Slow Monster rebuild

[Mr Gazza]

There's always hope.
There are plenty of ways to insulate a building like that. Unfortunately rather difficult and disruptive in an already established workshop, as everything has to come out or be moved at least twice.
Well worth it though to be comfortable with just a frugal heater.

[350TSS]

Started today with the manufacture of 4 brass nuts for my common earth. After yesterday’s struggle with titanium, brass is such a lovely metal to machine, it took me an hour to knock them up out of 14mm hexagon brass bar. I could easily have bought 8mm brass nuts but the standard size is 13mm across the flats and the extra mm will provide a better clamp for the cable lugs and a greater contact area for passage of electrons.

[350TSS]

Then I thought I would start on the fly screen mold. I realized from looking at my S4 version that all the “body work” is forward of the top and bottom yokes so the plane formed of the four clamp slits in the front of the top and bottom yokes would be a good place to start.
I also thought I should restrict the size of the screen to no higher and no wider than the S4, I do remember that above about 110mph in certain wind conditions the S4 could get a bit light on the steering and had a slight tendency to weave. It might have been other things of course, head bearings, condition of the tyres or where I was sitting or what I was carrying, but no point tempting fate.
The position of the centre of the headlamp lens relative to the yoke “plane” took some working out, but eventually I managed it. I cut a circle the size of the lens in 9mm ply and a 4 x 2 offcuts to replicate the angle the lens sits relative to the fork legs.
I then realized that I needed to make a solid object within the mold to replicate the fixings for the headlamp bracket and the instrument nacelle. This is so that when I came to shape the foam I do not compromise those areas.
At this point I then realized that my existing headlight bracket molds would not work at all, (clip on positioning and the clutch and brake master cylinders clash). The main reason it will not work, however, is aesthetic, the instrument nacelle cannot go where I had originally intended. It was too far forward and sits too high causing the projected front face of the fly screen to be too vertical, looking a bit like the front fairing on a big KTM trail bike. I think I can modify the nacelle mold to mount off the bottom of the top yoke using the holes formerly mounting the clocks. I will lose a bit of visibility on the rear- view camera screen at the bottom edge but the slope of the front face of the fly screen will be more aerodynamic (rather than looking like the front of a 40 ton articulated lorry).
Bit of a lesson learned here, I have been designing the various molds to work together, the headlamp brackets as designed were to provide vertical support to the instrument nacelle, similarly the nacelle mold would provide lateral rigidity to the headlight supports, trouble that when things change as they inevitably will the knock on effects create more work.

[350TSS]

Just checked again re the instrument nacelle and in the putative lower position it will definitely foul the headlamp molding – bollox!!!!!. Trouble is the foul is almost certainly more than I can shave off the headlamp mold without infringing on the rear surface of the headlamp lens – more bollox!!!!!!
This is a real dilemna:
1. I could move the headlamp down and gain about 25 mm but then the fly screen mold will have to change and a lower headlamp cannot be as good for projecting light onto the road (which is its primary purpose after all) and by reading threads on here the light is marginal anyway. Most of my mileage on the bike (about 15k miles) was commuting in London on lit streets so I cannot remember a particular weakness.
2 live with the truck like front fly screen - this is definitely not an option, aesthetics are important when you spend this long building a bike
3. re-package the instrument nacelle, this means new mold and I am not sure where else it can logically go.
4 move the nacelle rearward onto the top of the top yoke nearer where handlebar clamp hole are. Might look a bit odd and am not sure because of the depth of the mold for the cctv camera whether I can get a good enough angle i.e. not 90 degrees to the face of the top yoke without I still being too high.
5. see if I can shave anything from the back of the nacelle mold even to the extent of having the CCTV /Speedo raised above the top surface which again will look odd and will mean that I cannot put both under a sheet of perpex sealed completely from the weather
Errm??????
These things are sent to try us

[utopia]

On the subject of lowering a headlamp ...
Me and my mate pondered this a while back.
I was interested in gaining a better separation between main and dip, the idea being that I could then set the dip height to max, anti-dazzle level and get the main beam to throw a little higher/further than before.
Instinct suggested that raising the headlight would accomplish this but, following a few fag packet sketches and rudimentary geometry we came to the conclusion that the reverse was the case.
So, maybe lowering the headlight might actually improve it a Gnat's.
Mind you, bear in mind that our ponderings were subject to normal human error. We may have got it wrong.
But nevertheless, it might be worth a ponder of your own, if lowering seems to offer the required solutions elsewhere.

