Nicely done!!!!....:yesnod:

Post more pics as you finish it up and get it installed.

Ken

 

Will post more pics if the SW motech crash bars ever come in. Ordered Feb. 1st. :furious: Tried to support local dealer. :headbang:

 

Ah Crap,.............no welding? Come on, that's at least half of the fun!!!

[Nicely thought out and done. :thumbup:]


B.

 

It's only fun, if you own a welder!:green_lol: Yeh, I know, I just wanted to give the (weldingly challenged) some hope.:yesnod:

 

Sure looks nice. I'd just be a little worried about metal fatigue and breakage caused by the bending (ask me how I know), but that also depends on the Al alloy used.

 

Got me thinking, so I bent a piece about 1" across back and forth greater than 90 deg. and it survived 7 times. The whole thing as a structure, with reinforcing, would of course, be much stronger, than a single 1" wide piece. Anyway it cost about $45.00 all told and would take about an hour to remake, so think of it as recyclable armour if you will. :mrgreen:

 

I pick up my Wee in a few weeks and have been surfing around looking for add-ons. This certainly gives me some inspiration, especially after seeing some of the prices being asked!

And I've a friend with a shop to boot.

Nice job.

Chich

 

Thanks Chich; That's exactly why I designed it. Enjoy your new bike.

 

Very nicely done there... Are you taking orders yet?

 

Viclava; See the original title (DIY) :green_lol: I'm so busy right now that I barely have time to make my own. I will consider your request again in the future though. Bob...

 

I now have the belly pan mounted. Please let me restate that this pan (not skid plate) is for protecting the motor from spray and road debris, not for humping rocks etc. and it will not provide a lift point for your favorite motorcycle jack.

You will notice right away that the mounting is a little unconventional to say the least. Don't flame me until you read the first paragraph.:fineprint:

Yes those are just Zip ties holding the pan mounts onto the SW mo bars. There are 3 ties under each mount to prevent the mounts from marking the bars.

The rear mounts are zipped too! Heavy on the KISS principal.

I have been using this set up for a while so I could see if there was anything obviously wrong with it before posting, and so far so good. I did not know whether the ties would stand the exhaust heat for one thing. They do. I did not drill any vent holes in the plate at first, but did so after a few runs. The vents follow the path of the exhaust pipe so far. Has anyone ever run a plate without vents? To do maintenance on the motor requiring removal of the plate, I would just cut the ties and replace them when finished. There is a 1 1/2" hole in the pan under the oil drain, and I can still take the oil filter off with the pan in place.

 

The rear mounts are zipped too! Heavy on the KISS principal.

Again, just a noob question...but wouldn't that zip-tie be subject to rather high heat from the exhaust? I don't know what temp those things are good up to, but if it doesn't melt off I could see if becoming quite brittle and eventually failing.

 

good work, looks nice. Not sure if I ride in rough enough areas to warrant a skid plate, but maybe someday.

Clem

 

This pan is actually not for rough areas, it is to protect the motor area from debris that you could run into while on-road. It comes from an incident when a C cell battery was flicked up off the road by the traffic ahead of me and hit a banjo fitting on my bike. I figure it would work for light off-road use too. Sticks and stones etc.

 

Do you have a drawing with dimensions? I could get that into cad easily, then make one sweet pdf. It might be nice to have rolling around the forum, let me know.

Adam

 

Sorry to not get back to you sooner Adam. I will see what I can round up.:yesnod:

 

Here is my budget rear stand. It is VERY similar to my brothers pitbull. It only cost $14 for the ball bearing casters from Grainger, funny thing is they are nicer then the ones on the pitbull :green_lol:

 

Low And Silent; I am keeping a close eye on all the ties. I give them a twist with a pair of needle nose pliers about every 100k or so. So far 1000km no failures. Even tho there was no vents in the pan originally, 500km, there was no problem that I could see with heat. There must be a lot of air flow around the front and top of it that takes away the heat. It's 10-15* here now so I don't think it's much of a test. I don't think I would want to idle along at 30*c in a traffic jam. I will probably vent it some more. Still testing.:fineprint:

 

Someone that shows up with a good idea is valuable. Someone that shows up with the idea, the plans, the prototype and the results of the field test is priceless. Nice work Bob.

You might enjoy this link: http://www.squidoo.com/about_bob

Safe rides
Bob
:thumbup:

 

Hey rhbell; The link is pretty much right on. :green_lol: Thanks for the kind words too. Honest Bob.

 

I'm going to try this

I've had my eye on Bob's work here for a bit and today I've tried my hand at making the template for my 650. I think this is going to work. Bob, I appreciate your post. I'm no fabricator, but I like making my own stuff when I'm capable of it. About the only difference I'm making is I'm making mine a bit narrower (steeper sides), and a friend of mine who also has a wee has a mig welder and will use that to hold it together. Otherwise I'd definitely do the pop-rivet. Once I'm done I'll post some pictures here.

