Rallye navigation bracket photo thread

You guys blow me away with all your technical 3D drawings etc! All I have is a measuring tape, a square and a pencil!!

Here is the story of my backyard bodgyness:

The scary drilling holes part in the headstem:



The mounting block:



Which was all wrong so had to be cut off because the nylock nuts seized on the bolts!



Re-working:



The finished product:



Using a hole through the steering lock tab at the top where the lock parts won't hit:



From the inside:



Making the "Nav" tower now which will mount my lights, front fairing mounts, factory instrument cluster, switches, 12v outlets and GPS mount.

I have thought about the high density polyethylene, usually it copes ok with uv, they use it in pipes, flanges etc. Now to make just the main skeleton out of hdpe, this is sth that did not cross my mind... as the only problem I see the bending. You have to warm it in order to bend it and you may end up destroying the thing but then again it is so chep so who cares . I like the idea of the carbon outer shell. Soft core with hard shell . we have an hdpe supplier so I will make an enquiry about the main plates.
Fiberglass would be another idea but I know the people who do CF so I think we will give the HDPE-CF combination a go!!

My concern are the vibrations and if they will affect the reading of the roadbook. The plan is to use rubber washers with nord locks to dampen the vibs and make sure. It stays in place. Using HDPE you get the dampening for free.
Plus it comes in colors . My supplier will only have black but I am sure I can trace an online store with thick HDPE in stock.

Creative thinking.. This is what I love shout this thread!!

I have the same as the above plus a pc with the right software
Nice plate, keep it coming!

Thanks for showing that stoneage engineering still works!!!
That's how I build most of my projects.
TravelGuy

Nice work Joe Watson. Keeping it simple is good.

One small tip. You won't be able to tighten the nuts without spinning the bolts in the steering tube, which means removing the stem to fit tools, and you hardly want to do that in the field. They do tend to work loose in this configuration.

If you simply weld a small plate between the two left-side bolts and another between the two right-side bolts, you'll prevent the bolts from spinning. And you should still be able to remove them.

Another option is to have a backing plate inside the stem, tapped for your bolts, then just have 4 bolts and no nuts. Still all serviceable from the outside. Slightly harder to fab since you have to curve the plate.

Cheers,
Dave

Thanks for the tip! I used nylock nuts, spring washers and cranked them pretty tight, so fingers crossed they stay put for while. I will check on them every now and then though now that you have said that, thanks!

Yeah Joe that was my first concern when i saw the pics. If i was you i'd weld a vertical plate between the bolts left and bolts right as they will have the same taper inside the tube. Similar to JVO but 2 vertical plates instead of one diagonal:

Also, any trouble with the steering stops and steering lock with that lower bolt?

Nah, the steering lock is at the top of the headstem and I have made it clear the steering stops at the bottom by about 2mm.

Here is my progress from tonight:





The lights will be hung underneath:



Basically finished making the hanging brackets:

I think that looks rad!

Red Loctite?

No, I didn't use loctite as it eats the nylon locking section of the nylock nuts. I have the same nylock nuts used in a number of places on my bike which have been on there for well over 5000kms and many many hours of riding, so I know they will be fine. Like I said, I will keep an eye on them and make sure they stay tight.

Since you've sold some of the parts from your previous build (I think), when is the new thread starting and therefore you can trial this idea first (challenge time).........

Since I think you can weld, therefore just weld nuts on the inside. Or as stated above tap a plate on the inside, I did this on mine and had no problems.

Nope have not sold any thing yet as i don't know what i will need for next build
apart from $$$$$$$. my nav tower is staying the same might change out the lights to the BD squadron LED type as it will clear up some room be removing the ballasts from the 90mm HID Hella's.

Latest night in the shed includes cleaning up and proper mounting of the main "forks" of the nav tower. Completed the headlight hangers, cleaned them up and mounted them too. Slowly making some headway.

This is very similar to what I did on my DRZ for the Mexican 1000 Rally. With the curved headstock on the DRZ I had to use a 1/2 section of some DOM tube but otherwise pretty much just like what you did. I used 4 3/8" fine thread grade 8 bolts drilled through the headstock just like this and used red loctite instead of nylocks. I do have the advantage of since it is curved the bolts are at a bit of an angle so the load in them is partly in sheer, not just in tension. So far it is still rock solid and I have given the bike a fair bit of abuse.

Considering doing something similar on my new WR450 this winter.

The Nordwest has a pair of 3cm long by 3cm dia cylinders welded to the headstock.
Dense rubber bushes and metal sleeve for the through bolts.

Easy to weld on to the headstock and gives the dash a little give.

Looking good! Are they those generic 'Street Fighter' headlights? I was thinking about using them.

Did you hear from the guys a Sud Africa? about the fairing?

Ballasts kinda annoy me too, I just went for a cbr250rr 4 inch headlight. The later models (i have now learn't this) use H4 bulbs, not the weird H6 I got.