Saturday 23 February 2013

Front (Cycle) Wings

The so called Cycle wings!

I had been putting this off for a while now; its just not a great fit between the round wing brackets - which whilst very robust do not sit exactly square against the wheel  & the sport wings I'm using. Theres not much room for adjustment either - the wings have to cover the entire width of the wheel & must cover at least 30º from vertical at the front.

I prepared the bracket tubes with a little coarse sandpaper to give a keyed surface for the bond followed by white spirit on both surfaces to remove any dust; paper in place to avoid anything ending up on the tyre & went for it. 

I'm intending to bond the wings on; but also once this first fix is dry also use some plasterer's corner bead to make up some brackets and re-enforce the joint. The cornering is sitting bottom right on this picture and is perfect for the job - galvanised, holes for bond to push through, cheap & easy to cut in appropriate lengths:

First fix will be enough glue to hold the wings in the right place & let me get the tyres off later to reinforce the joint. The ratchet straps are not that tight - just enough force to hold the wing tight in place while the glue goes off:

Measuring stick back in use to try and get both sides looking the same (note: the front edge on the sport wings is not horizontal by design):

All up... - it looks cockeyed from this picture - I'm taking the shot from close up (I hope thats the reason anyway :)  :

I'm going to leave it all alone overnight before moving the ratchet straps, taking the wheels off and finish reinforcing the joints.

Hindsight - I should have looked at these from the side of the car and could have lined the arches closer to the tyre profile.