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Mindis V7-850 Mods

Oh, and in the last pic there's a visible scuff on my valve cover crash protector. Last summer I tipped her at a parking lot and I'm happy to know that they work as intended. ...well, not entirely happy, my feelings hurt... :D
 
DeadEye said:
That worked out perfectly !
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We'll see:) Quenched bolts allegedly don't rust, but in my experience some surface rust still gathers over a longer period of time. Last season I thought of powdercoating them, but I forgot, and I packed my powdercoating gear on the shelve already
 
Got my nickel copper solid brake lines and started routing front brakes. It's tight down there... very tight... as tight as [insert dirty joke here]...





With a help of tube bending spring it bend effortless:



If my oven be big enough then I'd powdercoat them but rattle can enamel has to do now:



I can start assembling my front brakes for good tomorrow, rear is done already. Before I strap and tidy everything, I'll bleed the brakes to check for leaks first, otherwise I'll have no access underneath later.
 
I got something else brewing in my shop, touring windshield. It's an easy quick job, I'll just hot glue it to my headlight bucket and call it done:



...damn, MDF will get wet and mushy, can't leave it like that... I suppose I'll have to make it from smth better, like that sparkly black gold I'm familiar with :) I'll need a mold, and of course I'm using PS+CAD program that I'm super proficient at (Popsicle Sticks + Cardboard Aided Design):





Once spray foam was shaped to my liking, I added one layer of fiberglass to make my life easier for bondo/sanding marathon:



The shape is not final, it will be tweaked. I'm making a mold to form a fiberglass windshield which I'll be testing once riding season is back on for me. From that fiberglass windshield, once I'm happy with it's performance, I'll be making a negative mold to form carbon fiber piece with vacuum for best strength vs weight scenario. I know it's like triple the work involved here but hear me out, ya probably not gonna believe what I'm about to say- this time I choose function over form! ...I know, I couldn't believe myself what I just said...🤣
 
DeadEye said:
have NO clue where to start...
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Well... As soon as ya wake up, ya gotta have a coffee and a smoke, along with few levels of Bubbleshooter game. Then ya go to use a bathroom, and after producing a good Snickers bar with a couple of sun melt Mars minibars, all theses mad ideas starts flooding your brain. Ya keep storing them in organized folders in your brain, and each morning ya can pick an idea for further development, until ya have a 3D image spinning in the corner of your eye of a finished product. When ya open that image in your brain, ya'll find a detailed spreadsheet of materials needed, costs, order's places and time to get them, time to build etc. Try my method, it works for me :rofl:
 
When I do bondo/sanding, I tint the filler between each coat. Partially to identify hi/lo spots, and partially coz I like that camo pattern during the process:) Once I finished with the shape, I added some "roundness" to the lip around perimeter:



Here's the shape so far, looks like Xenomorph queen's head LOL





Overall I think it looks a bit too round. There's no smooth round lines anywhere on V7, so I think I'll add 2 sharper lines to break the area visually.
The idea for that lip around perimeter for the air to propel outwards, without having my windshield being bulky and big like on those overrated, underpowered and overpriced baggers... I'm aiming for it to look like a ADV'ish windshield. Sides are just as wide as my forks and with that lip air will just skim pass my knees, theoretically. Bigger lip on the top will propel air upwards more and it will skim to the top of my helmet, theoretically. And when I'll go way above legal speed limit and tuck in, then I'm in full wind shelter, ish, theoretically. I'm shooting from the hip and I think that that's how it's gonna work, with sm minor adjustments, if any. I mean, that's exactly how it's gonna work!!! ...theoretically... LOL
 
I was starring at my windshield mold not feeling the lines and decided to fix it before making anything. I know myself well enough to realize that if I won't be happy now, than later I'll rush to get that done, will get triggered every time I look at it, and eventually will want to make another one...
To sharpen a bit the lines, I glued sm 1mm fiberglass rods for the ease of bondo sculpting and finished the mold:







Now it somewhat flows together with tank's lines, and I don't have any visual criticism for myself anymore. Now that I'm looking at it, I might have get away just to form on the top the tank LOL
(jk)


