Sounds completely crazy. Carbon fiber.

This is getting kind of expensive. And you can make fun of me. But I'm planning on molding carbon fiber parts for the xj650. Gauge housing. Gauge mounts. Front and rear fenders. The seat pan. Headlight housing. Not for the look. For the fuction. Lighter is better. - Just as a learn how too on the cafe project. Thoughts. Suggestions. Feedback.

 

for the WHAT?!?!? lol

 

For the hell of it.

 

that's not what you said.......

 

alright.....I've had my share of typos, too. I'll stop busting on you now.

the carbon fiber thing would look cool. I think others have done similar, but with the 'wrap'. Also, there are some of the VMax-es that had that for the fenders, tank cover, etc..... I know my '02 Vmax has that------

dave

 

And that too. Lol

 

..but I also think you're gonna put yourself through a WHOLE lot of excessive time and expense...........

 

Probably. But when does that not happen when doing these kind of things. I was also thinking of doing the airbox too. Ive been playing around with the idea make one thats completely air tight and force inducts air by ones own speed. And have a reservoir duct that catches water, if in the rain. Or maybe it would cause it to run too lean. This bikes an experiment.

 

Ok it'll be fun watching what develops!

Dave f

 

Carbon fiber is notoriously had to use. Due to the super tight weave resin needs to be forced in either by vacuum bagging or by autoclave(pressure). Like fiberglass you would need to build a buck to pull the mold off of. The challenges are many but I'm sure you could sell every bit of it!

 

You could you use pre-preg carbon fibre, fine for pretty much anything that isn't structural and no need for an autoclave, just regular epoxy.

 

I've thought about asking my sister to take my molded out parts to school and putting it in their autoclave in the art room hahaha. The only parts I would sort of have concerns about are the fenders. Especially the front one. Gives the fork a little extra support.

 

For the front fender, what if you cut off the front and rear parts, leaving essentially the brace, then remade the cut off sections out of carbon-fibre, then you'd have a bit of carbon, a bit of chrome and another bit of carbon.

Or, if you wanted it full carbon, you could rib the brace section, that would give it a lot of rigidity. Possibly more than the original steel part.

 

I have some carbon fibre XJ550 sidecovers and they were done without the use of vacuum bagging or autoclave

 

How rigid are they?

 

As good as the stockers, feel lighter although I haven't weighed them

There is one defect where there's an air bubble in a corner which I guess vacuum bagging would have sorted, I'll be getting some others done as I want to get rid of the keyhole for the seat lock on the left side

 

if your going to do this just to do it, that's ok. but there's a lot easier ways to loose weight. think maybe start out with much cheaper fiberglass cloth?
maybe you've seen this place
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/cm/index.html

 

Gotta be careful, its easy to get carried way with this stuff. Followed a couple of threads the KZ site and I think this member may have over did it: http://www.kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/348089-78-kz1000-makeover?start=1040#474695
and if a doing the battery box is not considered too much, then maybe this would be: http://www.kzrider.com/forum/11-projects/348089-78-kz1000-makeover?start=300#377019 . I'm quite sure this is still work in progress after 3 years. On the other hand. This chap did a very nice job. Not sure if you can see it, but the headlight shell and the handle bars are carbon fiber as well.