Extended Carbon Fiber beak.....Help me design it....

I have been thinking about this for about a year now. A few fellow inmates have asked recently as well, and with our resident bike basher/tester laying his down, there has been a great interest.......and rightfully so.... to rid the bike of the lower hugger fender. I have not ridden this bike much in mud, but people that have.......are flagging issues. Then the high fender kit......and subsequently the dual brake like....eliminating the crossover. That said, and left up to each individual..... Perhaps eliminating the hugger all together.....will do for some. Some have done this with the addition of a back flap....protecting the rad`s......some have mounted a whole fender, but as was first suggested by GPRacer to me......a while back......what about making an extension to the beak in the amount of 3 inches. More have suggested about 5 inches....... But instead of an extension.....I would take the old beak off......and simply make a new one....trying to follow the lines of the stocker. If I recall correct...the very front plastic is removable....... If this is the case......I`d make the new fender in such that said front plastic could be re-installed on the new 5-6 inches longer composite beak....... As usual....before I make anything..... I ask people that knows more about the particular piece to be developed, than I do. The collective of rider knowledge here is an awesome thing, and I`d like to put it to use........ Wadayathink.....?????:eek1.....


Erling

It has begun......

so you're thinking of making a whole new beak, of just a larger version of the black bit that goes out in front?

The whole thing......essentially from there the stock beak bolts on the front.......then just reusing the very front plastic.....( if doable). I don`t think it would be possible to retain the nice look of the stock front part if I just made a front 6 inch attachment...... I personally think it would look ehhh....bad..... and be hard to secure it.

Erling

I am sure it will end up looking something like this.



They seem to always resemble Spy vs. Spy.

I guess I was one of those who asked about it to begin with.

I'd definitely agree with your idea of reusing the stock beak extension; that was exactly what I was envisioning. I'd suggest not following the same angle as the stock beak, it's probably a bit too steep. I think that if it were five inches longer on that angle, it would end up too close to the tire.

I think that some kind of ribbing underneath, or some other way to add rigidity, would be nice for the extended length. A beak isn't heavy, but it would probably help.

You've seen this one?

This should be another cool project! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

What if you use the pink foam board to mill out the specs of the beek and then vaccuum form the tooling (foam board) out of a more flexable plastic.

RCBI- will allow you to rent a student for $40-50/ an hour tools included. All the cool thing that we want to really build with. Anyway if we got enough riders to pull the money together we could probably pull this off for pretty cheap. The more riders in the pool the cheaper the cost. 3-D modeling with one of the trace guns. I could take my beek to them right on the bike or take it off and they should have the model done by the first hour- $ 50. Customize to specs length/ distance. (3-D Modeling) send it to the milling machine to make the tool. (2-3 hr. tops if that) Then it is the option of carbon fiber or plastic vaccum or injection. If you get what I mean.

http://rcbi.org/wmspage.cfm?parm1=30

That thing is FUGLY.



What I've been envisioning, and it sounds exactly like what you're talking about Erling, is something similar to the beak on the HP2 Enduro, just shaped consistently with teh 800GS beak.

REALLY, looking forward to this.

X2, especially on the FUGLY part!

Bummer.... I thought I was flying home today from Phoenix..... drove instead..... Ohh...well... Back on the homestead..... Haven`t seen th fam in a week...... so Movie time it is.... I`l check back in the am.....

Erling

x3 HP model. that hooked thing looks silly.

Though it looked cool - kind a like a bald eagle beak...

But then again, form...or function?

No worries Finn.... I will use the stocker for comparison.....

Erling

You could be right..... I just got home last night...... On a/c unit to install....and assemble one dining room table and 6 chairs..... The beak is third on the list......

Erling

I don`t think this is much longer than stock....... and ....umm.....the designer should umm.....walk the plank.....imho....

Erling

That is all good......but I will be done with 5 of those before the first guy arrives........ Ok.... this could be a great idea for some folks..... But for me...it`s overkill, and I`d rather put that money to work somewhere else..... If I was making an oversize fuel tank that had to fit the inside of a sub frame..... then it might be a different story.....

Erling

Yeppers Scott...... I only have 3 concerns.....
1: The stock beak is under my suspicion of being a catalyst in creating a lot of turbulence on the 8GS. Will a larger beak make this worse..... Not necessarily...but it could....and I don`t wan`t any more... Only one way to find out.

2: How to make a longer unit....without breaking the nice stock look.....Only one way to find out....

3: The mount for the beak is string enough to handle an extra 5-6 inches.... Only one way to find out..

Erling

If you're referring to the bolts themselves, they'll be plenty strong enough. The Touratech HID/fog lights use those bolts to mount to as well, and there's zero problem even on very rough offroad.