IKARUS 2.0

“It Aint  Over Till It’s Over Baby”. OΚ Ikarus have been working like a charm for months now... but something is bugging me... The next time I saw it next to the Desierto the bug crawls up toy me again and something doesn't feels right. I mean I know it works better... got better materials... and better aerodynamics... and it is lighter... But there is something that doesn't fit me right... 

At first I thought that it was the fact that I had to get down from the bike to adjust the upper screen... 
Nop...Maybe the color?... Nop... I scratch my head and look at it and then it hits me!

As long as I can the racks on the outside the setup kind of yells it is an amateur's makeshift hack. It needs a more clean look and the racks have to disappear somehow. 

Have your ever felt that you are getting in troyble as soon the idea passes through the back of your mind? That was the case. Now I "had" to dismantle everything to pieces and spreading everything on the bench again I had to find a way to hide those racks. Which mend  only one thing... The lower black fairing -product of many hours labor- had to go under the knife. If I need to go Desierto style I have to make two parallel cuts where the racks are, from where special made brackets would go to the back side of the fairing. 

Easier said than done. Would the fairing survive the operation? Would all my fingers? 

To be continued...

How do you cut up a thing that took you an incredible amount of work and study to make? Do you start meditating, fasting and do yoga to get a steady hand? Or you just crack open the volume on the manhole's radio, pop up a beer and go to mayhem mode listening to the blues? The blues. Its always the blues... With my dremel like I started cutting my way through epoxy using as starting and ending points for my cuts the holes that the racks were bolting on to the fairing. Four songs later they were done. And with no fingers gone!

Sanding time was here again and filling and finishing followed, mainly because this kind of laminating composite materials hate humidity getting between the layers and can cause them great damage in the future.    

Next up the bracket's set. Since I wasn't able to find anything "readymade" to do what the aluminum racks did, I had to also make them my self. I choose 3mm thick plastic and the cutting and drillin' begun.   

Several hours of curving time later I got to this... On the floor around my feet layed the little plastic corpses of all failled attempts. I take a break and while looking at them I realise that ...I need bolts! So off to the hardware store one more... 

Rushing back to the cave, I start bolting things and soon... yeap it works! Ok after some more cutting and sanding and trimming... but it works! So I dismantle it again... Nop it wasn't a stroke, but I had to paint them all black to also check the looks of my setup. Then I assemble it and take it out to the sun to have a look... 

But then I remember something else I always wanted to try, as I have noticed that many fairings of this kind have a window like cut on the lower front to maximize  air intake between the two surfaces and additionally  reduce buffeting. So a little bit later...

But before I assemble it -again and for ...I cannot remember how many times... in a row- I thought, "lets get a picture of the complete cast for historic purposes". So I lay them all down and ...click. 

Then I bolt it on to the bike and start riding. It works as before, only a little better in higher speeds. The moving mechanism works easily. Then as I look at it from the sides I get an idea. I measure the angles to the point where the support bracket meets the bikes sidepanels. 

I think that it could get more steady if I reverse the angles so that I could get wider bends. Back in the shed and on to the bench. Again. So the aluminum tubes run down to the back of the lower bolting points and then turn forward instead of the other way around.    

      And a last detail: The hand bolts are working ok but are lame to look at. So next day I go thump nuts safari and I find some wonderful thump nuts made from bakelite, with bronze inner threads.

The epilogue is another disassemble of the complete structure, a proper spray-paint of the plastic parts and then a assembly with fresh secure nuts. And of course some last photos...

Total maximum height is 47 centimeters at full deployment. Minimum height completely retracted is 35 centimeters.

...and a small trip to Kisavos mountain for a test ride...

In the meantime another one in the riding crew just got a twin Bmw F 650 GS, test rode the Ikarus and wanted one. So here we go and at his we tried a slightly bigger air duct upfront.

The Ikarus family keeps breeding...