Nose Cone Thingy Fixit

[FXDRYDR]

I have one of those "nosecone" deals that's made of plastic and fits onto the frame in front of the engine. I think it keeps off a lot of grime that otherwise would end up on the motor... and being lazy, it was a no-brainer to order it and have it installed before I even picked up the bike.

It developed a crack after year one, but I deftly repaired it with JB Weld, touch-up-painted it, and all was well.

Recently had to take it off to tighten the fittings on my oil cooler and when I loosened the bottom bolts holding it on -the area around both bolt holes just fell off into my hand.

Well... I figured "the hell with it" and was just going to take it off and be done with it. Then, I saw that I'd have to take out the bolt that holds the engine mount to remove the bottom mounting bracket... whatever happened to "easy?"

That seemed like it could become troublesome. So I revisited my decision about replacing it. On one hand - it's $100 or more for a new nosecone and it will probably crack again pretty quickly. On the other - I'm lazy and it's easier than removing the engine mount bolt, plus the nosecone keeps gunk off the engine... What to do?

I am a lazy fukr... and laziness -- nothing else -- is the true mother of invention.

Since the broken area of the nosecone - for the mounting bolts - are on the bottom... I cut two strips of plastic from the lid of a 32# detergent bucket. Then, I trimmed them up to fit inside the nose cone, roughed up mating surfaces then JB Welded & riveted them in.

They've been clamped together for a day. Next, I'll drill new holes for the bottom mounting bolts, use rubber washers to take up the space between the thickness of the nosecone and the plastic strips, mount it and see how long it lasts this time... My riveting job looks ugly. But you'd have to get down and look up from underneath the bike to see it.

Reason for all this -- I'm tired of dumping $$ into my bike. It's got about all the stuff on it I want and it's all ridiculously overpriced, IMO. So... I'm getting creative in my new frugality.

Thought I'd share...