Customised heel plates (pics)

[Brainchild]

After a long time planning it, I've managed to produce a modified heel plate out of a standard item.
I spent friday marking out, drilling, grinding and carbon fibering the crap out of my chosen victim. The final product basically looks like the diamond heel plate has a black diamond centre made of carbon fibre :D
I've been wanting to do this for bloody ages, but never had access to a drill press. I ended up going into work on my day off to use theirs. I think I've seen heel plates like this on another bike, but cannot remember where.
Camera-to-laptop cable has gone walkies, so no pics to show yet. Gimme 3 days, as work has one but Im on a course right now.
BC

[Brainchild]

I found that cable!
It still needs work, and the next one should be neater and have better fitting carbon...














Opinions?

[Spike16]

looks great but the carbon is a bit dodgy, still pritty good for something you did yourself

[CMSMJ1]

I can see that some people will be keen on this if you were to tidy it up.

Great work for the DIY crew though - well done.

Personally, I don't see the point - apart from the "I can do it, so I did" kind of point but good arrows for doing it.

Hows the fairings coming?

[mattUKNC]

Looks ok. Would you be able to cut the sheets of carbon easier? Just a suggestion. :)

[Brainchild]

I did it coz the heel plates look so plain in normal trim, and it will look different.
The actual carbon was the leftover from a fix job on my seat panels, so I didn't cut it especially. If I did I could make it look much better . Plus I want to play around with the way the carbon locks to the plate. Im not going to try it, but I reckon a good hard smack would knock the carbon plate out from the middle of this one, which I don't want.
Also, the top right corner is messy because the tape I used for a flat surface folded and created a crease
Then there are a few of my ever-present enemy, the bubbles

I can do better. Thed carbon on this was literally done in 5 mins before I left it to dry. Next attempt- Monday (Day off work! :) )

[superlite]

Looks ok. Would you be able to cut the sheets of carbon easier? Just a suggestion. :)

You can't really use carbon sheet as it's near impossible to get a perfect edge on it - when cut or ground it frays. It has to have molded edges for a quality finish, or alternatively hide the edges somehow.

I'm not too keen on the look, but I'm sure others will be into it. Top points for ingenuity! How about some carbon kevlar twill to spice it up a bit? Also, have you thought about recessing the carbon in the heelguard? The resin will be be scratched and worn away fairly quickly from boots.

I made some carbon heelguards for some home made rearsets a while back:



They're destined for my Yamaha Chappy now - that's where all my old rubbish seems to end up!

[mattUKNC]

Looks ok. Would you be able to cut the sheets of carbon easier? Just a suggestion. :)

You can't really use carbon sheet as it's near impossible to get a perfect edge on it - when cut or ground it frays. It has to have molded edges for a quality finish, or alternatively hide the edges somehow.

They're destined for my Yamaha Chappy now - that's where all my old rubbish seems to end up!

I see. If you could have the heal guard the same shape as the Honda 'wing' that might look alright, your's is almost the same!

[superlite]

Forgot to mention that my carbon heelguards did get scratched pretty quickly- they didn't get much use either. And they were super thick on the finishing resin! They were used as crash replacements in my student days and did the job - they look slightly embarassing now Lesson: 10 mm alu plate is no substitute for billet!

If you could have the heal guard the same shape as the Honda 'wing' that might look alright, your's is almost the same!

Never thought of that! Good one.

[matty_boy]

Good effort but your surface finish is a bit pony, but nothing that wont polish out.

Have you drilled it all the way through ? because if you did mill it the same depth as the carbon or just a little bit deeper you could then use the resin to hold the carbon on to the heal plate and would still give the same effect as drilling it all the way through but stop the carbon popping out.

Matty.