Our trip is done! We had an amazing journey, and the weather cooperated pretty well for us.. As much as we can ask for in June out in BC, anyway. I created a pretty intricate map on motowhere.com that includes all our rest stops, gas stops, sleeping places, etc. You can push the “next point” button and basically follow along on our route, or you can just view the maps “google maps” style, and zoom around and have a look.

If you want to view the map full screen, click here to go to the motowhere site.

I can’t wait to go back. :)

Edit:

I finished a video of the weekend! Make sure you watch in 720p! It really looks terrible in SD :(

My 2nd update:

Here’s what I believe is a final drawing of the fender eliminator. The bend lines should give you an idea of what it will look like.. hopefully I can get it cut at work tomorrow.

The two holes at the very bottom are where the license plate attaches, then up from there, the 4 holes that have bends right near them attach to each other with a bolt so it will swivel.

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My 3rd update:

It’s done! Here’s a few pictures of the progress and the final product.

Being laser cut:

Cut complete:

After I formed it, and fit it together (I found it to work better without bending the one line on the drawing.. looks perfect without it):

Installing it:

Lights on:

Final shot!

The license plate lights are really bright, and they look really nice. They don’t light up the plate too much though. If you’re interested in the same lights, these are the ones I used (The satin dome style). They cost me $24 cdn from a local shop. They are meant to plug right into 12v, so you don’t have to do anything fancy. Just cut the existing wire for the plate light, and wire these in.

http://www.designengineering.com/category/catalog/design-engineering-inc/led-lighting-products-speed-tape/led-plate-kits

After picking up a couple stainless bolts/nuts/washers to attach the two parts, the total cost was about $28.

I want to put a fender eliminator on my bike, also known as a license plate holder. You remove the stock fender on the back that contains reflectors, the plate, and a bunch of plastic, and replace it with a much smaller holder for the plate. These can be had aftermarket for about $75 USD give or take $10-$20. I figured I could make one at work with the laser table for free, and get to design it myself! I started by removing the fender on my bike, and discovered that the 4 fasteners on it have an aluminum plate sandwiched in-between them and the plastic fender! This is a great thing to measure off of to make my bracket.

I started off by removing the aluminum sandwich plate and bolting my fender back on, bolts right to the plastic. At this point I don’t care if the fender is not meant to be held on there with just bolts as I’m not concerned about wrecking it. I then downloaded Google Sketchup which I have worked with in the past, but I haven’t used it in roughly a year and a half.. I was able to take the stock sandwich plate from Suzuki and duplicate it in about 35 mins with no trouble at all! Fuck I love Sketchup!

Here’s a pic of the product and the copy, before I modify it to work as a new fender eliminator for my bike. It’s not an exact copy as you can see by the top tips on mine being a little sharper, but I can go back in and modify that later.

Once I do a bit more research on how I’m going to light the plate, I can go ahead and finish the design, and get it laser cut and powder coated. The final product will have bolts on the side so it can pivot as well.