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Projects/Scooter Roof: Difference between revisions
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→Designing the roof
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* A reasonable power/weight ratio | * A reasonable power/weight ratio | ||
From the start I was keen to weld the frame and avoid bolted connections, any bolted connections would increase the risk of excessive rattling and squeaking over rough roads. While it would be easier to weld a steel frame using MIG techniques, the frame would require painting before use. I | From the start I was keen to weld the frame and avoid bolted connections, any bolted connections would increase the risk of excessive rattling and squeaking over rough roads. While it would be easier to weld a steel frame using MIG techniques, the frame would require painting before use. The requirement to paint the frame before regular use would mean that further welding would be very difficult without having to remove the paint, an ardous process. | ||
I also assumed that weight could also be an issue, but have never attempted to estimate weight for a steel version of the roof frame. | |||
I therefore decided to use | I therefore decided to use aluminium for the frame, the advantages of aluminium is both that it is light and naturally corrosion resistant. This meant that I had to develop my aluminium welding skills, a process which took several months before I felt confident enough that I could attempt the frame itself. | ||
I chose a think-walled 1" aluminium tube for the main frame tubing. The advantage of the thick wall is that it reduces flex, but this comes at a price of reduced malleability, a problem which I'll come back to. | |||
===Mounting points=== | |||
I was lucky to pick up a second hand windscreen and mounting frame for the fuoco, which allowed me to copy and weld up a new mounting block with the correct screw mounting positions and angles which would fit into the existing screw holes in front of the Fuoco steering gear. I was unsure if these mounting points would be strong enough to hold the roof stable against lateral force such as cornering and wind gusts and had it in the back of my mind that I would also need to extend the mounting points to bolt down to further screw holes which are normally used to mount the covers for the dashboard. | |||
For the rear mounting points I could simply use the existing mounting points available for a rear pannier. Given that these mounting points were designed to carry around 20+ kilos of pannier and luggage, I was pretty confident that the mounting points would be strong and stiff enough to hold the roof stiff enough. | |||
===Windscreen=== | |||
The main considerations in choosing a design for the windscreen were | |||
Optical clarity | |||
Stiffness | |||
Scratch resistance | |||
