I talked to the guys who sell the UB1 and those dustbin fairings. They said the angle of the UB1 was made to match older bikes so it is likely not the same angle as ours.
I'd like to know that angle; are we talking about the rake angle?
He also said their fairings are rather light and the UB1 itself can hold them up but people make other mounts to keep it more stable.
Okay, that's encouraging in a way.
Right now there are several ways I could go with mounting the vetter fairing. Vetter himself would like to see me use a plate method and "hang" everything off the resulting side plates (that includes the tail / seat etc.)
The UB1 seems to make sense and I can weld something like that pretty easily.
There's clearly a big difference in what you are prepared to do compared to most people. You gloss over welding and metal structure fabrication as not worth discussing, when for me that'd be most of the focus. I don't think you appreciate how much I'd love not to have to custom fabricate anything; it represents a significant investment in training, equipment, and time, and the risk associated with designing and implementing one's own strategy.
So, for me, I'd rather know how to make the UB1 work and why or why not in detail.
I would also create brackets which come out from the two bolts on the bottom of the frame holding the battery in place for extra stability down low.
The bolts in which position? Be specific.
If I wanted to get even more rigid, I could run some aluminum slotted stock through the front of the frame, attach it with U-bolts, then attach it to the side.
I'm having trouble visualizing this. I didn't think there was enough gap to do this sort of thing. We're talking about right-angle "L" stock? Which position would you run it through? Tank area above the battery? How far forward? The 2015/16 models have a brake fluid reservoir up forward where there used to be significant empty space, so it's not clear. The DS also doesn't have the clearance between the front of the frame and the wheel that the S has.
Alan said whatever I do to make the sides as stable as possible where the bike would contact the ground if it were dropped. He said over engineer it as much as possible.
Yes, that seems sensible.
The plate idea would be rather over engineered if I 90'ed of the plates with form fitting loops matching the slope of the side walls. This if using 3/8" plates which have as many holes as they can handle to keep weight down but not violate their integrity. (those will be fun to mill out for sure)
I have some mock plates I am building in really thick 1/2"+ marine plywood ... not too sure how comfortable I am with bolting them on though since the two main bolts up front are the battery bolts. And while I have already bought longer bolts to replace the ones currently in there I am not sure if moving the pressure 1/2" from the frame for that bolt is a wise idea yet ... which would mean doing a mock-up in 3/8" plywood but NOT actually field testing it as it would likely be too weak.
I can't follow this at all; it just doesn't read clearly enough for me to tell what you mean. If you could provide a drawing or two, even at a back-of-napkin level of detail, it would be easier to respond to or iterate on.
All that said ... I have a 46lt top case which does its job pretty well (keeping people off my butt and storing stuff)
Any "good" tail you create really needs to be wider than you are so the air passing over you and the gap can reattach to the airfoil. I have a feeling though even a thinner shorter creation would still help a bit if installed. An easy way to confirm this would be to make some type of mounting bracket on the back of your bike and attach insulation foam mock-ups which have been shaped and re-enforced then go for a ride.
If you make them right you can fiberglass right over them as a plug and have a one-off tail 
"some type of mounting bracket" sounds like shop talk for the academic motto "exercise left for the reader", which is not helpful.
In any case, anyone who wants to travel doesn't need to meet anyone's approval other than getting down the road safely and paying off in efficiency proportional to the effort put into it.
The way I see it, you're either making the project for your own entertainment as a builder, in which case you don't need to communicate with others, or you're making something practical and reproducible, in which case the pragmatism of being able to help others reproduce the results without demanding that they come up with drawings and train as a welder from scratch. Try to be clear about which you're doing and act that way.
Personally, I'm in the pragmatism camp, tired of seeing electric motorcycle trips be one-off vehicles only good for publicity stunts.
Author
Topic: What content do you want? (Read 5455 times)