Not been asked to build a trailer to a Busa but when I'm asked to fit a towbar to any bike I tend to have the bike 3 days so I can organicly grow/graft the bar from careful measurments and a suck it and see approach. I like to make it to an indevidual bike rather than take just 1 style and stick with as I feel that looks like you've just bunged on the thing that worked last time without giving the rider any imput. Material shapes and colour of finish should hopefully go well with the bike!
Hence the idea behind the towbar for my mates BMW with a removeable side arm so the rest of the bar can remain in place (he also wants me to build it so his rear lights indicators and number plate will all be mounted off it! Possably incorparating a rack too for smaller rallies)
Supprised there was a pattern to take off internet or where ever for the Busa!
A conpaney who sell Urals do sell a towbar in kit for £175 including basic single electrics kit! (That kit needs some engineering skills as it's supplied as a one size fits all bolt togeather around your bike!!) Needs cutting and putting togeather as best you can!
RustyKnight In: Newton Aycliffe
Posts: 2462
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Hull,
There is no pattern for a busa but I run a fabrication/engineering company and i'm familiar with the manufacturing of bespoke items in a range of materials from mild steel to 316 stainless. There is a tow bar for it available from Australia but it looks cheap and chatty so i'm having this laser profiled from 12mm flat with appropriate bushes and a new spindle so it'll look the dogs and be totally removable by undoing 2 nuts in 2 minutes. Finish will be galvanised and polyester powder coated in a colour to match his bike. I intend making this in raw form so any adjustments can be made prior to sending for finishing. This isn't going to be any kind of bodge and i'm not charging him a penny as he came up with the original sketch and i've just put an engineering perspective on it. I'm actually enjoying the challenge and I know the end result will be spot on
Serious question Rusty...so you wont be machining SS then is there a reason for that? i made a cissy backrest and carrier for my v-max a few years ago , had it powder coated and found it very strong and it looked neat as well..tow bar is definitely a much more serious bit of engineering and maybe the weight is excessive ?
My towbar was made from box section to keep wieght to a minimum and also gave rigidity too. Be nice to see a profiled bar manufactured!
I've seen a couple on crusers that have been flow jet cut from billot alloy! very pretty and light with it!!
RustyKnight In: Newton Aycliffe
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Polished ally billot is deffo the dogs but on a bike with no polishing wouldn't suit so it's obviously horses for courses eh. With my design weight won't be an issue as his rear spindle is hollow so i'm mounting the frame on a pin passing through the spindle. The weight will be transferred through the back wheel so won't affect the bikes handling and the whole thing will weigh less than 4 kilos so insignificant to the train weight and can be coloured to match his bike.
The frame will also 'grip' his swinging arms a bit further up with neoprene shims to prevent any rotation inside the spindle so I can make it in 2 halves with a joint behind the tow hitch out of sight and making it easily removable. I'll let you know how i'm gettin on and I'll need a bit of advice on running a trailers electrics from a bike
RustyKnight In: Newton Aycliffe
Posts: 2462
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exc it may well be that after we've made the ms pattern we'll switch to ss but i know the PPC coating doesn't wear as well on this especially so low down on the bike and open to all the elements, stones etc
My bar is PPC black and has stood up to all weathers the only "problem with PPC is if it gets damaged then water can get under it and lift it off in a big sheet" to combat that I had my bar shot blasted and it left a very good key (too good as the powder coaters said they doubted the powder would cover it smoothly) I said not bothered if it resembled black painted sand paper as long as they coated it as evenly as they could I'd be happy!
Result it looks smooth and I know it's well keyed.
Running the cable along the bar, only way forwards would be allong the under edge of the bar you could place grommet holders at regular intervals this would give the bar an even more professional touch than say tie wraps or you could incoporate a grove allong the whole edge of the bar to take the cable with a clip mounted behind it at intervals this could be machined before and bending takes place (the latter harder to produce due to clearance left after powder coating) lastly tube of the correct internal diameter could be also incoprorated into the design of the bar (but that would be open to water ingress)! Hope one or more of those ideas will help!
Oh consider the mount for the 7pin socket in the design of the bar mine was a plate supplied for a Binks tow bar that was not used (I welded that to the bar before it was blasted and coated! Looks very neat!)
Trailer electrics are a lot simpler run the cable inside the draw bar (presuming you make this from hollow section to keep weight down) depending on the design of the body on the trailer you can go several ways after that, try not to make joins in the cables where water will be any kind of problem 7 core cable the most commonly used still needs 2 extra bits to run the opposite brake and Earth to lights. (Do not forget to have rear relectors on the trailer! Leagal Requirement) Side makers look smarte too but nor 100% sure the are needed! But anything that maked the trailer more conspicuas the better! Ref unsuspecting motorists!
Key to colours BLack = Left Rear Light
YeLlow = Left Indecator
GReen = Right Indecator
ORange = Right
Red = Stop Lights
White = Earth
Blue = Fog Light
These are the british STANDARD colours for what they do if you wire the bike up this way any commecialy sold trailer will work straight out the box and your mate can also pull the trailer with any car with electrics fitted to it! A buzzer must be wired in line with the indecators (supplied by most towing centres) these tell the driver that the trailer is still attached it only buzzes when the indecators are on so no buzz = no trailer lol.
When making your bar allow provision for a brake away chain (legal requirement!) to be attached to it (simpler to do while manufacturing!) You can no longer just loop it around the neck of the ball as this was commonly done! It is illegal!! As some chains/cables were worn through by the action of the hitch on the ball. Plus a chain will reduce the angle of lean available on a fixed hitch! As it gets between the hitch and shoulder of the ball which in turn reduces clearance!
RustyKnight In: Newton Aycliffe
Posts: 2462
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Cheers for that Andy, much clearer now and some very good ideas re the cable routing
Is it possible to use LED lights with a smaller plug instead of the standard 7 pin?
You do not have to use the standard 7 pin plug but as you in effect need in reality 9 wires (if fog used!) then it's about the smallest available and is designed to be used in all weathers!
There is a Euro Plug that is phyiscally similar and I seam to remember has more than 7 connections 13 in fact developed to remove the need for both 12n (trailer) and 12s (aux/caravan) connectors on caravans.. I'd take a trip to maplin and also to a local electical store that sells trailer and comercial viehical lights and ask if they can suggest something.
Link to a accessories site to show you what I mean.
westerntowing.co.uk/acatalog/Plugs_cables_connectors
The only thing about reducing the plug/socket I think will be a prob will be the loading of thinner cable and more so the druability/water proofness of what you use to replace the "std" with.
RustyKnight In: Newton Aycliffe
Posts: 2462
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There's plenty of waterproof connectors on the market Andy but I'll need to check the loading for LED lights, not sure how it compares to a standard circuit, good point
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