I post it here instead of making a new thread, hope it's the right place to post. I haven't re-enforced my sub-frame, yet. Yesterday I went to several hardware stores nearby looking for alumunium plate for the sub-frame enforcement, but haven't found any. Apparently I'll have to go to stores that specialize in selling aluminium, and I haven't done it. Anyway, if I use Kriega tail bag and mount it on my bike like in the picture below, will this bag, in this position, stress the sub-frame? I figure it won't, cause the bag is placed forward and looks to me that most of the weight is supported by the seat but I often wrong Second question, can anyone here who use Kriega tail bag show me how they position or where they attach the rear hooks /straps? The front hooks are strapped to the frame underneath the seat, while the rear hooks are strapped to the passenger grab rail. It works that way ... but I want a cleaner look Thanks in advance guys.
Go to a metal fabrication shop or somewhere that does welding, they should have plenty of aluminium No, it'll do fine there
Thank you maxyb. I will modify the sub-frame... but until then I want to be able to do some long ride without having to worry about the sub-frame
The back of the seat is well supported, so I wouldn't worry about that bag unless you end up with it on the fender. If it has a bunch of weight in it then it could be an issue. A lot of it depends on how hard you're hitting the offroad. I would be more worried about losing it from the straps. I'm assuming you're not doing hardcore offroad whoops and stuff at high speed. And I would be more concerned with losing all my seat space, or hitting that thing in the butt - especially on steep downhills. Anyway, the subplates - there was a link earlier in the thread for a couple of online sellers that will send you a stick of bar stock for about $20, if that. The PDF template is free to download. The mod isn't that tough and well worth it, so you can put a proper rack on there and strap your bag to it. Can be used for a rotopax or kolpin pax as well. Have fun.
Thank you Nick, I'll try that. Chris, thank you. You're right I'm not going to do hardcore offroad just some light off road, ride on unpaved road and bad road. And yes, the bag might get in the way. On my Monster with the bag strapped on the seat, I can not carry my camelback or a back pack, cause the camelback hit the tail bag. I called around and there's a store here that specialize in aluminium and they have that plate. They call it 2" thick.. which means it's two inch wide and thick Anyway, they only sell it in 6 m long plate. I asked them if I can buy just 1 meter, and they said no, I have to buy the whole 6m plate. It's cheap though about $21. I plan to go there this weekend.
2" by 2" your husky is going to be more reinforced than an armoured vehicle! (but, bloody hell that's cheap)
No. Not 2"x2"... That's what I thought too when they said "2 inch thick". I asked them again and they told me that it's 2" wide and 4 or 5 mm thick ...maybe it should be "2 inch and thick" ... but no, they just call it 2" thick.
2" thick? WTF are they talking about? LOL. Must be a Indonesia thing. You want 3/16" thick T6061 Aircraft grade aluminum. It's much stronger than lower grades. The home supply stores here sell 1/8" which is not strong enough, and it's not 6061. 1/4" is harder to shape with handtools and more difficult to fasten in there, but probably could be done. 3/16=4.75mm 1/4=6.35mm
I like the set up Nick. I tried that bag position you suggested, but only in the garage haven't tried it on the road yet.
Hi guys, just looking into this for my (soon to be) bike. Looking at the off the shelf stuff, it seems to be a much poorer alloy (they say 5051, I assume they mean 5052). http://www.nomadic-racks.com/index....id=62#!/~/product/category=976078&id=18006588 5052-H34 (again an assumption on heat treating) has far inferior properties to alloys like 2024-T3, 6061-T6 or 7075-T6. Whether or not these properties are actually an issue for this application (read, are the first point of failure) is quite debatable, perhaps you will shear the bolts before hitting the low tensile and yield limits of 5052. More info here (these are listed in my order of preference for use): http://asm.matweb.com/search/SpecificMaterial.asp?bassnum=MA7075T6 http://asm.matweb.com/search/SpecificMaterial.asp?bassnum=MA6061t6 http://asm.matweb.com/search/SpecificMaterial.asp?bassnum=MA2024T3 http://asm.matweb.com/search/SpecificMaterial.asp?bassnum=MA5052H34 Price might be a big factor in what you would choose though, particularly between 7075 and 6061 (which are both fine choices for this). If welding, talk to the person doing the welding, as they might have a preference and/or limitations for the alloys they can/will work with. In this application it shouldn't matter, but be aware that welding these heat treated alloys will locally destroy the tempering in the metal (unless the welding is extremely carefully controlled), but if you really care you could get the whole show re-treated after welding....Personally I think the practical impact of worrying about the impact on heat treatment around the welds in this application would be negligible. 2024-T3 has some things going for it, most notable is that for something which still has adequate tensile strength, it will elongate a lot before failure compared to the other alloys (i.e. bend more before breaking) and it's cyclical loading tolerance (i.e. fatigue strength) is quite superior to 6061, though a little worse than 7075. Frankly though, you'd really need to be super optimising the material thickness for weight or strength reasons to give to much a crap at all. I'll go for whatever is cheapest out of 3/16 x 2 bar in 2024, 6061 or 7075, but i'd probably give the 5052 a miss.
Ended up pulling my subframe and sending it off for welding. Going to gusset between the rear grab handles and the angled down tubes, and between the angled down tube and the top tube on both sides. Also getting the small crack in the seat rail repaired. I'll whack up some photos when it comes back. Ended up using 5083 alloy in 6mm, decent properties, but more importantly it was uber cheap!
One can overthink this. I used 1/8 common flat bar available at any hardware or big box store and it has performed flawlessly over many rough miles with a full load. Any alloy more exotic is icing IMHO.
Ken's right. I used 6061-T6 because I work in a sheet metal shop and it was conveniently available to me. The 5052, 1/8" or thicker will do what is needed, which is to stop the subframe from vibrating to it's fatigue point. The gusset spreads the loads out, and that's what will save it.
I agree. Simply is good. This setup has about 8000 hard miles on it and it hasn't flinched. Cheap Home Depot aluminum MIG welded to boot.
+4 When I did mine I just used scrap Al my friend had laying around. He had some real beefy plate (5/16"+)and some thinner stuff. I picked the thinner plate, just measured it and it is 5.5mm. Held up great loaded down with 35-40 lbs doing high speed off road when I pre-ran LAB2LV. Welds not the prettiest but strong. Welding and Al plate for a 12 pack of Michelob. My subframe was cracked in three places.
