Sunday 6 December 2009

Yokes.

The time has come to put two proper slabs of billet in the mill and make the yokes that will replace the iron ones I've been using during the construction process. This will not only lighten the bike by some two metric tonnes, but also address the problem with the lack of ground trail that the friendly MOT-man pointed out last week. By reducing the offset [the distance between the center of the steering stem and the centre of the fork legs] by 20 mm, I will move the front axle 20 mm backwards. This will INCREASE the trail by the same amount, giving me appr 85-90 mm ground trail, and hopefully a stable, yet nimble bike.

I couldn't find a good place to mount the front indicators on the bike, so I thought I'd try to incorporate a mounting point at the back of the top yokes. This way I can route the cables through and under the top yoke and hopefully get an uncluttered look to the front end. The Swedish law states that the indicators must be mounted 240 mm apart, so mounting them onto the headlight is not an option.

The red number 1 points out the mounting holes for the risers, number 2 is where the Trailtech computer will be mounted and number 3 is the mounting point for the Bates headlight.