With the design almost finalised, it’s time to copy it accross to the right hand side
Having gotten the design to a place I was mostly happy, it was time for finishing the clay and to copy the design over to the right hand side. It would undoubtedly need some tweaking, but once you can see both sides it’s far easier to make a good judgement.
Copying over symmetrically can be a bitch of a job unless you have access to a surface plate with measuring machines… which thankfully I did – I managed to convince my clay modelling agent to let me use a plate they have in their facility that goes unused most of the time. So, one saturday morning, I loaded the bike into a van to take it over to their studio.
Mirroring design over using measuring machines
In the space of one day I managed to get all the key lines and some surface points plotted over to the other side, and so it was back to the workshop to clean it up and finish everything.
In the end, for the fuel filler, I opted to make it part of the airbox cover, and to actually route it through the airbox. This would ensure that the filler cap has a fixed position, so panel gaps are not a big worry.
So with the clay finished, it’s time to start thinking about taking some moulds off the clay. For this the front suspension was removed to improve access. The clay isn’t perfect at this stage – there are several things that will need finishing in the first prototype part – for instance the seat frame is protruding through the clay on both sides, which will need to be fixed. Many of the smaller radiuses are also left sharp, as these can be easily and accurately added in the hard part.
This last photo shows how I made the area around the radiator cap asymmetrical for clearance.
In the next post I’ll be starting the process of taking a mould from the clay!
