H1, Chapter 4

Let's start this one with a quick pic. The trimmed part in the pic is actually the first mold I made(you can see the shiny inside). It's trimmed the way it is so that when you lay a part up in it, it leaves a very distinct line to follow when trimming the actual part. Having a guide saves a lot of time down the road. You can also trim the part while it's still in the mold, using the trimmed mold as a guide. That's what I would have done here, but I wanted to be sure this part was going to come out of the mold.  The part it's self gets trimmed with a cutoff wheel in the 4 1/2" grinder.  It gets rough trimmed, then the edges are sanded to their final shape.

Got'er trimmed and sittin' on the bike. I fit on it exactly where I wanted to, nice and comfortable, and not so upright.  You can see as well that the rear mounting tab of the tank actually sits on it. That's part of the plan, makes the tank sit where I want it as well as provides a front attaching point for the seat/fender.

Truth be told, I barely got the fender out of the mold.  I had to fight like heck with the thing to get it out of the mold.  Since the whole point of the mold was to have an easily reproducible part, I wanted something better.  So, I used my newly molded fender as a buck to make another new mold.  Like the original mold, the fender gets bodyworked, recoated in resin, and polished to help keep the new fiberglass from sticking.  In order to get the parts out of the mold easier, I decided a two piece mold was the way to go.  It's actually not a whole lot more involved than a one piece mold.  A piece of particle board gets hot glued to the buck where you want the seam to be, then you cover half the buck with fiberglass:

Once it's set, you pull the particle board off and you're left with half a mold and a flange:

Then you prep the other half of the mold and lay it up against the flange.  Before pulling the mold halves apart, it's a good idea to drill some bolt holes through the flange so they're in prefect alignment.  While I was at it, I also made molds for the seat pan, and fender undertray.  For the seat pan mold, I used modeling clay to create a gap on the seat pan lip so there's room to wrap the upholstery around the fiberglass.  I also used clay to fill the rear tank mount to lay up the seat pan mold.

Here are the three molds all ready to go:

With all 3 molds made, I could finally make part #1.

I got it trimmed and fit to the bike. I trimmed the seat area out, bonded in the under tail piece. I also glassed in some steel tube that will serve as a support for the front seat/fender mount. The same hole also serves as the rear tank mount. The rear fender mount uses stock tailpiece mount holes, and the stock splash guard still fits with some minor trimming.

The COOLEST part of this whole project is that unlike ALL the other cafe style fenders available on the market, the stock seat hinge and seat latch STILL WORK. The storage area in the tail is specifically sized to hold a can of starting fluid or quart of two stroke oil. Even the helmet hook still works :)

Got the fender primed and rough blocked, and moved on to other stuff. I did some minor porting on the cylinders. I also made myself some UFO's.  If you've never heard of UFOs, they are little plastic pieces that fill in the bottom of the slide on slide type carburetors.  They are worth a few percent HP gain on 4 strokes and are generally not worth it.  On a two stroke though, they can often add 10% more power and you generally get better low and midrange throttle response. They are commercially available, but of course they don't make them for my specific carburetors.  So, I made my own.

I got a chunk of UHMW from e-bay and went to carving with the dremel. Took some time to get the shape right so the slides would close all the way, but after the first one, it went quickly. You can't really see it because of the white plastic, but the shape is really quite swoopy. With the stock and UFO'd slide next to each other, you can really see how it helps airflow through the carb, especially at lower throttle positions.

Then I moved my headlight and gauges. I never liked how high the gauges stuck up above the handle bars.  It was even more noticeable with the drag bars. The gauges sticking up interrupted the flow of the lines of the bike. So, I decided to move everything down.  This turned out to be a super easy mod. 1: flip the headlight ears upside down and swap side to side. 2: cut off gauge pod studs and drill out gauge pod for bolts. The gauges nest perfectly on top of the headlight, and will use the stock rubber mounts with some through bolts. It brings the gauge pod down to the level of the tank, much more gooder...er better, much more better...  If you compare it to my original profile pics, you'll see how big the difference is. I'm not quite done, that's as far as I've gotten with it, you're all caught up through today.