Nothing new under the sun...

     It looks original, but it's already been done. Live a joyful life for God and His Son Jesus Christ. Because there's nothing new under the sun; what seems new has already been done.

     The extended footpegs on my wife's Kawasaki 1600 Vulcan need to be improved. My wife is tall and when we ride together, with the stock footpegs on it, my wife's knees were almost up in my ribs and in severe pain after a full day of riding. Awhile back I "engineered" footpeg extensions that go out over the large pipes on the motorcycle and extend forward about 6 inches. Anyways, it's finagle time, and I know just the finagler to do it!

    I purchased a welder early last year and haven't had any relevant projects to use it on until now. This is a task that has been on the back burner for some time, and with our schedule clearing up a bit, now is the time to work on it.

     This is the footpeg that is getting reworked:

Someone needs to wash those pipes...

     The main problem with them is that they should always have about a 30 degree forward slant. No matter how much I tighten the main bolt, the footpeg pivots at either the peg to cycle mount point or at the other end where the square tube drops down from the round tube. In order to ensure there is no pivoting at the outer point, I will weld a six inch steel square tube to the round steel tube. Additionally, to stop pivoting at the mounting point, I will weld a small plate onto the end of the round tube that is rectangular and fits into the indentation of the mounting bracket. Easy enough!

     Only not, because I will tell you about all the surprises I get hit by as I do this project.

     To start, I cut my square tube and the plates to cap it and the plate to fill in the mounting indentation:

     This is before welding. Keep this in mind: of all the machining and fabrication I have done to date, welding is the one trade I have done the least. Even though I read the manual to be sure it was as simple as it seemed, using a machine that generates enough electricity to fuse metal is nerve wracking. It also means my welds will be terrible until I learn my welder.

     Here are the first pieces together:

     Those are some UGLY welds, but the parts definitely came together well. A good grinder, sander, and painting will hide all that, though. You'll see!

     I checked this part against the motorcycle mount:

     Clears the pipes well enough! I also designed it to have that 1 inch rise on the upper square tube so that the passenger's foot is less likely to slide off the upper peg. I now have a permanent forward angle and the mounting indentation is filled out with the square plate to stop swinging from that point.

     Now to the footpeg going onto the extender:

     Well this isn't good. The bolt didn't reach through the square tube! I just hit a major snag and even though I quickly engineered an answer, my one day project is now a two day job. To solve this, I would have to cut and drill out the bolt and install a new one. I would also have to tack weld it to imitate the original bolt design. Here's what it looked like:

     I ended up sanding down the bolt head so that the pivoting action of the footpeg wouldn't be blocked. It worked great!

     Almost done! One last task to make these footpegs look amazing. Paint! Gotta cover those awful welds, after all.

Primered...

...painted!

     I am aware of the holes in one of them, I will probably hide them behind some grip tape. They look much better and those ugly welds are no longer noticable.

     Onto the motorcycle they go. This is how one looks:

Pipes still need cleaning...

     A major improvement!

     My joy is in this work, even if it is improving what was there. What I experienced is this...
     "It is the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him. Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. God repeats what has passed." [Eccl. 3:13-15, HCSB]

     Live a joyful life for God and His Son Jesus Christ. Because there's nothing new under the sun; what seems new has already been done.

Elwood Gets a Windshield

Yesterday (11-29-12) I started a new project, to make a new windshield for Elwood (the 1979 H-D 1200 Fatbob). There are a couple factors in this, 1) the old windshield was short and narrow, and 2) it had about a 60 degree angle and was hitting the handlebars and brake/clutch cables. So this project is twofold in purpose: larger windshield, higher canter.

