Moving to farmer's racer

The new blog is ready for 2012. Klick on the picture to get to the new website. Recycle motorcycle will no longer be uppdated - all news will be posted on farmer's racer.


Wellcome

Detail work

Finaly the major construction work on the side panels is done. I gave up the idéa of hair pin fasteners as they would reach to far outside the round shape of the nuts. Ended up – as usually – with a home made wire fastener. To solve construction idéas with wire, is so common within the Swedish farming comunity that it has got it’s own name: farmer’s weld:)

There is still some metalwork to be done on the panels. One or two edges will be bent, maybe some surface work. The finish can end up in two different estetics: perfect new look, or worn surfaces. To make something look new is the easy one, but I’m aiming on the more difficult path of making a new part blend in with the old bike.

Designers tips

If something looks ugly – make five more of them and ugly becomes ”this is rare man”. It’s much better to be rare than ugly:) Six ugly nuts have been made for the side panels. Looked all over internet for oldschool fasteners, but ended upp making my own. The design of the quick locks that I found belongs to much faster bikes than mine.

A little time by the lathe transformed 6 washers and m8 nuts into a tiny welding job. The notch in the nut is made for a hairpin sprint. I need to get an easy access to the sparkplug behind the panel. To prevent me from getting more gray hair I will make a little wrench for the custom nuts – kept together with the ignition key.

Some adjustments will be made to both the nuts and the panel fittings before the holes for the hairpins will be drilled.

Panels in place

The panels are mounted on the bike. The exact possition is adjusted with leather washers. The three mounting points feels quite solid, and I hope that the panels wont rattle to much when the engine runs. If they rattle to much they will cut a nice little hole in my dragin jeans. My knees is just reaching the back mounts - I will need to make well rounded custom nuts to save the clothing. I could not resist throwing some paint on the panels, just to get a picture of the result to come. This is just a color sketch with an of white to match my vintage jacket. This will serve as a backdrop to a number and some sponsor logos.