Eck Posted March 12, 2015 #1 Posted March 12, 2015 Was cleaning and waxing the bike and noticed the lower cowl on left lower side was split in half. Luckily, I have another cowl but it needs to be painted. So being the weather is not right to paint (yet), I just drilled 4 holes, two holes on each side of the break, and I used two plastic wire ties to hold it together until I do get a chance to paint the lower replacement cowl and swap them out.. I see no signs of running over anything or any place of impact that could have caused it to break in half.. 1st time I ever seen or heard of this on a GW.. See, Harleys are not the only bikes that need a little help now and then..
Peder_y2k Posted March 12, 2015 #2 Posted March 12, 2015 (edited) Maybe you should slow down as wind resistance may have stressed the piece to the breaking point. Pete, in Tacoma WA USA Edited March 20, 2015 by Peder_y2k
Eck Posted March 12, 2015 Author #3 Posted March 12, 2015 Maybe you should slow down as wind resistance may have stressed the piece to the breaking point. Pete, in Tacoma W USA Ha... Fastest I ever ride is around 80 MPH...and that is on the super slab.. Most of the time I'm doing average of 35 to 65 mph...I have slowed down a lot over the past two years.. I don't know if a bird hit it or what. There is no marks on it that I could see. no blood..no body parts or shoe imprints.....
djh3 Posted March 14, 2015 #4 Posted March 14, 2015 Eck along with your temp repair, to keep it from cracking any further stop drill the end of the crack. Drilling it will make the stress that caused the crack have to work around the entire hole vs the 2 sides of the crack. Well thats the theroy.
Eck Posted March 14, 2015 Author #5 Posted March 14, 2015 (edited) Eck along with your temp repair, to keep it from cracking any further stop drill the end of the crack. Drilling it will make the stress that caused the crack have to work around the entire hole vs the 2 sides of the crack. Well thats the theroy. Many thanks for the suggestion djh3. I would have drilled it but this crack is so large that there is only about 2 inches of material left that is not broken. I'm aware of drilling the end of the crack to stop it from cracking more and have done this many times on things in the past, but I don't care of this thing breaks completely in half now. It wont go anywhere with the two wire ties I put on it even if it broke the rest of the way. I plan on changing it out this coming week anyhow. You must be an engineer also... Edited March 20, 2015 by Eck
djh3 Posted March 15, 2015 #6 Posted March 15, 2015 Well I dont know about the engineer part, but many years of aircraft maintenance and sheet metal work and building race cars. You do pick up a few tricks here and there. Also when I worked for U-Haul we use to have a crack in the skin, stop drill and put a sealant on the rivet and shot a rivet in the hole. The idea being it will hold the skin together.
Eck Posted March 20, 2015 Author #7 Posted March 20, 2015 Well I dont know about the engineer part, but many years of aircraft maintenance and sheet metal work and building race cars. You do pick up a few tricks here and there. Also when I worked for U-Haul we use to have a crack in the skin, stop drill and put a sealant on the rivet and shot a rivet in the hole. The idea being it will hold the skin together. Aircraft maintenance...Cool beans.. I'm retired now but I switched back and forth from being a manufacturing engineer and a quality engineer for 35 plus years in aerospace - Started with Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah for 15 years, then went to work for Boeing on the Delta II, Delta IV rockets, then it became United Launch Alliance which included the Atlas V Rockets, then I went to Airbus on the 350Wide Body, left that and went to Charleston to help out on the new Boeing 787, then I left there and went to Aurora Flight Sciences who makes drones and other assemblies for Sikorsky helicopters and Gulfstream airplanes.
djh3 Posted March 20, 2015 #8 Posted March 20, 2015 I have been out of the aircraft maintenance field since 96. Been employed in the racing world since then, well up to Dec31 2014. Now I have to find something else to do.
Eck Posted March 20, 2015 Author #9 Posted March 20, 2015 I have been out of the aircraft maintenance field since 96. Been employed in the racing world since then, well up to Dec31 2014. Now I have to find something else to do. I started restoring a fully electric mini bike.. Auranthetic Charger is what it is called.. I am not sending out the chrome parts to be re-chromed.. but other than that it is 100% torn down and I am in the process now of getting it back together. Frame and parts have all been repainted except for the "fake" gas tank. I will paint it in about three weeks from now. Started re-assembly 03-18-15 but I am working at a slow pace on purpose to do it right. It gives me something to do on rainy days!! Here are a few pics of before and after. In the first couple pics you can see how the battery acid tore up the paint job.. The last two pics (pic-1838 and pic-1839) are pics of the re-assembly going on after fresh paint. Man, did I hi-jack my own thread or what here....ha
djh3 Posted March 20, 2015 #10 Posted March 20, 2015 Looking good. I remember when you first posted about getting it. Parts for that got to be like a needle in a hay stack. I was at an antique tractor thing a few weeks back. A fellow had a mini trail 50 honda for sale. I don't remember now what he was asking for it, but at the time I told my wife I don't think they were that much new.
Eck Posted March 20, 2015 Author #11 Posted March 20, 2015 Im on a mini bike web site and a FB mini bike site and it is amazing what those old mini bikes sell for... I see them for $200 to $500 all the time..and some are in very ruff condition.. Last year I acquired two Wheel horse lawn tractors and they were not running for 12 to 15 years. I decided to tear into those and see if I could get them running. I did and ended up selling both of them and all the attachments that came with them. I enjoyed doing that. Never seen one before and to take one apart and fix it and getting them to run sure made me feel good
beastwood Posted June 22, 2017 #12 Posted June 22, 2017 Well, I discovered the left lower cowl was floppin' around on my 2008 RSV. It may have something to do with me dropping it on a U-turn. I took it off and discovered that one of the three mounting points was cracked and some of it was missing. Still was able to find the threaded nut that was needed. The cowling is ABS plastic, which I didn't have any material available. But I had an extra PVC electric box. With the new "transistions" glue by Oatey ( ABS to PVC), I thought I would give it a try. The final step was drilling and inserting the threaded nut.
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