to scrimp on the $300 route book holder.

For a dual sport ride, why not use the cheap option

Well Charlie I am running this setup at Yilgarn, so it had better bloody work

Mine:
http://www.rallymanagementservices.com/collections/frontpage/products/universal-navigation-clamps[/QUOTE]

Cool. Let me know how it goes. Between me and our Rally School bikes and a few that have already gone to rallies, these have done many thousands of hard miles and the feedback has been very good.

As an alternative to the Acerbis RB holder, F2R makes a manual roadbook holder also. A bit more expensive than the Acerbis, but works much better. Of course, I like the DIY approach for starters too!

fun fun
Charlie

Touratech RB-Compact for narrow format (2 1/2") paper. Works well but the cover has detached itself more than once in the woods on mine.

Another option for narrow format paper is the Corona Racing units. They're pretty large but feature electrical advance/rewind. I have one (External motor) on my 690 Enduro and it's held up well.

yeah those covers dont stay on. I just lost my second one on a ride Saturday....felt it fly off and hit me in the chest but I couldnt find it after. I usually keep a rubber band around it for a little extra insurance.

there has been a couple of shots of connection points. Primarilary to the steering head, either with a clamp, welded or bolted. I know this is not a popular choice, as it requires drilling and tapping and some probably more advanced machining, but this is what I did on the 950. The reason it has so many drilled and tapped holes for bolting things to is because when I started I had no idea what I was going to make as the 'nav-tower' so I figured the more attachement points I had at my disposal the better. The ali Block is held onto the steering head with Sikaflex and 5 off M5x0.8 CSK SHCS. It has proven to be very reliable, having survived some big crashes that destroyed the tower.


Cheers
Pilbara

Why dont you put some nuts on the screws?

Better still might be to have a backing plate the same as the inner diameter of the headtube so you end up clamping it and distributing more load around the headtube. If there's room to do so of course. Pretty sweet nonetheless.

Sure, you need a plate to have a flat ground for the nuts, but that might also be a good version.
The problem with the threads in the frame is the force is acting against the frame only at probably 2-3mm eachs screw directly in the frame.
By having a plate inside an bigger holes in the frame the force would act against a much bigger area.

But as takman said: pretty sweet nonetheless!

Cheers
Marco

I made a clamp similar to whats above with the internal backing plate. Check post #179 and after for pics etc....

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=461007&page=12

It wasn't 2 hard to machine and I have used a ultra hard rubber both inside and out to help with some of the vibration that I figure will happen.

https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/t/thetileguy73_DL%20650_02122010006.jpg

https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/t/thetileguy73_DL%20650_02122010003.jpg

Well desgined I'd say!

By the way nice thread!

Beautiful piece!

Nice machining and design! But the only thing I don't like about the two recent bolt-on setups is that the bolts go straight back towards the bike. I've used mounting brackets like this in long rallies and the bolts sometimes get loose. Bigger and more bolts will minimize this, of course. Some of the more successful bolt-on mounting brackets wrap around the head tube a bit more and send the mounting bolts in from the side, so that the side stress on the bolts does not tend to loosen them so much. After messing around with several different options, I've decided that welding the bracket to the frame is the safest way to go.
Please keep posting photos. I'll try to dig up some more too.
fun fun
Charlie

Hey Charlie! For not loosing the screws you could put a hard rubber piece inside which takes up the vibrations. If this doesn't help you should use rubber+selflocking nuts+loctite and some of these little ones:


They are called Nordlock washer. Quite an intelligent product:


Normaly you only get them in a 100-pieces-box but KTM uses them for some really important screws eg. shift lever and you can order them seperately.

Charlie said:

Hello Charlie,
I went with smaller threads, to get more threads in the headstock tube and where possible I use CSK SHCS; countersunk socket head cap screws. Countersunk heads are self locking by nature and resist vibration and loosening to a far greater extent than flat head bolts. You will notice this is why they use countersunk nuts on touring cars (and maybe F1) cause they dont want the nut coming loose and the wheel falling off. It is obviously more of a PITA to drill AND countersink holes than just drilling a hole and putting a bolt in. However the reliability is greatly increased using countersunk heads. You just need to have the right tools used at the right speed to get a good countersink.

Secondly, to be sure, Loctite, the real strong kind cause once that block is on it aint coming off.


Cheers
Pilbara

I had this thought but how to machine the holes at the correct angle with enough meat left behind was my concern. Pilbara's part looks quite a bit bigger than what I built and in reality since I am using a crashed bike with a tweaked headlight/fairing mount this was a easier way. Also the bike is not going to be used for rally's as the others pictured in the thread obviously are.