R1200GS Billet triple clamp project

THIS THREAD HAS BEEN MOVED SO I WILL PUT ORDER DETAILS HERE AND THE STORY IS BELOW.

The price of this products is $480.00 AUD including deliverey world wide.
The clamps is not only stronger but it offers 15mm more wheel clearence than the OEM clamp making it possible to use the front mudguard on the the bike with the 21" front wheel conversion.
Made from billet aluminium and annodised for surface protection.

To order please either email mark@rallemoto.com or send us a PM. All advrider.com members will be first in the list for delivery.

ORDERING IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE - WE ARE TAKING ORDERS NOW!

DIRECT LINK TO WEBSITE HERE > http://www.rallemoto.com/contents/en-us/d32.html



ORIGINAL STORY>>>>>>>

Hi Guys, I havent been on here in ages but in the last little while we have been getting requests to post some of our new projects and things we are working on here and some other forums so you guys have some light reading! Sice we dont really open up untill next Monday I thought I would come into work and do a few bits n peices including dropping you guys a line.

Thought some of you guys might be interested in how we (MSC Products/Ralle-Moto) develop new stuff.
I have posted this thread because we have had heaps of customers say how they would love to see a behind the seens story/blog on how some of our parts are made. I decided this would be a great part to start with because it is bike specific and this is a forum for the bikes this part is made for!

WHAT AND WHY WE ARE DOING THIS
The part I'm showing you is in development at the moment. The way this came about was one of our customers Greg (Quirky) rang and asked on the off chance if we would take a look at his bike with the 21" front wheel because there is no clearence for the tyre under the mudguard.
At the moment there is one option and it is a triple clamp/yoke but sells for $850.00 USD and then needs the same brand front mudguard which is another $225.00 USD which makes it a pretty solid investment in anyones language!!!
We decided that we would need to try and keep the OEM front guard and the price needs to be much better. We believe we will have this done, not easy but should be about half the price and use the standard mudguard with 15mm extra clearence for the wheel.

WHERE TO START
First off we get our hands on the bike which Greg kindly has loaned to us for this project. When get the bike we spend time carefully taking the front end apart, not just because we dont want to damage his bike but also because we can get a real close look and see how it all works and what clearence we have in areas. These are a big heavy bikes so working on them can be tricky and if you rush, things can be missed..... When we pull the bike down one of the major things that will be part of the installation is the ball joint removal and install. It is extremely tight in the clamp and needs some care when removing. We used a large capacity imact driver and a modified socket so we didnt need any heat and didnt scratch the front side of the OEM triple clamp.
It actually come out quite easy with the tools we used.

REMOVING THE FRONT END





TIME TO DRAW
We design everything first using a program called Solid Works a full 3D CAD package. This allows us to draw the part and check all kinds of things you cannot see without making a prototype and then cutting it up. We can cut it into peices on the screen and check things like wall thicknesses and where holes might get close to breaking out etc.

Here are some pictures of the 3D computer models




PROGRAMING THE CNC CODE
Once we are happy on the screen then the next stage is to start to create the CNC programs. This is a time consuming task and takes an experienced person to write code for this kind of part.
Writing the program is the key to everything on the finished part, if the program is not so good then the part will come out like rubbish compared with a nice program. We set toolpaths and cutter direction and the order they do their job.

Here is a pic of the machine simulation we do before putting the block in the machine.



As you can kind of see there is heaps of work in coding this program just for stage 1 has over 10 000 lines of code. Once the code is written in the CAD CAM package then we spend extra time editing and looking for any small adjustments we can make to speed up the cycle time.

MACHINING STAGE 1
Once the programs are written and edited we setup the first block of 6061 T6 billet aluminium in the Haas CNC machining centre. This takes a bit of time as all the tools need to be set up and the machine needs to be told where the block is in the machine.


Telling the machine where the 6kg block of aluminium is!


This is a mock up practice thread so we can check the thread size before we make a full clamp.
Once the machine is set up and coordinates are in the machine we can run the first program through and sometimes make some small adjustments to the program as we go.


Machine working its way through the job. It takes approx 16 different tools to cut their way through all the different parts to the program.


When the stage 1 material is cut away the clamp starts to take shape and this is where most of the bulk is removed.

I will post again soon, I have more pics and more info but today is close to done so its off to the beach!! (its a sunny 35 degreesC here! - If there are any other things you would like to know about this development then send me message and I will try and include it for you
* More to come shortly :) *

Cheers
Vaughan

Many times I have had credit card in hand and was going to call Wunderlich to buy their fork brace, but each time I chickened out because of the price. If you can make one that is half price of theirs and retain the stock front fender, I am your first customer.

No problem Manxman!! I think you will be very happy when you see the price and the finished product very soon!! Keep an eye on this thread!

Also on another note we are debating here what colour to annodise the clamp? What would you guys like to see??

My vote is for black or silver over the flashier colours like red and blue.

Would you believe and seriously, I reckon, Orange colour.

I'd hate Red for sure and Blue has already been done.

Black or silver option would really suck to make hide such a beautiful trick looking piece of machining.

Hope it's nearly done, I'm suffering terribly without a ride.

Looks great though.

Thanks for the heads up Quirky, I too am looking forward to the finished results. Maybe I can be the test pilot here in the States.

Will keep an eye on this thread or you boys can contact me when it is all sorted out.

