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Mindis V7-850 Mods

scottmastrocinque said:
Only our very own favorite “Mad Lithuanian” would use Malagasy, a language spoken only on Madagascar and the three Comoros islands right next door, to communicate his thoughts.

I think it is the very definition of an inside joke! 😆
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:rofl::rofl::rofl: I love your theory of decoding so much that I might make it the truth!
Well, most of Eastern Europeans of my generation can't pronounce "th" sound coz English language in schools was far far below basic back in Soviet Union. There's no such sound in Lithuanian language so lots of people don't bother breaking their tongue and just pronounce it as "Z" (like zeh). So Raven is on the money here, it is what it looks like it is, It reads as Lithuanians pronounce the phrase that I use more often than Mr. Samuel L Jackson himself... I'm just being a goof and poking at my homies LOL

Lazy evening at my shop, nothing done, just a knob around valve stem's removable extension. I better not loose it or I won't be able to pump the tire :wasntme:

 
Well, isn’t that special.

I don’t like what you meant it to say, but I do like very much, what it says in Malagasy completely by accident!

The funniest part is that what was uncouth to begin with, is actually a great phrase in another language you don’t speak or even knew of, and you hit the nail squarely on the head.

What are the damn odds of that? Astronomical beyond belief. That’s what it is!

God does funny things from time to time. Here is an example of one to me.

You lead a charmed life Mindagaus and the Big Man was watching over you and you didn’t even realize it.

😆😄🤩
 
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My side covers are getting a little upgrade. Last summer when I slid in to a ditch I broke left cover's standoffs and finished my season with it zip tied. Also, when I made them I used satin lacquer rattle can for satin finish and now they're different tone of satin compared to the rest of my carbon bedazzles. So I fixed standoffs, enlarged bolt holes to accommodate M5 flathead bolts, sanded all smooth to bare carbon and got a coat of resin on. Since they were finished surface already, I won't have to do multiple coats. I won't have my personal logo on them anymore, I got a better idea, ya'll see later:)



And.... I accidently found another "issue" I want to address LOL Out of a blue I don't like front forks brace anymore. And it is heavy. I don't believe in unbraced forks if they were engineered to be braced. And I'll keep them braced, I just got a plan how to lighten the brace and at the same time make it invisible by encasing front fender on top of it:)

 
The 40mm tubes are indeed rather wimpy and the strength of the brace is a critical component.

I strongly agree with Vagrant here. I would not modify the brace itself in any way. You risk a front end failure which could easily be a fatal mistake!

Add covers or whatever cosmetic magic you like but believe me, that pieces was crafted with extensive mathematical calculations being performed on it in order to establish strength of the component for any condition.

As Vagrant has confirmed, the 40mm tubes flex extensively under sudden load. The brace is taking a huge load at that moment.

Please be very careful with this thought. I like you just the way you are Mindigaus. 👌👍🤓
 
I'm leaving my fork brace alone for now till I think of a plan, on to side covers. Surface is prepped for satin finish but before that I'm cutting some holes. That is to visually brake larger plain area, as well as to let her breath more easily. It looks like there's a lot of airflow obstruction from the front to air filter. I've no doubt in engineers to believe that there's enough flow as it is, but still, less obstruction is better than more obstruction:) I'll have tight stainless steel mesh behind them holes, and behind it there'll be fins to direct entering airflow upwards towards the seat. Hey, it might even cool down half my nuts by quarter of degree LOL
One thing I haven't decided on yet, it's the color of mesh. I was leaning towards either darker red like the strip on my rear rim, or powdercoat hot orange color that is on my valve colors. But now me thinks that it might be too eye catching and take away visuals from the rest of my carbon. So now I'm thinking of either satin black or gloss black like the frame. Once I get satin finish on them covers, I might change my mind again...

 
If you haven't cut those holes (is it just tape?) I feel (who the hell am I?) they may look better cut vertically, maybe matching the angle of the leading edge of the sidecovers?
 
