Little project for the neighbors .

c10

Registered
He bought a new Ducati SS, and retired his 2001 1200 Bandit. His wife (long time rider)
Decided to try the 1200. She loved it, but she is 5' 4" with short legs. She has been riding it for days now. However I felt the fall was coming. I called her early today, and said take the car your Bandit is Hostage!
A little, cutting, grinding, welding, and suspension tuning the Bandit was 2" lower.
Plus I had a extra seat that is lower than the Corbin saddle.
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I don't know the exact geometry and frame-swingarm coupling of the Bandit, but I would never trust a hand welded joint to be part of the main load bearing structure.

Well don't worry its steel. I guess you're not aware most low end bikes use steel for bones. Most after market lowering bones are aluminum ( usually slightly thicker).
The 1200 has no room for adjustable turn buckle style links. This picture is on my wife's bike. Now 15,000 miles touring in Ozarks and other location's. I have personally pushed it harder than most could do. Failure is not happening. Rider error before those links / dog bones fail.
Have you looked @ your cars robot welds?
;)
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Also if you don't trust a hand welded load bearing joint you should stay out of buildings like home depot / lowes / commercial buildings as their steel structure is hand welded, and load bearing :) done by lesser care, and usually hung over welders.
 
Busabobh some of the welds I see in buildings make me question is a toddler was working that day.
Was looking for Dorey racing's black widow pictures after welding on the bearing support. Couldn't find it so I'll share these.

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Bryan, your welds look great (much better than mine); and great to hear that you've tested them for 15k miles. I guess I would have done it a little differently ...

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Bryan, your welds look great (much better than mine); and great to hear that you've tested them for 15k miles. I guess I would have done it a little differently ...

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Nice and agree on 2nd image but no room on inside of bone. What you do not see in my images is the gap was filled with two passes then ground flat. In image were they are black laying flat on lift you can see no air gap like photo of on vise.
 
I respect your work and effort, sure they're strong but me...I'd just buy adjustable dog bones with no welds.
 
C10, generally speaking, as the unions die and the good young people look for other professions, the quality of work suffers. I’ve been a union Ironworker for over 40 years, we have an apprenticeship that the non union sector can’t touch, we turn out some very fine welders. Our share of the market is going down, just like the quality of work. The other trades are in the same boat.
 
I really dislike auto spell correction on my phone at times. About 16 years ago I could not weld. A ranch hand tought me on rusted out farm equipment with 6011 stick. Later did a little with 7018 for some oil field project's. It is by far a dam good skill to have. Haven't done stick again. A little mig machine from Lincoln is my best tool.
It is very sad seeing craftsmanship suffer.
Union is week here in the deep south. Elevator trade is the only one I see often.
 
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