Cheers

Nice models, I'm actually in the process of doing a top triple clamp for the 1150's with integrated fastening for a Scotts damper.

Did you guys run any FEA on your clamp?

Cheers, James

Greg pretty close now mate! We will call you early next week!

The colours we have been thinking are the 2 we use on our steering dampers, gold from the RM2 or the titanium look grey from the Matrix SD unit. Like you to guys proved some like it to stand out and some like it blend in with bike!!!!

Blend. I'd buy one.

Excellent work! Very interested.

Count me in - but orange - that is for KTM's!!!

Just kidding - if orange is your thing. I am all for a nice titanium pewter colour - how is that.

Heck - I don't care what colour - I just want one.

D

Great to see you guys are interested

I dont have long thismorning to post to much as its Mark's 50th birthday today! So I will keep this one quick!

MUD GUARD FITMENT
The clamp was finished to the end of stage 1 so we now spend a bit of time fitting the front guard to it while still in the machine. If we take it out first you will never get it back to the same spot so then everything ends up out of whack! The key to machining is holding the job and moving the part the least with the least amount of setups.

When we went to fit the guard there were a couple of spots we tickled as you can see in this pic. (yes it out of the machine but I didnt get any photo's of this in the machine!) We milled the small grooves around the bolt mounts and then put some chamfers on the fork cylinders.



The front guard now fits on with only a small trim of some plastic on the guard, its only very small but at least its not replacing the guard for 200 odd bucks!! I will post some picks of that mod soon.

STAGE 2 MACHINING THE TOP SIDE
To machine the top side of the clamp is slightly more involved as a set of soft jaws need to be machined up to hold the complicated shape of the underside. Soft jaws can be straight forward and some can be a pain in the butt these ones were somewhere in between!

The top side also had quite a few changes as we went along, mainly because the way we were thinking changes as the part takes shape. Many times you can design something on screen but when its in your hand you can see things that dont make sense on a computer!!

The photo's here are of the 1st part, I will post photos of the 2nd peice later.





As you can see the between the Solid Works drawings in my first post and these pics there are pretty big differences in the front face as we decided after having the part to look at we can fit the brakeline plumbing into the clamp no problem......... Well it was a bit of a mission because we had to reprogram much of stage 1 also

The reason we orginally didnt put the plumbing through the clamp was that if you look at how we designed the top bracing upper line would not work and then when the lower lines needed to be drilled they would clash with the ball joint, so this was where we said we will need to use different lines which is not a massive issue but its still a bit of a pain to us looking for an outside supplier and also the extra work for the customer not to mention that the standard setup is actually very good except for the lack of strength!

How we ended up doing it is we have put a pocket for the brakeline to poke down from the top and then connect to an almost standard position - with the added material around the holes it is still much stronger than other available clamps.

To make it possible also is the use of a 4th axis on the machine rather than angle jigs. This keeps it all one setup for drilling on each side which makes matching the holes up extremely accurate with no miss match!

The brace design we have over the top and out to the front was quite tricky to achieve with the plumbing but it is worth every extra minute.... or day of programing!! The cross drilling photos will be up soon as it will be the next part of the story after the making of the jigs and fixtures!

ANOTHER QUICK QUESTION?????
Would you prefer to have the ball joint......
a - Remove and reinstall yourself
b - Exchange setup where you send your clamp back we do it for you then send back to you - will cost you the freight
c - pay an extra $150 to have a new genuine ball joint installed in the billet clamp

*option C is a guesstimate price as I have found them in the US for $130 odd and then with some shipping here would be $150 I would think. ( we will install for free)*

I vote for A - remove and reinstall myself

I should be able to find a shop to do the ball joint locally (it is pressed in?)

I'd also likely be your customer depending on price.

Bolted on. You can see the threads in the prototype

Duh. Yes, I can do that myself.

Price man, price??!!

It's not finished, be patient, an estimate only I copied & pasted from 3rd paragraph.

At the moment there is one option and it is a triple clamp/yoke but sells for $850.00 USD and then needs the same brand front mudguard which is another $225.00 USD which makes it a pretty solid investment in anyones language!!!
We decided that we would need to try and keep the OEM front guard and the price needs to be much better. We believe we will have this done, not easy but should be about half the price and use the standard mudguard with 15mm extra clearence for the wheel.

Did you notice the picture of the socket in the lathe that was machined down to fit the nut? Just checking

Very Cool. Real pretty design.

I would've suggested a tang on the leftside rear for a linear steering damper. The Paralever lever already has a location for the other end of the damper so if you put the tang on it would be easy to drill the lever and install a damper. Would it be possible to program that in?

Another point: From the looks of the last pitcher post, the top of the clamp has pockets milled into it that feed into the clamping area to the sliders. This could cause corrosion problems if dirt and water settle in there and are left for much time. No suggestions other than closing the pocket off before the slider clamp to avoid fusion of the slider to clamp.

Again, good lookin' stuff. I would R&R the ball joint myself...

Not liking the Gold option. :ddog

The titanium grey is better.
Black I'm cool with also.

What about blue then?

Hey Vaughan
Do different colours cost more than others?
Do different annodised colours effect strength or problems with part integrity?

Quirky, news is out!!!

I would like to order mine with the new ball joint fitted.

Colour, dark is nice.
But gold would look good with matching woodys hubs, and would match my damper.
Mmm
Either way, I'm keen to get a clamp.
Will my tour tech steering stoppers fit the new fork clamp bolts?