Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner battery relocation = complied with

I finally got around to moving the battery. Pretty ease stuff actually. I wanted my battery box to match on both sides, so i cut a triangular piece of steel and welded it on one side. The liscence plate belonged to my grandfather and his Kawasaki H1 drag bike. Once it was almost done, the retainer strap looked out of place seeings as how it was still chrome, so I cut it up and used safety wire. What do you guys all think?<br>
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There's more than one way to skin a cat. Nicely done!

very clean, nice job

Nice work I'd say... and innovative too!

Trick - that looks like safety wiring by your carbs as well - to keep the air filters in place?

Nice Job. One of these days I gotta take a course in welding. I'd love to fabricate stuff like that.

Very nice, I'm with you on the symetrical sides. I wish triumph made them like that from the factory. I gotta learn how to weld too.

I dont like the safety wiring closure though. Its like youre capable of welding up some nicely finished stuff, but to anyone just glancing at your bike, they would think you just rigged up some scrap to hold the battery down. I'm all for reusing the license plate and getting a gritty look and all, I just think the safety wiring looks cheap.

Oh yeah, whats the thickness of the backplate? Aluminum or steel?

Like it buddy,
looks good being symetrical,
top job,
Cheers
Chris

thanks for all the compliments guys, yours are the opinions I wanted to hear. The safety wire is kind of a theme throughout the bike- functional and decorative, the baffles in my custom pipes are held in with wingnuts that are safetied, as is my actual liscence plate. The filters are installed with safety wire just because I dont ever want to lose one, even though they stay on pretty well.

The back plate was originally 16ga steel, but then I did a search on this forum and found the topic about the cracking straps on brokenfixed's so I beefed it up and put 2 1/8" thick straps behind the 16ga plate. It's beefy but unoticable once it is installed and will probably hold forever!

I am now debating painting all my tin flat black. But it's a hard decision seeings as how I love the stylish stock paint job. Any opinions?

Yeah, if thats your thing..more power to ya. Like I said though...First glance...."this guys rigging sheet" And its farthest from the truth in this case.

Just to clarify though, the thinner straps I used before had predrilled holes in them and thats where they cracked at. Not because the metal was too thin. And this was after 2 years with cut springs.


Ive since stepped up to one piece of 1/8" thick plate, which is very rigid.

So how many bolts do you have through the back now? I usually go with 4 at each corner, but I see you have a couple in the center.

Only pic I got was the middle one. I right clicked the red X, and clicked "show pic", but nothing.

I had 4 bolts (one in each corner) and then I decided to stiffen it with the 2 1/8 straps (like your original) and had to put 2 bolts in each strap. It looks like a mess of bolts but it works. I also for got to mention that I grinded my frame cross member flush and welded new nuts into it so that the battery bracket would sit flush up against it and not up on those nut "mounds" of weld. Then I put 2 1/2" rubber washers in the middle to dampen any vibration. We will see how it all does in 10,000 miles!

Oh you grinded that bump off the fender brace bolt holes? Nice....Ya know I wondered that myself when I was doing it and it so far has no effect. I think its been 12,000 miles right now going on 13 since I moved the battery.

Its funny cause I sold quite a few of them to people on this site, but I havent seen anyone yet doing thing work and posting it on here.

Well, I got the idea from your posts so I appreciate you paving the way on this one. I'm not sure what my next project wil be- either paint, licsence plate bracket, or apehangars.

There actually used to be a kit a long time ago sold by streetboogie. That was based around making side panels to hide everything. I sorta got the idea from that but just left everything opened up. Surprisingly it caught on. I wish I was making the brackets back then, I'd have a few more customers by now. Then again I always liked posting "how to" threads just so people could learn how to work on their own bike if they wanted to. In the end its kinda cool to see how each person interpereted it. Everyone puts their little spin on it and it give newer guys different options in the future.

Right on- coincidentally I now have my freak kit from british customs for sale in the classidifed section along with my side covers and cheese graters!

man that sucks shelling out the money for that thing and then going a different way later.

oh well- such is life, right? MY brand new bubs are sitting on the shelf too- meanwhile my bike is rocking $15 worth of exhaust tubing

haha....at least you can sell those pipes.