For my 1500 Goldwing, adding rigidity and reducing fork flex seemed a few simple details: choosing proper material, precisely measuring distances between the fork fender mount flanges and machining the material to a snug fit between those flanges. Nothing to it! Right? Well, not quite because taking the measurements with the wheel and fender halves in place meant I needed measuring tools (divider, etc.) not in my arsenal. The good news was the local Harbor Freight had a kit with inside and outside tools and on sale at under $10. With those and my vernier calipers the measuring was no problem.
Fabricating the brace was straight forward. Securing the billet onto the milling table, snugging an end mill in place; then milling the billet to proper dimensions was basic and time consuming. In some ways that’s the lazy way of making something so basic but since I have the equipment, hey what the heck. You see I’ve used a Dremel tool and hand files to machine an outboard motor shift collar from a large brass nut. Yes it worked well until the drive shaft seal gave out and the lower unit filled with water.
There is a well known technology college in Minneapolis that has a highly regarded machining curriculum. Years ago when working in a sheet metal shop, the owners of the shop (brothers) had learned their machining skills there and told me the first machining project involved hand machining their chosen item using only a set of files.
I am including a few pictures of the brace as installed on my bike. There is one major difference in appearance between stock and forks with the brace installed: the “Front Fender Upper Cover” sits about ½” higher than stock position. This makes the bottom of the brace visible. I’m pretty confident it will not be possible to fit the Upper Cover to original position without degrading rigidity of the brace. But I do believe it possible to get it 50% closer and I’m willing to live with whatever of the brace is then visible. So the saga continues and pictures will be posted as I post project progress.
Above is the bottom side of the brace. It is machined to fit tightly between the fork fender mount flanges. This one fits very tightly but if it hadn’t, shim stock would have been used to accomplish exactly the same fit.
Recesses on each end are to accomodate the Front Fender Upper Cover. To anyone that does some wrenching it is easy to see this piece has been bolted down and removed a number of times. It’s the nature of what I’m doing with this project.
Pretty easy to see the bottom of the fork brace beneath the Front Fender Upper Cover. I don’t know why digital photography makes a rather scratched up piece of aluminum look so bright white while making a piece of chromed plastic look so multi-colored. Dog gone, I spent a lot of time scrubbing the splattered bug guts off that Upper Cover and look what I got for it. Honestly though, the bugs looked much worse to the camera.
