Monday 27 January 2020

Hanaa Expo 2019 - 28th of November - Lahti, Finland

Last November I went to check to out second annual Hanaa Expo, a Motorsport trade fair, held in convention center of Lahti. In addition to wide range of Motorsport vehicles and teams, which I mainly wanted to see, there were vast group of different vendors and event organizers as exhibitors. Interviews and discussions related to different forms of motorsports from rally to drifting were held in the stage right across the entrance. Check out how it looked 😎

Renault 5 Turbo Group B

Wednesday 22 January 2020

'91 Honda CBR600F PC25 - Part 4 - Custom brackets for round headlight

I've had a 8 inch round headlight lying around which I bought originally for my '87 Yamaha RD350LC F2 project but never got time to install it before selling the bike. I had headlight also for sale for a while after that but no one was interested to buy it so it just stayed untouched in my shelf waiting for another suitable project.

8 inch round headlight

Regarding this build I haven't decided any specific style go with but I wanted test how a round headlight would look in front of my CBR600F. It was also good time to do that while I have front fairings removed. I've made earlier similar type of brackets for '72 Suzuki T250J and used them as a reference for these ones too. I made subtle changes and updated dimensions to suite better '99 Honda CBR900RR SC33 front forks I swapped last time. I still need to design and fabricate a stopper for the headlight to keep it from tilting while driving. I'm not 100 percent sure how to make it yet so it will have to wait for the future. There's also things like what kind of gauges I will use to think about.

Assembly drawing

Layout drawing with main dimensions

After making part drawings for collars and plates it didn't take much effort to start fabricating them out of sheets of stainless steel. It's not the easiest material to work with since it tends to wear out drill bits and warp easily with heat. I didn't end up using many power tools other than electric drill and Dremel this occasion so it took a bit longer to finish them. Quickest way of course would have been to get them cut with laser or water jet cutter.

Part drawing for collars

I cut out blanks for collars with a plate shear
and then marked holes and rounds to corners

I started by drilling holes...

... and then rounded all corners with a file and sanding block

I used an affordable sheet metal bending machine
to bend edges of collars and rest by hand against forks

I finished outer surfaces of collars with a scotch brite wheel

Part drawing for plates

Sketched outlines of plates with pencil
and used washers as templates for round corners...

I started by drilling holes,..

...then cut both plates out with a hand saw
and finished edges with file and sander

I used a vise brake for bending...

...and checked angle of bends with digital angle finder

Last step was to clean plates with scotch brite wheel

Parts for headlight brackets

Headlight installed