GR650......starting over for the last time

The only problem I had with mounting fairings was stiffness.Mine was plenty stiff until I hit highway speeds with variable winds.Then the fairing would shake around enough to to make contact with various parts of the engine,frame,and headlight.We used a thin wall 3/8 tubing that could have been bent by hand but it was hard and resulted in kinks.We used homemade plywood dies to bend the tubing.
 
Thanks for the info guys. I think I'll go ahead and make a prototype out of the material I have on hand and see how sturdy that is. It will allow me to test out everything as well before buying more material. Thanks again.


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Deacon, I checked the tubing this morning. The 1/2" OD stuff has a .062" wall thickness, and the stock GSXR fairing mount appears to be the same. I say "appears" because I didn't get enough time to physically measure it (since the fairing is completely mounted at the moment).

If it's any help, I wasn't as concerned about the size / strength of the steel as I was how the mounts were designed. I made the upper mount as solid as I could because the mirrors will be mounted to them, and the lower mounts extend as far back as possible to support the rear end of the fairing. You're making the mounts for that 1/2 fairing, correct? I would think you would need more support at the very front of it and not so much at the rear extremities.
 
Big Rich said:
Deacon, I checked the tubing this morning. The 1/2" OD stuff has a .062" wall thickness, and the stock GSXR fairing mount appears to be the same. I say "appears" because I didn't get enough time to physically measure it (since the fairing is completely mounted at the moment).

If it's any help, I wasn't as concerned about the size / strength of the steel as I was how the mounts were designed. I made the upper mount as solid as I could because the mirrors will be mounted to them, and the lower mounts extend as far back as possible to support the rear end of the fairing. You're making the mounts for that 1/2 fairing, correct? I would think you would need more support at the very front of it and not so much at the rear extremities.

Thank you very much for getting the measurements. I think that is the same thickness of the stuff I have, I'll work with it and see how it goes. Yeah, its for the half fairing and like you said, most of the weight will be in front of the trees. I'm going to make two small supports for the rear 'wings' but more just to keep them straight and not flapping about. The fairing itself is pretty light and the headlight is small so not much weight to support.

Thanks again.
 
Ok, so I'm getting a little time in the garage again. Been doing some smaller stuff to the GR, but nothing really picture worthy. Somebody asked how I know the rear wheel is in line with the front and I sent them this link:

http://classicmotorcycles.about.com/od/technicaltips/ss/Classic-Motorcycle-Wheel-Alignment.htm

And here are a couple pics of when I did it:





The bottles by the rear tire are filled with steel shot, and I used quarts of oil for the front weights. Some 8# fishing line and a 6" scale (along with some sore knees.....) and that's all it took. You can see in the second pic I dug out some fairing mirrors and bolted them on. More to come.....
 
Rich...great work so far!


Haven't been on here in a while and have been missing out!




I will be following along as a picked up a sweet half fairing for my 550.
 
Mothgils! Good to have you along for the ride buddy.

I've been busy with some other stuff as of late, but I've been planning / collecting parts in the meantime. So I should have a proper update to this after my next set of days off........ hopefully.
 
Time for an update! My ADVMonster Model 50 showed up:



Here it is crammed into the Derbi headlight (on top in the pic, bottom light is an H4):



I wasn't able to take a picture of the light output, but I will eventually.
 
Here's what I've been working on so much recently.... the seat frame. Just a reminder where it was stalled at:



Notice the dropped section right behind the gas tank mount. I cut that section out, bent the rails until they pointed straight back, and made some slugs for new rails:

 
Bent up some new tubing, and welded it all together, along with a rear loop.



Here's a comparison of the new rails (bare steel) compared to the original (painted black):

 
Once I woke up this afternoon, I rolled the bike outside for a decent picture:



I'll be adding a couple braces soon, but the basic framework is done.
 
About time you did something .... :p

Outstanding on the tail ... but was looking at it and was wondering were the new section is why not put tabs and run a removeable tail section ?
 
Good eye, Scott. I put the tabs on the upper mounts (directly under the gas tank) but left the lower rails solid.....for now. The frame loop and lower rails were left solid only to help line up the top rails. Once I weld in some other bracing, I'll be cutting the base of the lower rails to make the entire seat frame removable.
 
Thanks gentlemen.

Look at it this way Mike: if I could bring the GR to Barbers this year it would just be a skeleton of a project. Next year on the other hand.....it should be a different story.
 
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