A major victory was won today in the bike building battlefield that is my garage. The problem of mounting my tank has been resolved. No more sleepless nights and no more staring blankly into space mentally wrestling with the complexity of the problem.
Those who have been paying attention will remember that the tank was resting on two frame rails instead of the rubber stoppers that are supposed to simultaneously bear the weight of the tank and isolate (to a degree) vibrations from the frame. The possible solutions:
1. Raise the stoppers higher so the tank rests on them and not the frame (not particularly desirable as the tank would then be sitting "abnormally" high. This abnormally high position could be "hidden" by fibreglassing a lip around the lower edge of the tank to make it look like it is sitting lower
2. Move the frame rail slightly with a big hammer to allow the tank to sit lower (not an especially elegant engineering solution)
3. Remove some of the inner edge of the tank with a big grinder (and run the risk that so much of the tank gets removed that it no longer capable of containing volatile and highly flammable and corrosive liquids i.e. I may grind right through to the inside of the tank)
The first option was considered for approximately a microsecond before being dismissed (such is my love of fibreglassing). With respect to the remaining two potential solutions, the stress of indecision was giving me stomach ulcers so I immediately decided that to do SOMETHING was preferable to doing nothing. So I tossed a coin and heads told me it was going to be option 3, grinding the tank away.
So I carefully marked the tank where it was hitting the frame and estimated how much needed to be removed to clear the frame
Then with my dremel in hand and my heart in my mouth I started to cut into the tank
Both sides cut away and no sign of having entered the interior of the tank.
Whew!!
I don't know how thick the remaining material is but it feels pretty solid. There's plenty of clearance now so I may just run a bit of resin over the cut back sections just to be sure they're fuel-tight.
Tank/seat continuity line looks neat and the tank is resting on the rubber!
Next victory was completing my rear hugger. The first stage (previously posted) used part of the rear mudguard as a plug. I then attached stage 1 to the swing arm along with the chain guard and used that as a plug for stage 2
Popped it off the plug (pulled some paint off with it)...
After a bit of filing, the end result fits perfectly. Still needs filler, sanding, painting etc. All that boring stuff
Next in this epic weekend of achievement was the mounting of rear indicators, license plate holder, license plate light and tail light. The indicators and license plate mount is from the 848.
I had to cut the top part off and then fabricated a nice little bracket from the chopped up old battery box to mount the whole assembly at the back of the seat hoop
Now just waiting to get my rear wheel back from re-truing so I can get a tyre on it so I can check clearance of the tyre with the rear seat pan so I can send the frame, swing arm etc for painting so I can finish this bloody thing...
That's all for now folks!