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Ready to Commute - 4/8/2001

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Rack, rear fender and panniers ready for the commute tomorrow, assuming it doesn't rain. Mounting the rack was a tad tricky since I couldn't attach the front of the rack to the rear of the seat because of the suspension movement. I had to make a brace that connects the rack with the chainstay on the swingarm.


This shows the rear rack brace. It connects to a threaded hole in the chainstay. The bolt head holding it on is on the inside of the chainstay.


The %$@#*&% aluminum seat frame cracked again, even after Mike Lampi's TIG welding repair. The horizontal bar separating the two vertical seat rails cracked at one of the bends, very close to one of the earlier cracks. I just cut the center part of the bar out and replaced it a similar shaped piece made from some steel tubing. THIS won't crack. This shows the steel replacement piece.


A closeup of the joining of the tubes forming a shallow angle.


The replacement piece uses 1.125" O.D. tubing (down tube tubing) at the ends, which sleeves right over a few inches of aluminum tubing I left. I pop riveted the steel tubing onto the aluminum tubing with 3 pop rivets per end. You can see the rivets here.


Here's the chunk of aluminum I cut out. Moral: Don't modify a Vision seat frame.

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