Bracket in Place
Rubber matting in place to prevent vibration
Fuel cell in place
Another view of fuel cell on bike
Seat in place with fuel cell. The yellow thing under the blue plugs is the shut-off valve
Here's a closer view of the valve. Easily reached while riding.
Finally found a place to put my Iron Butt Association plate back ! Velcroed in place
Here's a view (poorly lit) to give an idea about the dimensions of the fuel cell compared to the rest of the bike.
UPDATE April 2nd 2002;
Well, finally most of the snow has melted and I had a chance to try out the new setup. After loading up the saddlebags with various stuff (fire extinguisher included), I set out for a little ride. I'm pleased to report that with the cell full of gas and the saddlebags on, I don't feel any difference while riding. Low speed maneuvering is a bit trickier, feels like having a lightweight passenger aboard.
In
the picture you can also see my GPS V mounted on top of the windshield.
I've added a modified helmet faceshield to the windshield to protect the
GPS. I thought of mounting it from the handlebar, but decided to get it
more in my line of sight. There are mild vibrations, especially under hard
acceleration, but otherwise the readings are very easy to see. To see
more pictures of the GPS and it's mounting, click here
During my ride, I let the main fuel tank go down to reserve (blinking fuel gauge) before flicking the switch to open up the fuel cell. this happened at 225 km into the ride (strong winds and early spring exuberance). At first I thought it wasn't working, because the gauge didn't start going up right away. It took it about half an hour before the next bar lit up, and a further 20 minutes after that for the third bar to light up. 40 minutes later, it disappeared again.
All in all, it took 480 km to hit reserve the second time and when I gassed up at 510 km, the bike took on 36.2 liters of gas ! 500 km between fill-ups ! Cool !
April 26th 2002 update:
Well, I'm up to about 2000 km this summer, had a bit of a problem with the fuel cell on a bumpy road a while back. The rear mounting point was ready to accept heavy downward loads but wasn't quite strong enough to accept upward loads. The bracket broke while riding over a huge bump in the road and the cell was bouncing up and down, pivoting on the 2 front 'L' brackets. When I got home I decided to use similar 'L' brackets for the rear as well. It is now bolted directly to the frame in 4 spots. If it moves again, I'll eat my shirt... Since then I've been on really rough spring-time roads with the cell full of fuel and I'm happy to report that it's really solid. I'm now at the point where I'm no longer always looking and feeling back there to see if it's still in place. I'm beyond paranoia !
August 30th update:
Well, it happened. Those of you who read my Blackfly 1600 report saw that the fuel cell bracket didn't survive following 360 km of dirt roads. The right rear 'L' bracket broke in the middle and the bold holding the left rear 'L' bracket to the frame broke as well. I guess the weight in gas plus the weight of the full saddlebags combined with the metal fatigue brought on by the rough road was too much.
This really sucked. I was without fuel cell for the last 800 or so km of the rally and this happened to be during the night and early morning hours where gas was particularly hard to find. After returning home (and having to gas every 250 km along the way), I decided to bite the bullet and get a proper mounting bracket fabricated by one of the local shops. I had sort of decided to get one made of aluminum over the course of the winter just because plywood looked kind of 'out of place' on the bike, so it's not like this was totally unexpected. The only change is that I now want it mounted as directly as possible to the frame, while being able to remove it easily.
The problem with the old mounting system was that the bolts going into the frame that used to hold the rear fairing were the 10 mm head type, the treaded part was only something like 6 mm thick. These were 'The Weakest Link'. No problem for paved roads, but when the going gets too rough, they're not quite up to the task.
Anyways, just got the bike back last night (wallet $ 350 lighter), click here for pictures.
List of parts used :
Fuel Cell + Mount kit (JAZ fuel cell, "Drag Race Horizontal", part # 547-250-005-01), link to Jeg's
Earl's adapters, -AN #8 cap (part # 992908), 90 degree -AN #6 to barb (part # 709167) lInk to AM Streetrod
Ball-Style valve for fuel link to Sampson's Sport Touring
Basic El-Cheapo 3/4 inch fuel line, plywood, 'L' brackets (Purchased from Kent Building Supplies)
Basic El-Cheapo brass fittings (Purchased from local Canadian Tire)
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