If you're curious.

[inanecathode]

If you're curious what inane has been up to lately (chances are, you are not) i've been transforming a couple of power tool boxes into neat-o pelican 'style' boxes for offroading adventures on my other yamaha. I bought some boxes off ebay for 20 bucks to the door, and this is what i'm doing to them. Gleaned and trimmed from another forum i'm on:


First i took the guts out of the box:




Then i measured out some flat steel then cut it to length:





Then i drilled holes all along the edges of the steel, and holes in the box corresponding to those, then started placing rivets in:







Lather rinse repeat 8 times, and you've got some strap steel reinforced plastic boxes :):









Of course i'll dont know how strong they actually are until i offroad with them, but static they're pretty strong. Only other reinforcements i'll do for sure is to stiffen the latch side of the box, it flexes out quite a bit when you lift the box, and if you bounce it the edges come unhooked. That's the other problem, the sides match together with a tongue and groove. Once they're in they're in and it doesnt want to come apart, but they dont always just fit together it takes a bit of finagling. I'll probably end up stiffening that too.

Both boxes are 'done' as far as what i need to start mocking stuff. I think the sub frame on the box will consist of a verticle angle piece riveted through the side of the box and reinforcing piece, then a horizontal angle piece that is welded to the aformentioned subframe. That'll be the box frame, the bike frame will basically be two horizontal pieces that 'accept' the horizontal pieces on the boxes. Strength on that end will consist of using the top shock bolt, rear of the seat subframe on the bike, a cross piece going around and above the back of the tire (how the last bag broke, flexed like a butterfly and cracked/broke off, this will keep that from happening) with an M shaped gusset holding it square on the back, and corner gussets all around.

These will be huge. Way huge, super huge. I dont know how badly it will hurt my mileage but it'll be like riding a refridgerator down the road. Sweet!

[inanecathode]

I finished the box frame today, other than some more reinforcements along the top where the handle goes (any weight or bounce while you're holding it and the handle pops out because the seam at that point is so flimsy.





First i started with some plates and angles to get a vertical piece on each side:









Then i buzzed the 6 pieces into two pieces:






Then i made two horizontal cross pieces and buzz buzzed them to the two vertical pieces, these will be what will actually mount onto the bike frame:





Some of the welds are great, some not so great, but i'm counting on that every edge is welded will mean it will hold together, we'll see:




Then i lined up the frame with the internal straps, and drilled more holes than i care to remember, then used 3/16ths aluminum (only ones i could find for sale locally) rivets to attach the square mounting frame to the internal box frame:



Heres looking from the inside out towards the mounting frame:



Here's the box subframes completed:



Here's what the box looks like next to the bike (sans seat) (that's a dog tail, btw):



Why the bike is sans seat, waiting on a new one from ebay:



I think although this part was time consuming (drilling holes, drill chuck wasnt holding, driving around for rivets, lunch break) it was actually the easy part as far as frustration goes. Drill a hole, put a rivet in it, rivet it, easy. The next part will be quite a bit harder. I'm going to have to somehow align the box sub assemblies in space, quantify where they are in relation to where the bike parts are, where the bike parts are, where they might go, how im going to take them on and off, how they're not going to break off, and so on. I'll probably either end up mounting them pretty far back and a reasonable height, or a bit more forwards and quite a bit lower. Low bags look sweet, but coming off a drop and honking one of these on a rock would equal one box with a gaping hole in it, so i might just mount them far back. I can't enumerate how many times i've dropped off of something and nailed the swingarm, however i dont think i've ever been in a situation (even in the worst stuff) when i had thought "geeze, this bike is just too long".





Anyhow, stay tuned for more spine tingling adventures on "Inane burns his god damn thumb for the 20th time show".

[inanecathode]

I did a bit more work on things today. I finished the bag side of the bike frame (does that make sense?) and almost completed what i'll call 'the big crazy top bracket thing)

Made giant P (or q, or b, or d) shaped pieces:




That fit inside the box bracket like so:




Drilled a hole in the very end, this will be the forwardmost mount on the bike frame:



Something like this:





One bag on:





Why a shield has to be made for the exhaust (cant really bend anything, its pretty tight inside the fender well:



Lather rinse repeat and i've got another Q bracket made up and mounted to the shock tower, pay no mind to the positioning on this one they're basically just sitting there. They'll end up being (straight) and a bit higher:






Oh, yeah, new seat came today too. Someone has replaced the foam in the front part with cotton candy or something, i sink right through it. Plenty of foam around here from other projects though:






A bit of head scratching took place to come up with this thing. It's not done yet, i need to trim the excess off of it and add mucho gussets/supports all over it:










That's all i got done today, unfortunately. Next i'll finish the big crazy mount piece, add two cross bars at the back, drill holes/weld nuts for the bags to actually mount to the frame, go over the whole thing and add corner pieces where needed, knock the slag off what welds i can still get to, clean it, paint it, then put it back on. Uhg, fun though


Edit: Forgot to post a picture of the 'shop':

[fret not]

I wonder how much you move the center of gravity up and back with this set up.   Half a dozen sandwiches, a thermos,  a few tools, and some clean shorts will only add to the situation.  It'd be good to have that stuff when you get "there" though. :)

[inanecathode]

I wonder how much you move the center of gravity up and back with this set up.   Half a dozen sandwiches, a thermos,  a few tools, and some clean shorts will only add to the situation.  It'd be good to have that stuff when you get "there" though. :)

By my calculations a metric buttload. As far as weight distribution goes, in comparison to modern bikes it's way way off anyway. All the older bikes are rear biased, this will only make it worse. No worries though, more traction isnt bad.

