Carbon fiber parts for your cafe?

[dentedvw]

A good friend of mine lost his job a few months ago, and since then he has been getting set up to make his own parts. He's a mechanical engineer, so I figure he knows best. ;D
I made some suggestions to him, side covers, fenders, cafe seats. He's considering them.
My wife is also an engineer, and she was making composite parts for aircrafts for years though now she works with TI. She is interested in trying her hand at making some parts too, so what the hey.

Is there any market for this kind of stuff? We don't have any idea what he can make them for yet, so he is going to make some experimental stuff first. A few things for some snowmobiles, some cafe parts, see what pans out.

Any suggestions?

He bought a CNC lathe, and is setting up shop for mostly carbon fiber work, but also some aluminum parts too. Nothing too fancy yet, I think. They are going to have a go at a front fender or one of my side covers later this week.

 

[swan]

Make what is not being made. For example, side covers for CB750's are available from a variety of sources but CB550F side covers are only found used and run $75 or more on e-bay for ratty ones. Research completed items on e-bay for items that sell with many bids and high prices.

There are many cafe seats available commercially and most are overpriced and ugly. Make a Manx style seat without the cutout to fit CB400's CB550 and CB750's frames and they will sell. Also tool trays and lids for CB400's and others. Could be fiberglass instead of carbon to keep prices down.

Lightweight universal front and rear fenders and rearsets will also have demand.

Good luck.

 

[rockcitycafe]

being in that business myself, I can say that you're not going to have a lot of success doing cafe parts in carbon... fiberglass, yes, but it's hard to get much $$$ for them and keep up the volume to pay your expenses. I know quite a bit about manufacturing vacuum and vartm tooling, and even have access to an autoclave, but most cafe stuff ends up being hand laminated polyester/gelcoat, because most of us are hobby builders and would rather save $75 than shave an extra 8oz of weight... so with that being said, good luck and please don't make the parts I do

 

[dentedvw]

Heh! I will pass on the suggestions!

Me, I stay out of it. I can't even paint, forget laying up parts. My wife gets the whole thing, but it's all greek to me.

 

[Flugtechnik]

The cafe folks (myself included) and especially the people on this board tend to be cheap ba$tards. We don't even like to spend more than $500 on a complete bike. Seems like they could fetch the $$$ that CF parts would require if they went after the racer market. I am trying to start my own company to do engineering consulting work to design and analyze lightweight vehicle structures. My background is in aircraft, but I would also like to get into car, motorcycle and even bicycle parts. It seems to me the only people willing to pay the big bucks in those markets are those in racing. We have the Nascar guys in our wind tunnels more than airplanes.

 

[JRK5892]

i have a buddy taht does BANGING busn in carbon fiber! i do alot with him on parts for rocket builds i have... he can make anyting as long as he has a mold. huge money in it out this way

 

[Swagger]

Frankly, I'd love an all carbon retro bike, if for nothing else but to rile up the the traditionalist wankers.
What I see in my head when I think of it is, a combo of the various body parts I find attractive:
> Ducati 350 seat; fairly typical cafe bumstop but it's got fun indentations on the sides of the cowl that set it apart
> CR750 style tank with a groove for a mounting strap and an offset Monza fuel cap
> Dunstal Domiracer upper fairing
> Nicely shaped belly pan
> Compact front fender build around a good aluminum fork brace
> Disc covers with Grimeca style scoops to completely cover a pair of modern 320mm discs and multi-pot calipers
> Underseat electronics tray
> Under fender or hugger for the rear

All in 2x2 carbon twill, with slightly blue tinted UV enhanced urethane clear coat.


So...uh....yeah, lemme know when it's ready!

 

[Mach-5(50)]

it seems like the street fighter guys and gals like carbon. i think it would be cool to have a carbon cafe racer. front fender, seat etc. but, i think it would also be cool if i made a lot more money and could afford it. sorry, but i am in the cheap bastard crew.
tell your friend to hang in there. i just went back to work, making an ok wage but no bene's. i am grateful to be working though. there is nothing more frustrating as having an unfinished bike in the garage with nothing but time and no money. well, except for the rest of the bills that come that we can't pay. that's frustrating.

later,

ryan

 

[LL]

If the dude wants to capitalize on his engineering skills, he needs to design cafe seats for dummies. They should be marketed for a specific model of bike (maybe start w/ the Honda CBs?) and be sold with all the necessary hardware needed to attach to the bike. By this I mean you have a seat for a CB450, another for CB200, CB350 and so on. The only frame modifications necessary for the customer should be to cut off the seat hinges. The seats should hug the frame and be fairly sleek.

From there you start building out your designs for each model of bike - the seat pan section (and thus the attachment method) would stay the same for a given model of bike but the tail section style would vary. My guess for a good place to start would be to have 3 designs for each bike - a boxy tail, a rounded tail and a flat WrenchMonkees/Brat Style tail. I'm thinking the designs would be fairly similar across different models of bike but the dimensions and attachment method/hardware/location would differ.

 

[chrisf]

If he has a CNC lathe, I suggest turning out bronze swing arm bushings. The rod stock isn't cheap, but the bits fetch quite a bit of money. Personally, I'd look at the bikes people are building here: CB350, CB360, CB750, XS650, etc

I would consider a carbon tank, based on price of course.


--Chris