1981 GPz1100 B1 Rstomod / ELR "Tribute"

Fashion in the 80's!  I can tell you for certain I would not be brave enough to straddle a motorcycle in shorts like that...  

Skidmark wrote:

Fashion in the 80's!  I can tell you for certain I would not be brave enough to straddle a motorcycle in shorts like that...  

Not with a handle like skidmark anyways! 

Yeah, those shorts were called Joggers. Thomas Magnum style

.... Skidmark LMAO

Update: Repairing left hand side-cover...

One of the 3 mounting lugs was broken off the cover, so I set about repairing it before repainting and applying the new 1100R decal. 

I have seen many unsuccessful attempts to "glue" the broken piece back onto the cover, however, not even having the piece that broke off, I was forced to fabricate a suitable replacement lug.

3D printer to the rescue!

I needed to design a lug to exactly fit the broken area.
I had to find out where exactly the centre of the lug should be, to line up with the rubber mounting  grommet in the frame...

In order to project that position onto the side-cover, I pushed an old spark-plug through the grommet from the inside of the frame, (which fit the grommet nicely!) and applied a drop of paint onto the threaded tip of the plug. Then, carefully fitting the cover, using the existing two lugs into their mating grommets, the the position of the third lug was transferred to the inside of the cover by the painted tip!
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I measured the position of the paint mark and then designed the lug to suit that position. I also added a "foot" that will prevent the lug from breaking off, as before, from excess force when fitting the cover.

 

The strength of 3D printed parts is governed to a large degree by the direction in which the plastic is laid down.
I decided to split the design in half, so that the halves "lay-up direction" could be printed at 90 degrees to to each other and then glued together,  before fitting to the side-cover. The 90 degree crossing of the "grain" should greatly add to the strength.

 



Once printed, I glued (epoxy) the halves together.
​After a bit of fettling, I epoxied the lug into position.

 



It fits perfectly! 

H.

Nice work as ever Howard, the only thing I would say is that I have learnt a lot of lessons over the past few months of working with plastics. What are the original side panels made of (I had one OE panel that was ABS and one aftermarket that was something else, also the rear splash-guard and airbox aren't ABS) You can tell if it's ABS by wiping some acetone on the back of the panel with a cloth, if the surface becomes sticky it's ABS and epoxy will be fine. The reason I say this is that if the panels are polypropylene or some other "low surface energy" plastic epoxy sticks to it but doesn't "bond" so may become detached in the future. 3M make a product and I have used a UK product called PP3000 which are specifically designed to bond "low surface energy" plastics

Thanks Wookie!

Acetone softened it, (cleaned the area nicely too) so ABS it is... 

I believe the air-box and tail  splash-guard are polyethylene. Attempts to sand them yield a "furry" texture. 

H.

I have searched far and wide, for over a year, for a Lawson Replica chain guard.
Nada, zip, zut... nowhere to be found.

No other option than to design and 3D print a replica for my replica...

I found a nice side view of the chain guard online, which I could use as a template to trace the general proportions and overall "look".

I inserted that pic. into Solidworks and set about designing the guard.
The guard is 3 times bigger than my printer's build capacity, so it would have to be sectioned into 3 pieces.

3D printed parts are not as strong as moulded parts, so I included some " strengthening" features, as well as features to align and strengthen the two joints between the three parts.
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14, 2-inch long, ⅛" dia. steel pins, inserted into matiing features of the design, effectively position and strengthen each joint.



The printing process took 91 hours to comeplete!

After glueing the 3 pieces together (epoxy) I installed the guard to check form and fit.

 

I was happy with the result, so I then prepared it for painting by sanding it with 400 grit wet/dry paper. Then two coats of 2K MS-primer to "hide" the joins, and also the striations of the surfaces that result from printing each part, in 0.2mm layers.

 



After drying, I shot on a coat of 2K Satin Black.

This is the result...

 
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H.

Needless to say, your work on the chain guard is incredible. I’m sure it must be the only printed chain guard in the world.
I have never noticed the chain guard on an ELR. It really is a beautifully designed and functional chain guard, not an afterthought, which is what most of them look like.

Thanks Blipco!

I tried to replicate ( ) the ELR unit as best I could.  I still need to design and fab. the bracket that mounts on the lower shock bolt... See it in reference pic. below...
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...moving closer and closer to finally getting my "green on" 

H. 

I just finished searching pictures of ELR chain guards. It is one aspect of a bike I never focused on except to note how hideous and ineffective they are. That is.. until now.
I’m pretty confident you’ll figure out the bracket, LOL. The label really puts the finishing touch on it.

My ELR chain-guard bracket is done!

Design:


Laser cut parts:


Parts bent:


Parts tig-welded:


Painted:


Installed:


So now I have no more excuses! 

Green paint next...
(Planed for Easter weekend)

H.