Rack Details

Here's the rack that came from the bike in Belgium, dirty and lightly scratched, but nothing that won't clean up.

Note the ribs pressed into the headlight shells and rack deck. I wonder if these helped add a bit of stiffness, especially to the deck?


















The steel look at the front is badly corroded. Looks like it was never really symmetrical, either.


















Here you can see the layout of the struts and deck. The front struts are made from a single piece of aluminum rod, held in place by the same bolts which attach the headlight shells to the deck. I'll made a new front strut assembly from some 6061-T6 round stock.




















The rear struts are also made of one piece of aluminum round bar, which attach to the fender. The deck is attached to the rear struts by crimping the edges over the rod. No good way to replace the rear struts, since the aluminum holding them in place is thin and would possibly tear if I tried to open the clips and then bend them back.




















The wire between the two lights allows them to be illuminated in parallel (or is that series???).

Here you can see how the front strut passes through a hole in the headlight anchor bolt. Mounting hardware is all steel.





















The headlight shells are secured with crown nuts, which allow use of a screw driver to teighten them in this partially-enclosed location.



















One headlight has this special attachment for wiring the lights in (parallel? series?? someone help me out here).