[nwrider]

Here's an idea.....maybe you could add another rear wheel, tandem style  ;)

Great job!  I see we have the same shop but yours has the air conditioning and ice rink option, mine just came with the rain and blue tarp option ;D

[fiat-doctor]

Nice work...  lots of metal back there!  Thanks for sharing the pics with us.
                                                                                                         Steve

[inanecathode]

Here's an idea.....maybe you could add another rear wheel, tandem style  ;)

Great job!  I see we have the same shop but yours has the air conditioning and ice rink option, mine just came with the rain and blue tarp option ;D

Hah yeah, i just got a ski resort upgrade yesterday, 8 inches of snow ><

[akvision]

Inane,
I like the overall design.  I assume you shared it here, for the purpose of sharing and looking for observations..

I like the pop rivets inside, but I don't think the outside pop rivets, the ones holding the frame to the box will hold up in the long run.  I would suggest hardware with lock nuts and washers.  alum tends to strech and eventually loosen.

I am concerned about the weight distribution aft of the axle and how that will effect the overall handling and balance.  Looks like wheelies will not be a problem and the front end may get light at the wrong time.. I know that you have given some thought to this.

Lastly, you can modify regular hardware latches with the twist closure that are commonly used in gates for a secure top latch to keep the bags from opening.

These are just my observations, good luck with this project and thanks for posting it.

AkV

[inanecathode]

Inane,
I like the overall design.  I assume you shared it here, for the purpose of sharing and looking for observations..

I like the pop rivets inside, but I don't think the outside pop rivets, the ones holding the frame to the box will hold up in the long run.  I would suggest hardware with lock nuts and washers.  alum tends to strech and eventually loosen.

I am concerned about the weight distribution aft of the axle and how that will effect the overall handling and balance.  Looks like wheelies will not be a problem and the front end may get light at the wrong time.. I know that you have given some thought to this.

Lastly, you can modify regular hardware latches with the twist closure that are commonly used in gates for a secure top latch to keep the bags from opening.

These are just my observations, good luck with this project and thanks for posting it.

AkV

No! No comments allowed!
Just kidding ;)

Everything you said is of concern, but im going to see how it works out the way it is so i know how to fix it for good when it does break. I dont like the aluminum rivets, either, actually, but hopefully i can find somewhere around here that sells steel ones, or maybe go with bolts.

I really dont think the latches on there will hold up to much so i will be putting better latches as well as some plates on that seam at some point.

All i've got to do is add a couple rear pieces and nerf some edges/straighten things and i'll be good to go.

[Night Vision]

I think it's very clever and the angle iron looks way better than rebar.

what DeWalt tool was that big?

[vadasz1]

I think a hammer drill used to live in that cave.

[YellowJacket!]

Nice job.  :-)

David

[akvision]

Inane,

I used some stainless pop rivits on my sailboat to attach cheek blocks... they are a b**ch to pull to the popping point... but they are really strong.. I would have used stainless hardware screws but the mast would not allow access.
they were 3/16" and man were they a bear to pop.

I still recommend the hardware with lock nuts...nearly failsafe.
No failures now, three years later.

I have a set of Krausers (bmw) and I use a webbed strap to keep them on and from opening in traffice ;D

[Lucky]

Ace Hardware has steel rivets ;)

[inanecathode]

Akvision, actually i was planning on building in a strap system so i can basically tie the bag to it's rack and to the bike frame for exactly that reason.
I've learned the lock nut trick already, that same bike kept removing the header pipe until i finally put on a couple of those pinch nut deals (like a regular nut but the end is peened in a bit).
The boxes are from some kind of power tool combo kit. Used to have a hammer drill, saw, light, sawzall and some batteries i believe.
This stupid snow is putting a hold on things, it slows things down to a stop basically, having to move everything one by one and put everything away right after i use it because of the falling snow. Supposed to get better this week, probably finish things up then. Yesterday i got the brackets both square, now all thats left is to add the back pieces and finish the whole deal.

[artbone]

Several years ago at Daytona I talked to a guy on a Goldwing that had ridden all over the world with his wife. He had made a set of bags out of some old Samsonite luggage he found in a thrift shop. He mounted them with a rack sort of like yours but he made 2 pieces of angle in a vee shape pointing down with the flanges to the inside. He bolted 2 more pieces on the back of the bags with the flanges pointing to the outside of the vee. He could just pick the bags straight up about 3 inches and they came free. I think he had a couple of bungee cords to make sure they didn't bounce out. It was really a clever system.

I wish I still had the pictures I took of the bike. It was the Anti Goldwing. It was an older 4 cyl. model painted flat black with maps on the bags of the places they had traveled to and a hand lettered  list of countries on the fairing with the ones they had visited checked off. They had been all over Africa, India, and China, not to mention Europe and the Americas. If I'm not mistaken the bike had over 200 K on it and had never been rebuilt. A real battlewagon. My kind'a Goldwing.