Bending Brake Redux

Honestly, how long did I think a bending brake made of wood was going to last? It broke while making a bracket for the front fender on some 1/8" aluminum strip. So for the last two weeks, I've been making Brake v2.0 using Aluminum Channels, Iron Pipe, and a heavy duty steel hinge. (design inspired by Dave Clay: http://www.ch601.org/tools/bendbrake/brakeplans.pdf)

Nuff said~!

Battery Tray Trials

Given the capabilities of my bending jig, I decided to make the lower battery try in two pieces. The bends were too complex for my rudimentary tooling. Here's the redesign of the piece. I've added some notches along the edges to help align the part in the jig. I also added some relief holes, as a way of reducing effort needed to form the bends.

On the cosmetic end of things, I refinshed the front fender. In the sanding process, I discovered several layers of paint: Metallic blue, maroon, white, and royal blue at the bottom. Unfortunatley, the fender is not from this model of GSXR. Could possibly be from a '90 model like the fairing, but who knows. I guess some mounting brackets will be in the works next.

More Cosmetic Procedures

I'm slowly working my way throught the boxes of parts that I pulled off bike. Funny, it sure seemed to come off a lot faster thant putting it back on.

I decided to recover the seat because it wouldn't cost much and makes a big difference cosmetically. Also visible in the pic is the latest mock up of the lower battery tray.

Weight Watchers

My first attempt at a bending jig (can't really call it a brake), was barely able to bend a two inch wide strip of 3/16" aluminum. No way it is going to handle the nearly 12" required on the tray pattern. Granted the jig was only made of wood (oak I had laying around) and I was bending 6061-T6, but I was amazed and how much the clamping mechanism flexed during the bending process. The radius was pretty clean though, and there was only a minimal amount of micro-cracking, so I'm on the right track with the size of the bending radius.

In the absence of any real progress on the lower battery tray, I decided to start putting pieces back on the bike. While cleaning the rear Foot Peg Brackets, I noticed the large amount of material devoted to supporting the muffler and the seat lock. I really don't need the muffler mount and I never liked the seat lock setup. Time for a little weight losss surgery.

Like any good surgeon, I outline the sections to be removed with a sharpie. Armed with only a butter knife and ignoring the patient's requests for anethesia, I got to work reforming the brackets.

Ahhh... trim and sexy. Now about that butt lift Mr. Gixxer....

One step forward, Two steps back

Well, I thought I was making progress on the lower battery tray. The concept is a single sheet of cleverly cut and bent aluminum to form a "belly pan" that actually is a tray for holding batteries. I've got an initial 3-d model designed and printed ready to mock up.

The issue comes down to bending radius. The recommended minimum radius for bending 5052 Aluminum is .5 to 1.5 times the material thickness. With my 3/16" sheet, I figure that a .25" radius is about as small as I want to go. In discussing bending capabilities with the premier bending shop in the area they only had small radius tooling on their Brake, admitting that some cracking will occur at the bend.


I'm not to0 wild about cracks in my battery tray, so I will be building a homemade Brake on my workbench. Another project within a project. Obsessive? Anal Retentive? Ridiculous? Sometimes it's a gift, most days a curse.


I bent a 2" strip of 3/16" aluminum (6061-T6) in a vise using vise grips and small aluminum plates with a rough .25" radius, just to get a feel for the force required, and judge the bracket layout better. It took a lot more force than I imagined but turned out pretty good. Even with the .25" radius tooling, there were lots of micro-cracks in the radius, but that shouldn't be a problem with 5052 since it's more pliable.

Controller Crazed

My Alltrax 7245 controller and Magura throttle came in from Cloud Electric. I love blue anodized aluminum. Too bad the contoller will be tucked away under the tank.

I had initially thought of centering the contoller in the fuel tank area, but that would require an addtional cross member to support it. By using the existing cross member, a thick walled piece of rectangular tubing, the contoller is located toward the back of the fuel tank. That will free up the front of the tank for other electrical components and cables.

A little frame modification was required to have access to the inside of the rectangular section. There was already an opening on one side, I just needed to duplicate the opening on the left to allow room for a wrench and to get the bolt placed. The section of the tubing is almost 3/8" thick so I'm not too worried about affecting structural integrity when removing another piece.

Gettin' the Blues

I'm still in the process of designing the lower battery tray. So far, I've gone through dozens of revisions in the solid modeling program, a tedius and frustrating process. Against all the recommendations of my fabrication advisors, I'm leaning toward a single piece of 3/16" Aluminum plate with strategically placed bends. It's a Gixxer - it's got to be aluminum.

Patience is a virtue, but no hands-on activitities on the bike were gettin' me down. I decided to paint the tank. I was going to fix it up right and have it shot with automotive paint, but the tank has had more work done than Joan Rivers. Multiple layers of body filler and primer were evident in several areas, so I decided to go cheap on this revision and save my money for some AirTech pieces.

Rustoleum's finest Blue is fairly close to the color of the motor and just what the doctor ordered. Careful observers will note the lack of stupid looking vent cap and tubing on top of the tank. A friend of my sons recommended I turn the vent assembly into a beverage dispenser! While entertaining, I thought some form of ventilation would be a good idea. A small mag-lev fan will do the trick, I hope.