Formed a fiberglass piece for testing:





It's thin and flimsy. I'll have to think of making some grid for it for testing, otherwise it'll be flopping in the wind like my wallet that feeds 4 kids. Another reason for extra flimsiness is that I used cheap casting epoxy instead of laminating epoxy. I'm cheap and won't waste good epoxy on a part that will be later discarded :)
 
I'm coming out of winter depression and getting sh1t done, finally LOL Jeez, every winter I'm loosing my motivation and drive, and then when spring comes, sunshine fixes everything. I'm definitely solar powered 🌞

Back to touring winshield. I wrapped my headlight with cling film, taped windshield on and sprayfoamed in side:



Added fiberglass supports and filled the rest with foam:





The skin is flimsy so I had to make it somewhat solid so it won't be flopping during my butt-dyno-wind-tunnel test runs. I'll probably tape it or zip tie it for test and hope that no one will see me lol Well, it's ready for testing:



Finished my brakes. Well, kinda... After connecting everything rear brake felt super solid, feels like I'll be able to lock rear wheel on a dime. I had a little leak at connections from solid to braided lines, and that ate enamel paint:



I fixed that with black nail varnish, da hell, I'm not taking it apart to repaint the lines... And bleeding rear brakes was such a breeze that I didn't even finished my coffee before it was done :) aaaand the "kinda" part... After bike sat for couple of days with fresh brake fluid, I noticed that there's a very tiny leak at one banjo bolt at the ABS unit. And I bet on anything that it's because I reused crush washers. Not the first time I pay the price for being cheap, not the last time either. I know that I did wrong so save your stones to throw at me for smth more serious LOL I got new crush washers, it's just gonna be a waste of brake fluid and more work and mess...

And there's more happening in my magic place that makes me happy, new side covers. Previous ones have some broken bolt hole mounts, and some of carbon screw-up started showing up, so instead of repairing I'm making new ones. That flat area was triggering me for quite a while so this time I'm bringing some depth, similar to OEM side covers, but more angular to match the line of the bottom of my seat.
CardboardAidedDesign, and painted black before doing bodywork on molds to visualize whether I like the style:





I make something, a year later I change my mind and decide that I don't like it anymore, and I make something new. Or I make something while rushing and cutting corners and later my feckups surfaces, then I make it again properly, the right way. And my bike is keep on changing, it's never boring:D
 
Mindi, you’re on of the few reasons I keep getting back to this website even though I don’t own a Guzzi anymore. Man you’re awsome!
 
DeadEye said:
I would have guessed a starter motor cover BUT the bolts are in wrong :)
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Nope, no beers for you! ...fine, I'll share if ya ever on the Island... lol
It's a bracket to hold my rectifier under the tank. Since my ABS unit now lives under my gearbox, I'm visually opening the space. There's that cross brace (that rectifier was originally mounted on) that I would like to cut it off. But it's not just tacked to hold a rectifier, it's welded solid, what makes me guess that it is structural and makes the front of the frame into a rigid A structure. So I should leave it be...



 
I used brand new banjo and crush washers on my Brembo 15RCS brake master cylinder mod and it leaked! I got the old ones off the stock master cylinder and tried those. No leaks. Metal is metal and it works or it doesn't.
 
I made my side cover molds and they failed. It was much worse than the pic, I cleaned them, ish, and sprayed black to see whether it's worth salvaging.



They were suppose to come out mirror smooth but I was testing a new mold release spray and it got a weird reaction with base coat. Came out with wrinkles, some parts were stuck to the molds. I'm working with composites (hobby grade) since I built my first fiberglass model boat at the age of 7, that's 4 fkn decades. Most of the time I can do this with my hands behind my back with my eyes closed, but at times like this I'm starting to wonder if I just better stick to what I know and not try to re-invent the wheel LOL But then, every time I fail, I learn more...
I'm salvaging my molds, I just have to do some body work to fix them. Doing body work on negative molds is a PITA coz it's all manual handwork, palm sander doesn't fit inside. So don't hold your breath on side covers updates, I gotta deal with my own mess first:

 
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