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Old 07-01-2019, 10:16 PM   #850
350TSS
Too much time on my hands member
 
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Shipbourne
Bike: M900
Posts: 1,417
This was my first day back in the garage after the “festivities” and a week in a ski resort. I used to love skiing, nearest thing to riding a motorcycle, but alas the arthritis has put paid to that, so I spent a week reading and plotting next steps while my kids enjoyed themselves.
After almost 3 weeks away from the garage it took some time to remember what I had last been doing and where I had got to with each component of the build.
First job tackled was to trim the excess glass fibre from the air scoop moulds and drill through the two halves so that they will align when they are put back together ready for the epoxy compatible gel coat and the carbon fibre cloth. I then split the moulds with mixed results; of the 8 halves 3 came out near perfect, 3 with minor damage/defects and 2 with damage that will not rub out but will need to be filled. This will add at least 3 hours to my ETTC.
The problem once again was the gel coat creeping between the pattern and the polypropylene base plate causing the pattern to be trapped in the mould. The gel goat is incredibly viscous when just mixed with the consistency of treacle and despite waxing the junction between the pattern and the polypropylene base plate it still manages to inveigle itself in between the two components. I will have to get better at this as the tank will be a very large mould and any mechanical locking due to this will be very difficult to resolve.


A bit disheartened I decided to modify my rear tank mounting to make it lighter, neater and probably a bit safer in an accident (previously it had been a fabricated hook to retain a bungee loop that would have attached to a narrow cotton reel bonded to the rear of the tank). Using the same principle for the bungee retention for rear chain tensioner, I knocked up a clamp from 10mm plate through drilled for 2 of the original hinge mounts on the frame then cross drilled it off centre and broke through with a hacksaw to provide a half moon that would clamp the bungee to the seat retention bridge on the frame. (picture to follow).
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