[Canon]

***V2.0 pics on page 4 here***
So, I made my own license plate mount that "floats" the plate behind the rear tire. I think it's pretty sick and it has added no less than 180 degrees of cornering lean clearance.

Here's a couple teaser pics. More will follow as fast as I can type. This will admittedly depend on my 14-month-old daughter staying asleep so daddy can play with his internet friends.

So... Any interest?

 

[Canon]

Alright, so here's the spoiler that shows you how it's been done.

Yes, I have several pics of the whole process to appease your inquisitive minds. I'll post them shortly.
For now here's a short FAQ:
-What year bike? 2006.
-Basic materials? 1/2" electrical conduit, stainless bolts, 2 LED bolts, wire.
-Mounting points? The 2 nuts molded into the stock chain guard (which mount the brake line guide). This replaces the brake line guide, and runs new bolts into the same molded-in nuts.
-Is it lit? Yup. With LED bolts, wire run along brake line then rear brake light switch wiring up to stock wires.
-Does it work? Yup. It's been through about 550 miles so far including 15 miles of forest service road.
-Any fringe benefits: It takes the road water stripe off my back. It's not as protective as the stock license-on-a-stick mount, but way better than nothing!

 

[2doggs]

Nicely done.

 

[Canon]

The mockup, aluminum angle rod:

 

[Canon]

Fabrication.
I started with 1/2" electrical conduit, bent with a standard electrician's bending tool to be like a shepherd's crook plus a little side bend.

I cut the long side to length, marked the location of the 2 bolts, left a tag for the forward one and ripped the length diagonally from 1/2 depth at the front to nothing at the rear bolt.

The notch partway down the cut-out is matched to a bump in the chain guard. See the mounted pics.

Sorry about the sideways pics... they appear right-side-up on my computer and photobucket.

 

[Canon]

Mounting, painting.

Drilled holes. Trimmed front to tab. Trimmed tab. Drilled & mounted plate bolts. Cut rear to the edge of the plate. Painted it satin black, including back side of plate.

Finished positioning by tweaking bends. Had another rider follow me for a couple miles to check for excessive shaking/destruction.
Checked out, so I added LED bolts & wired it up.

Then I went riding for a couple weeks to make sure it'd hold up before I passed it on to you.

 

[AA]

Nice job.
I don't think I want one but it looks a neat job and an origional look for a Speedy.

AA

 

[crashmasterd]

# cat life | grep joy >> memory

crash:~ sudo rm -fPR /



Not bad. Nicely done, but a tiny bit cheesy. I love the concept but I'd like it to look a little more manufactured and less garage basher.

 

[Canon]

I'd like it to look manufactured as well.
The bike came with no real mounting options, so I was either going to put tabs off the under tail like every body else has or try something different. The last 2 people to stop by and look at the bike asked me "where'd ya get that?" not "how'd ya make that?" so I think when you just see it on the bike the effect is more pro than seeing it with the pics of fabrication attached.


And yeah, Crash, that would be the equivalent of persistent amnesia.

 

[DeepSixxx]

Pretty cool but I took off the chain guard

 

[crashmasterd]

And yeah, Crash, that would be the equivalent of persistent amnesia.

'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.'

~ Terry Pratchett
The Thief of Time

 

[2doggs]

'Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.'

~ Terry Pratchett
The Thief of Time

Could be the best thing you ever posted.

 

[crashmasterd]

Always remember rule number one!

 

[2doggs]

Dont talk about Fight Club?

 

[Martin_R]

-Mounting points? The 2 nuts molded into the stock chain guard (which mount the brake line guide). This replaces the brake line guide, and runs new bolts into the same molded-in nuts.

OEM plastic chain guard is brittle. If I was keen on this setup, I'd prefer to use the swingarm as the mounting base.

 

[Canon]

Given a non-riding winter I may well come up with a rigid mount to the swingarm, but having through-bolted this through the existing chain guard is holding up really well so far, and was a LOT quicker to get setup!

 

[crashmasterd]

Dont talk about Fight Club?

Read the book, and learn about Rule Number One.

 

[Canon]

"No fat chicks" or "Don't get caught"?

 

[crashmasterd]

"Don't get caught" is the 11th Commandment, and fat chicks need love too.

 

[crashmasterd]

Seriously though, The Thief of Time is a fantastic novel. Last in a sub-series, but Terry Pratchett is really good about making each novel stand alone enough that you don't have to read the previous novels to enjoy any single novel. The others (in order) are:

Mort

Soul Music

Hogfather

Hogfather was also a wonderful TV movie, and is now a Christmas tradition for us.