The Carbon fetish... I get it now.

I've read for years in magazines when an owner buys I piece of CF, that the obsession grows until as many parts as possible are made of the exotic cloth.  I get it now, as the pictures can show.

 In addition to my CF wrapped bellypan, I've successfully mounted a CF seat section, from an R6.  It was incredibly light, and also came with a removable undertail as well.  In order to fit things a bit cleaner, I had to come up with another solution for the rear shock resevoir.  Rooting through the old box of bits found an odd-sized fork clamp that was not being used, and a steel bracket that could be bolted to the steel subframe.  

This was a bit trickier in that all the stock mounts are "hidden".  There are 4 female wellnuts on the underside of the seat section.  I was able to use the rear two, and had to drill a hole for one forward mount that you can see just aft of the tank.  A bit of trimming to the front of the seat was also required to get the whole assembly forward to work with the stubby subframe.

The under tail.  I found my last 5 dzus fasteners salvaged from an old fairing and used those.  Fits together quite nicely.  The under tail piece itself is almost paper thin.  I had to cut it to suit my bike, and I was able to do so with scissors!

The plan is, of course, to leave it unpainted.  I need to get a number installed on the back top of the tail to make it compliant (although we use AMB transponders anyway).  Last step is the modified tank and cover.  Waiting on paint and clear... should be sometime in the next 2 weeks.  I'm doing it myself, so I need to coordinate some time with the painting at the shop at school.

Real Fake Carbon Fibre

After making the tank shroud, I ended up with a considerable amount of leftover CF to play with.  Knowing that a bellypan takes quite a beating, and that paint would require several coats of clear, I decided to experiment and see if I couldn't use "real" carbon fibre cloth as a laminate overtop of the fibreglass bellypan.  It did take a few tries, and getting around some sharp curves was a bit tricky, but the end result looks half decent.  I did put a good coat of clear overtop, and while there are some high and low spots in the clear, which has an impact on shiny-ness, it is a racebike, and it should be OK.

Of course, once it was cured and test-fitted to the bike, the all-important sponsor stickers have to go on.  Here is the end result.  I nice side effect was that the "pimple" I had to make to clear the leo vince exhaust looks a lot smoother, and part of the original design idea.  There is one last carbon piece to be fitted... I decided to splurge a bit on a very fancy tail section, in CF, which should be in my hands early next week.  It will take a bit of work to fit, but should work OK and complete the CF transformation of the bike.

Once again, ahead of my time *** humour alert

This is somewhat old(ish) news, but it appears that Husqvarna is going moto3 racing.  As you can guess, it is a re-badged KTM... and this is not a new tactic, as Aprilia did it for years.  The Gileras and Derbis on the 2-stroke grid were all Aprilias under the decals.  As KTM have bought Husky, this makes some sense.



We all know they had no inkling to do so until they saw my Husky supermono from a few years back!  Its actually hard to tell the two apart.  Considering mine was a 625 and the moto3 is a 250, and they make about the same horsepower, should tell you something about the pace of development.  It was a fun build, but I don't miss it (much).

Another sponsor for 2014

Racer gloves has been confirmed as another sponsor for Piston Broke Racing in 2014.  Based on their lineup of roadrace gloves, I've decided to go with the "R-Safe" glove... their "top of the line" model.  This is a catalogue pic of the actual model I will be using.  They are inbound from California, and I look forward to trying them on shortly.  Like all of my sponsors, you can check out Racer Gloves USA via the link to the right...

Plate mounted and gauges fitted.

Pretty self-explanatory, really.  Gonna work on finishing mounting the tank next.

Took a bit of fiddling, but I made it work.  The plate is actually from a KTM, of all things... like an enduro or dirt bike, I think.  Looks pretty racy!  There is now literally acres of carbon fibre on the bike.  I'm also monkeying with the bellypan... if things go well, that, too may be covered in the same cloth!

In order to tuck the gauge in where I wanted to, I had to fabricate my own mount.  Some holes drilled and a zig-zag bend with the metal brake at school, and it fits nicely.  The material to the RHS of the gauge face itself isn't quite finished.  I need to see if I can mount a few idiot lights there.  Track Electronics now has my loom (thanks for the 3 MONTH delivery time, Canada Post!!!!!) and John is working on simplifying the harness.  From that, I hope to wire in a few lights as well, and then clean up the aluminum.