 

I've had my eye on Bob's work here for a bit About the only difference I'm making is I'm making mine a bit narrower (steeper sides), Once I'm done I'll post some pictures here.

Funny you should mention it, I have since made mine a little more narrow. It looked like it may impact if it took a nap, so I brought the sides in about an inch. It has since taken that nap and all is well.:yesnod:

 

Nice work I have to mod mine after my Leo Vince full system install.

 

new rock shield in place

I finished my shield this past week. As I mentioned before, I had the sides welded, then had it powder-coated black to match the rest of my bike. I think it turned out very nice and will be much more protective and durable than the plastic one that the previous owner had. Two bolts in the back allow me to drop the back so I can change the oil and filter (which I did last night).

 

I finished my shield this past week. As I mentioned before, I had the sides welded, then had it powder-coated black to match the rest of my bike. I think it turned out very nice and will be much more protective and durable than the plastic one that the previous owner had. Two bolts in the back allow me to drop the back so I can change the oil and filter (which I did last night).

Thanks for the post. It's a thing of beauty:hurray: and it looks like it can work for a living too. I have drilled a few holes in the front face of mine, sort of following the path of the exhaust pipe. Just to let you know, I did an experiment with mine to see if the guard was interfering with the cooling. I ran the bike with the guard on and with it off, until it reached 3 bars on the temp gauge. I checked the temps, of the case at the cylinder base, the middle of the face of the oil rad, the exhaust pipe midway between the first and second turn, and the left side of the oil filter. I used a hand held laser beam type gauge and the ambient temp was about 27c. Long story short, the guard makes no difference. I guess there is a lot of air flow around the engine in spite of the guard. I'm not one to let a bike sit and idle, so I can't say what effect the guard would have then. I have not tried it in slow traffic.

 

Great looking belly plate but it looks like it may cause some over heating issuses ?

 

Its a blessing to have these creative and sharing souls around! Thanks honest Bob!

 

Bob, thanks for that reply. I was just going to ask you about that. I followed your example when I built mine and drilled air holes following the path of the pipe as well as in front of the oil cooler. I did that before I had it painted so the holes don't show up in the picture very well. That gives me some relief about possible overheating issues. Do you notice any additional heat felt by you when you're stopping? I know that's a really subjective question, but if you noticed it at all. I haven't so far, but I haven't ridden very far with it yet.

 

well. That gives me some relief about possible overheating issues. Do you notice any additional heat felt by you when you're stopping? I know that's a really subjective question, but if you noticed it at all. I haven't so far, but I haven't ridden very far with it yet.

I had her out on a track a while back, kind of rocky and some deep water holes, and she got tired and took a nap in a washout on a down hill grade. Fortunately a guy came along to help me (not going out there alone again:headbang By the time we got it sorted out the bike and I had worked up a sweat. I was sitting at the top of a 20' embankment at the side of a road profusely thanking the guy who helped me when he remarked that my engine was steaming. I looked down at a wet mud covered steaming engine . That is the only time I have ever felt some heat coming off the bike. It probably looked up at me and said the same thing!:green_lol:

 

If you have ANY doubts about running your pan look at pictures 9 and 14. See anything familiar?:fineprint: If those bikes didn't overheat:jawdrop:. http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=547250

 

Reinforcing?

In the OP, there is a mention of "3/4" angle reinforcing... if needed." Did you actually use any reinforcing at all (other than the bent plate)?

 

In the OP, there is a mention of "3/4" angle reinforcing... if needed." Did you actually use any reinforcing at all (other than the bent plate)?

I didn't. My purpose with this was to create a shield for rocks, etc., so it isn't a true skid plate. If I was going to do much off-road riding I'd probably buy one of the several excellent skid plates made for that purpose.

I got back last week from a 1000 mile trip thru Montana and Idaho where I ran across some newly chip-sealed roads and very happy to hear some pinging as rocks bounced off my new shield. Mission accomplished! It's doing the job I wanted it to do.

 

I know I'm bringing this post back from the dead but I was wondering how big a piece of diamond plate you guys started off with. 2ft by 4ft?

Thanks

 

I may have missed it somewhere, but is there a template for this on the web or sitting on someone's workbench? would sure save some time for flatterers ... haha

 

I just want to say thanks to Bob for posting this, with a couple of little mods to suit what I wanted, I made this yesterday for my DL650 and it fitted up perfectly first go. The only real change I made was to extend it back and forwards to make for what I felt was a slightly better connection. I don't have a centre stand so no interference there. All in all I give this project a 10 out of 10, Thank Bob.

Pictures here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/1042.../photos/104270840696369527324/albums/6045300701524196401?authkey=CID7iMbh5rG8Rg

 

Bob... Nice Job !!... I have been kicking over to build or buy... looks like I have another winter project