Re: Fabrication question

Tom wrote...

Tud wrote:

A round of drinks for those workers of metal out there, something I'm
definately not. But hell, why should that stop me. My first project is
going to be what most would likely consider extremely easy. I'm going to
pull the back seat off the bike and I want to install a rack in order to
mount an auxiliary gas tank and I've got some pretty basic design
questions.

WHAT AUX fuel????

No one needs to ride that far!

<grin>

Hehe. True, I'm just too lazy to refuel as often as I do from my 20 miles a
day.

But serious, there's been talk amoungst some of the Ural owners here in the
great white north about riding from Baie-Commeau, Quebec to Goose-Bay,
Labrador in 2009. There's at least one stretch where it's about 240km
without a gas station, and the bike is lucky to get 180km. Care to film it?

I figure I'll pick up some 1/2" steel tubing (ok, I actually have a 3'
piece, although I can't recall why) and bend this into a shape to mount at
two points on the side of fender, basically in the same spot that the hand
holds mount onto. You can see from this picture that they're a bit
offset.

http://tinyurl.com/msmer
http://tinyurl.com/27aml6

So, I would make two bars very similar to the handholds but that wouldn't
bend out like they do. Next I'd weld two bars going across from side to
side. The whole thing would angle towards the back of the bike, so that
the
platform of the rack would be parrallel to the ground but would be more
towards the rear of the bike. I would also have a couple bars that go
down
from one of the cross members to attach at the same point as the top
mounting point for the tale light, or would this be overkill? The only
reason I'm think of the additional mounting point at the tail light is
because the weight would be further back on the rack than where the
mounting
points are. If 1/2" steel tube is sturdy enough to support a lot of
offset
weight then I likely won't bother.

So, I've got a 1/2" steel tube and I want to bend it, am I ok applying
some
heat with one end in a vise and just bending it, or is the tube likely to
kink? Should I be using tube or solid 1/2" steel stock? If I stick with
the tube, how are the ends flattened in order to make mounting points? I
assume with the solid stock I'd need to weld a plate to it, but can you
heat
up and hammer one end of the tube flat and drill the hole in the flat part
to create a mounting point? I've seen it a bunch, just not sure if it's
as
simple as a hammer or if they run it through some sort of machine/press.
Any thoughts on which I hope are fairly basic questions?

damn tud are you building this rack to hold a jet plane?

That's what I was wondering, am I over building this thing? Sounds like I
might be.

use the lightest material you can find, or go to a local hardware
store and get some wood support braces to bend trust me they are very
strong we have used them several times to mount things like Gas tanks

Wood, eh? I can't picture it, at least not for a rack.

what are you using for the Aux cell?

A tourtank, likely the 4.5 gallon one (10" by 14").
http://www.tourtank.com/allparts.html
It'll be painted camo to match the bike of course. I like the shape of it
more than the square ones I've seen. Hmm, I may have to paint it up like my
favorite brand of beer can, or to make sure nobday makes a horrible mistake
and tries to drink it, I'll paint it like a PBR can.

I thought about one of the bigger ones but I think I'm pushing the asthetics
with the 4.5g one, anything bigger might be gaudy. <g> A guy in PEI has
their 8x16 one mounted on their hack and it looks good but it's only 3.5g
and I want a little more. I don't think a bigger one would fit very well in
that spot. His is at the bottom of this page:

http://www.tourtank.com/Customers.html

if it is metal not plastic remember to ground it! static electricity
can set off gas fumes, if not metal don;t forget to be sure you have
discharged yourself before hand (or loose a hand<g>)

Thanks for the tip.

BTW Jaz makes about the most affordable durable fuel cells in may
different sizes, just for giggles if you have one custom built make
sure it has baffles in it to pass IBA rules just in case you ever get
rid of it, remember there is max limit if you plan on that deal of 15
gls for a trike or sidehack

That's a shitload of fuel.

go to www.iron***.com to see the rules ,, not that you plan on doing
the rally but if you are going to build someone might as well build it
to do something you may like in the future

The Tour Tank has a baffle available to make it IBA compliant. I'd likely
get the baffle but I'm pretty sure I'd never use it.

--
Tud
SENS BS#111 LFS#32 FLF MISFIT Vermort AH#115
http://ah115.com
Sisyphus rides a Triumph


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