I know that lowering the headlamp was once a reasonably common mod .. there are probably old threads on the forum somewhere.
Probably done mostly for cosmetic reasons though, I would assume.

[350TSS]

Had a long ponder yesterday and found that the instrument nacelle can be modified to give me a bit more room for manoeuvre. The CCTV screen has a lug on the back for mounting a sticky pad to a car dashboard. This can go and I can thus save about 15mm on the edge nearest the headlamp shell and the top yoke. Also looking at the headlamp shell, I think I can file a flat on the top edge that should give me another 8 to 10mm clearance. Without headlamp shell side brackets, I have to hold the various bits in mid-air and guess their exact positioning. It all looks a bit more promising than the end of last week.
I cut the nacelle mold with a hand saw and will obviously have to further modify the mold to accommodate the mounting of the finished article to the underside of the lugs on the top yoke which originally held the speedo and located the aluminium U bracket that held the head lamp shell.

[350TSS]

The indentations in the nacelle are large enough to fit CCTV screen and the speedo with a 6mm deep rubber self adhesive draught seal to act as vibration insulation (vertically and laterally). The speedo has 6mm studs which will have nylocs to act as a secure mechanical fixing the CCTV screen without the lug will have no mechanical fixing unless I can think of something. I originally intended to have a sheet of clear perspex or ABS over both and sealed to the nacelle surround but there may not be room for this

[350TSS]

Utopia, the problem I have is that the fly screen looks naff because the front edge above the headlamp is too perpendicular (because the leading edge of the nacelle causes it to be so). Lowering the headlamp will only compound the naffness. Moving the head light forward may be the answer, enabling a more pointed shape and a shallower slope of the screen immediately above the headlamp lens. I think if the headlamp goes too far forward the cornering visibility will suffer because the lens is moving in a wider arc from the steering head. ????????????? Probably over thinking this one.

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

?...Moving the head light forward may be the answer, enabling a more pointed shape and a shallower slope of the screen immediately above the headlamp lens. I think if the headlamp goes too far forward the cornering visibility will suffer because the lens is moving in a wider arc from the steering head???.......

You don't turn the steering that much at speed: just a little push and pull to lay the bike over. The rest of the lock is for slow speeds round town.

A potential problem though is that you are moving the headlight further away from the steering pivot, which increases the rotational inertia. Not ideal [In theory], but I've no idea whether it makes any perceptible difference in practise?

[350TSS]

Utopia: reading my last posting it seems a bit abrupt - sorry, I have no intention to curtail your contributions which are always interesting and thought out

[350TSS]

Darkness: yes that was exactly the reason I do not want to push the headlamp forward, that and the fact that I have made good progress on the fly screen mold with the headlamp in as close as possible the original position and that I do not really want to make the bike look like a preying mantis.

[350TSS]

Utopia: reading my last posting it seems a bit abrupt - sorry, I have no intention to curtail your contributions which are always interesting and thought out

[utopia]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

Utopia: reading my last posting it seems a bit abrupt - sorry, I have no intention to curtail your contributions which are always interesting and thought out

No, I didn't read it that way at all.
But thanks for saying.

[350TSS]

Received my MOSFET regulator from China (came without connectors to attach so I will have to source those and without any instructions or wiring diagrams whatsoever). It has 5 spades in connector blocks, there are six wires coming from the old but two red ones are joined. I will have to work out which wire goes where. Tracing wiring diagrams without physical pictures of wires joining connectors is not my strong suit.
Clearly it makes sense for the connection to the regulator to be as close to the pivot point on the mounting as this will minimize any stress on the cables/connectors. Also, it makes sense that the connectors / cable exits point rearward to minimise the chance of water ingress and to allow the most direct route to the main wiring harness. In this orientation with both the old and the new regulators the cooling fins are at 90 degrees to the direction of travel, which is unavoidable but somehow annoying.
The MOSFET regulator with molded in connector blocks is about 15mm shallower but about 25mm longer than the original. With the complication of not knowing the wiring and the fact that the longer MOSFET regulator would project about 60 mm in front of the leading edge of the bottom yoke I decided to stick with the old regulator. I cut out the mounting plate from 6mm aluminium plate with my trusty jigsaw accordingly. I had to grind off the guide prongs on the outer edge of my new 26mm cabinet hinge cutter which projected about 2mm below the face cutter (it was designed for cutting chipboard or MDF) and I recessed the thrust bearing faces about a mm each side.

[350TSS]