| Author | Message | ||
     Avalaugh |
Well i have nearly got my bike all back together, but now the body work is all back on i have noticed the rear subframe is slightly twisted. Has anybody tried to straighten one before ? Cant really afford another $200 for one from Erik Buell Racing. | ||
| Nillaice |
i treid to straighten a blast's tail, but that's a whole different sha-banger. it's bare aluminum, so get a torch, and have at it! ... you'd prolly be better off leaving it mounted ... | ||
| Rsh |
Leverage could be your friend. Unfortunately if you leave the sub frame mounted you have the possibility of braking the frame tab mounting points. Be careful | ||
| Nillaice |
or the welds. hence a torch is recommended. | ||
| Avalaugh |
well i bit the bullet and bought one from Erik Buell Racing, it is a great price but this crash has turned out very very expensive  | ||
| Froggy |
Next time crash a Blast. 6 crashes and the only thing I spent money on to fix was the kill switch, because I was too lazy to fix the wire  | ||
| Jdugger |
Torching Aluminum isn't the greatest idea, either. It's heat sensitive, and frankly, if you get it soft enough to get it loose, you have really compromised the metal. Aluminum isn't mild steel. Aluminum is NOT ductile. It's generally good for about one bend before it becomes brittle. Cut and re-weld will be better than a bend. Just buy the $200 subframe on Erik Buell Racing and get over it. that's the best answer. It's less than the cost of a set of tires! | ||
| Arcticcr |
Avalaugh, Jdugger, is absolutely correct. I would not torch or weld the subframe. The subframe is 6061-T6. If you put that much heat to bend it, you’re going to locally anneal the material, dropping the tempering. Then again, again, I’m not sure I’d bend it either. Best bet is to just want to have the money to buy one. I sure as hell would not go two up! Having all that weight cantilevered out is going to bad. | ||
| Fast1075 |
The hard part about aluminum and heat is aluminum has virtually no plastic state..it will go from solid to liquid in an extremely narrow temperature range. I have worked with aluminum sheet quite a bit..it can be annealed if you are very careful..if you try to bend it without annealing, it will break...especially T-6061...500 series sheet bends nicely....once. An easy way to anneal aluminum sheet without burning it up is this old school trick...take an acetylene torch...run it extremely rich so it blows carbon black smoke....smoke up the metal evenly...set the torch to a neutral flame and slowly heat the metal till the carbon burns off (this takes a certain degree of learning)..after you burn the carbon off...let it cool completely...bend away....or have at it with a magic hammer and a shot bag... | ||
| Jdugger |
Today's lesson: Aluminum is a crap metal. In fact, it's not really even metal. More like what you would expect from a highly quality plastic. It's only used because it's light and cheap and the geometry of the part needed to be that big and the strength low, anyway. There, I said it, flame on!  | ||
| Dktechguy112 |
why can't you leave it bent? Is it bent that much? My bro wrecked my 1125 and the subframe is bent a little bit in the back where the lp bracket hooks up, maybe a 1/4 of an inch on one side. I am just going to leave it alone, it feels solid to me. If you don't want to drop $200 on an new one i would leave it, or if you are worried buy it from ebr for $200. (Message edited by dktechguy112 on July 12, 2010) | ||
| Wkd14u2 |
why not buy the light weight one, and save $50? Wkd1 |