Nordicnorm said:
If you haven't cut those holes (is it just tape?) I feel (who the hell am I?) they may look better cut vertically, maybe matching the angle of the leading edge of the sidecovers?
Click to expand...
Too late for that, both covers are full of holes already, like my soul :D
Before I cut them, there was 4 versions of masking tape and drawing on it, and a big mug of coffee with half an hour just starring at them in between. That's kinda most eye pleasing version in my eyes. And I say "kinda" because I was always thinking about making a new ones and the more I look at them, the more I want to make new ones... Large plain area didn't look good to me from the start so previously I had my logo on it but I'm leaning towards making not a flat ones, but something similar to OEM covers. And I think larger diamond flake carbon pattern would suit better to match my wheel covers. Either way, I think they'll look better than before, and later when I have spare time I'll make even better-rer ones :)
 
Episode #485. Side covers got satin finish:



Before episode ends, here's a little backstory after the credits LOL A pic below is the reason why I want to re-do my side covers, it's that grey pattern mixed within carbon chops:



Before I had a shop to do things properly, I tried to cut corners. Instead of getting extra coats of resin I dyed body filler black and filled the gaps between carbon chops. Once last coat or resin is on, ya won't notice that there's some normal black between carbon shine bits. But it appears that resin dye I used is not UV resistant, and black filler in a year returned to it's grey color. So to fix it I'd have to get a layer of carbon chops on top and go through finishing process again. That's nearly like making another one from scratch, so I might as well make another one as well:)
 
Back from holidays, back to work:)

Side covers got black mesh glued on:



Behind that mesh I glued thin fiberglass sheet strips, painted red. This way red partially hides behind the mesh and not visually invasive:



Fiberglass strips are angled so the top parts are open:



Inside is ugly... I kinda ashamed to show this but this is not Pinterest, no need to fake it. No one is gonna see inside them covers anyway. When you don't see it doesn't hurt, it's not like anal.... :D
 
Episode #501 :)

Front fender/fork brace. After some arguments and discussion between me, myself and I, and taking warnings into consideration, I decided not to temper with my fork brace. Maybe just a wee bit, and nothing structurally compromising. I grinded down mounting points to lower it, making sure there's enough meat for bolts. I also grinded down fender mounting standoffs from the bottom as they're not needed anymore. My existing fender didn't work the way I wanted... Brace's radius is different top to bottom, heating carbon to be more pliable didn't work due to it's thickness and I couldn't stretch it on top of the brace to suit. So I cut my fender thinking that I can button up front and back and then fill the center above the brace. After another argument with myself I realized that it would be just as much work as making a new one from scratch and it would end up much heavier than a new one. And I ended up with a carbon fender cut in 3 pieces that's no good even as paper weight LOL



So I'm making a new one. Last time I used my butchered OEM fender as a mold, and it serves the purpose again. As my new fender will be on top of the brace, I got rid of square mounting area using modeling clay:



After few waxing coats I got 2 layers of carbon cloth:



Then I could glue it to the brace:





Then the fender was "sandwitched" to the brace:



Got carbon chops on, and after sanding started finishing coats:



 
I made my new seat for zippin' around and to save weight, but I need my stock seat for longer rides, and for one of them very rare cases when I'll need a passenger behind me, if I ever choose to have one. I'll probably have a bag on top, have to make brackets for saddlebags and easy removable bugscreen in near future, sort of quickly attachable touring pack. Let's face it, some guy hacking stuff in home garage can't beat engineers with simulations at ergonomics, comfort etc. Stock seat is super comfy for me personally, I've no problems having a full day trip on it and my new seat won't compete with that. So I need to "adjust" my stock seat a bit:)
I'm not sacrificing my rear fender's storage space, instead I'll sacrifice a bit of foam for a passenger. I took upholstery and foam off and cut a hole where my storage is. I also cut a section at the back to suit my new taillight:



Boxed the opening:





Carved the foam to suit:



I checked upholstery already, it's flexible enough and should wrap around taillight's notch:)
 
Mayakovski said:
I cannot wait until episode 999 when you announce that you are bored of this bike and are starting on a new one.
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I doubt that it'll ever happen... lol The bored part, not the episode 999 part. There will be an episode #999, eventually:) I still want that V100 Mandello Marina. For once I found something so beautiful that I can't think of anything to make it even more beautiful lol

Stapled upholstery back on stock seat, looks like nothing happened;)



 
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