When I made the windshield for the Kawasaki we bought a large piece of lexan polycarbonate. Thankfully, there was enough left over for Elwood. So I had a 36 x 25 inch piece of lexan and the support strip from the old windshield. I would need more reinforcement for the shape of the windshield, so I went to a local hardware store and picked up some aluminum U-bracket material, a strip of 1" x 36" galvanized steel, and a strip of 1/2" x 72" aluminum. Here's some of what I am using:

I cut the aluminum strip and U-bracket to 33 inches so that it will reinforce the sides of the windshield. If I don't do this, it looks wavy. I cut the galvanized strip to 25 inches to help shape the curve of the windshield. I do all the drilling and mounting and I have a pretty good looking windshield. So at this point, before I drill the holes for the mounting bracket on Elwood, I set the 'shield on the motorcycle to get an idea of what it will look like:

Ummmm.....

Well that was unintentional. That's a tall windshield!

Back to the cutting tools! I went back to sizing it properly and I got called on an emergency mission by my wife. Something to do with paying for an event ticket. I go to start the Kawasaki and the battery was dead! Guess I have to take Elwood, even without a windshield. I went about 3 miles and discovered how cold the wind is when it's blasting you at 35 to 45mph.  I have an even greater appreciation for a windshield. It keeps the bugs off AND that blasting cold wind!

I get back home and back to work on the windshield. I cut about 2 inches off the top and put a curve to it. I also had to angle cut the bottom outside a few inches because the 'shield was jamming into the gas tank when the wheel was fully turned. After wearing out my sawblade from cutting aluminum and steel, I cut the 'shield exactly how I wanted it.

When I went to mount it, I used washers to increase the canter. This was extremely difficult but I got it mounted and this is what it looked like:

Still a bit tall! I am sure that it looks taller than it is because it's not much more wide than the last 'shield. I thought about taking it off and cutting off about 4 inches, but as difficult as it was to mount with the modified canter, I am alright with a tall windshield. I call it "customized"!

Here it is, all finished:

I praise the Lord Jesus! You made me and saved me, and I love You for it! Amen!

Post Thanksgiving report

What a blessed week with the Baker Bunch at Bakersfield! The in-laws brought their horses and I got to ride a horse for the first time. I was a bit nervous but BIL gave some clear instructions and it wasn't as bad as it could have been, meaning I didn't fall off the horse. BIL compared it to riding a motorcycle, being that if you keep your center of gravity above the saddle, everything would be fine. Unlike a motorcycle, a horse has a mind of its own and may not always do what you tell it.

My mom was able to make it for Thanksgiving. I was telling her the story about shooting the 11 point deer and having to haul his 150 pound body up a hill to the tree we use for processing. There was jeering and no sympathy from the rest of the family (they were being humorous). I was just glad she was there to share time with a very loving family that could have only been brought together by God's plan.

Here's the deal about this deer I shot. A lot of the men at our church are hunters. By request I brought the rack of horns for them to see, and also because after church we would be back with the Baker Bunch and they wanted to see the horns first hand. All the church guys were surprised, and frankly I didn't understand why. When BIL saw the rack of horns, he just shook his head.

Apparently I shot a trophy deer, meaning that if anyone else that wasn't a noob hunter like me shot this deer, they would have taken it to a taxidermist and gladly spent the hundreds of dollars to have its head mounted on their living room wall (noob means something similar to a rookie or a newby). Instead, this guy shoots it and is perfectly happy with the 23 pounds of meat that I got off of him. After a couple days, SIL thanked me about shooting the deer because I saved her the money that her husband would have spent on getting this deer mounted.

Last Saturday night we enjoyed the LORD's provision from this deer when we all shared in eating his back strap meat. All of us were lurking about the fryer pan waiting for tasty chicken fried venison. Good stuff!

I have to say that this was the first time in a long time that I felt like a kid about the end of our Thanksgiving holiday. I was sad to see my family go their own ways, and I miss them a bit. I am eager to see them for Christmas for our crazy gift exchange. We already know what we're throwing in, so I am looking forward to time with family again.

In the mean time, if you or anyone you know wants to start hitting people with sticks, or if they want to lighten their armor weight, come to my Etsy shop and check out the starter armor knees I am making. Thanks and God bless!