It is very important to maintain a clean and well organized work area.
You will want to hoist your motorcycle up off the ground so that you don't have to perform
this evolution while lying on a dirty garage floor. If you don't have a hoist, just get your
hairy sister to hold the bike up while you work.
Once the bike is in the optimum position, use a piece of cardboard and draw a pattern
with a marker and then cut it out with a pair of scissors or your switch-blade.
We can now trace around the pattern on to a piece of 1/8 aluminum; a sharpie marker works good for this.
Secure the aluminum to your work bench with some old chewing gum that you will find stuck
under the dinning room table or you can use C-clamps or some other clamping tool then squirt some
cutting fluid (I heard that motor oil works) along the line that you drew on your work piece. This step is very important.
The cutting fluid allows the saw blade to easily cut through the work piece. If you don't
use the fluid, the saw blade will quickly load up with aluminum and you won't be able to cut nothing any hows.
I used a Jig Saw (I know it's upside down but that's the way I bought it)
And here is a photo of the blade. It is designed for cutting wood but aluminum
is soft enough for this blade to cut through without so much as a squeak of protest.
I made four tabs using the following steps:
1. measure out the four tabs on a piece of mild steel flat bar to the desired length and width.
2. use a center punch and hammer to create a guide for the 1/4" drill bit.
3. drill your holes (using the cutting fluid)
4. thread one 1/4-20 nut half-way down the bolt, insert it into the freshly drilled hole and then
thread another nut so that the flat bar is sandwiched between the two nuts and repeat this
step with the other three holes.
5. weld the nuts to the flat bar and then cut the tabs out after first removing the bolts and
the nuts that did not get welded to the bar.
I used a flat bar and some spring clamps to position the tabs in place for welding to the frame.
Here are the tabs now welded to the frame;
And the finished product;
OK, you can lower your bike now. And remember boys and girls, righty tighty, lefty loosey!
