Oil Tank Mount

With everything on a bike being an exercise in 3-D packaging, the fastest and easiest way is to create a solid model of what you are trying to accomplish. I used my lunch over maybe 4 days, and this model was born. Makes life so much easier and the end result better.

 Chunks of scrap steel I found in the machine shop 'extras' bin.

Chunks of scrap mild steel turned into some sculpted, fishmouthed mounts.

OIl tank bungs, a pc of 1" diameter 6061, a drop saw and a bridgeport. 1 hour later I had these gems.

Measure twice, weld once.

Sides of mount tacked into place, and then a full bead laid across the top, with the oil tank in place. Tank removed here to add more welds to bottom mount.

End result, came out sweet. The model at the top of the page, shows a double shear seat mount. I am machining those out tonight.

Side view, more than enough clearance from the frame, starter, and trans, but still nicely packaged in the motorcycle. Looks like it was meant to go there.

Rear Caliper Tab

 

Rear brake caliper mount was machined 3 yrs ago or so. I finally got around to whippin' up the weld on mount, and anti rotate tab. After it came off the machine, a little bit of clearancing on the inside corner of the tab to get it to clear the caliper casting. As you can see from my fancy caliper model, I did not spend that much time trying to reverse engineer the 3-D shape of it. Bolted the tab to the caliper, swung it up into position and tacked it to the frame. It was easy and came out better looking that I thought it would. This is pretty big caliper and is so nicely tucked up into the frame.

Battery Box

 Battery box time. I started with a Twin Cam softail fitting, H-D battery. I already have a TC era softail, so I will have always have an extra battery for my bikes, Harley does make good batteries, and they are relatively cheap. I contemplated going with some kind of high tech, mini ion-lithium unit, but I don't feel like paying double for a battery that no one stocks. I want dependability and serviceability on this entire bike. 1/4" thick steel tabs to weld to the frame, 6061 aluminum everywhere else. 5/16-18 bolts and nylock nuts. Simple and bitchin at the same time. I machined the plates on the cnc bridgeport, all as a 2.5D part. Chad hooked me up on the lathe. Somewhat time consuming overall, but it could not fit better in the tight window.