Beefing up the subframe.
 

While on my trip to Ocotillo Wells I destroyed the edge tail light mounting brackets.

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When I built a new one out of some aluminium I decided to fix the cross members on my subframe.

While on my trip across B.C. last summer, I cracked them. A poor design on my rear rack caused the rack to vibrate over the hundreds of whoops on the KVR trail and eventually the cross members succumbed.
You can see the cracks around the tool bag mounts.

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The cracks were more evident before I got the grinder out.

I bought a chunk of 10 gauge metal and after making a template I used my grinder and zip discs to cut out the shape and I drilled out the holes.

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I ground the welds on the tool bag mounts flat and the plate fit perfectly.

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I am going to take the bike over to my welder buddies place this weekend and we will drink a few beers.
I am going to re-engineer the rack mounts once the cross member beefed.
I will post up some pics after I sober up.

nice....looking forward to see how it turns out.

Here are a couple of photos of the sub frame cross member now.

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This should make it pretty well bombproof. The stock one was made of pretty wimpy stuff.

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My dog Nelly

looks good. whats this rack set up you talk about...

This one. Not a good picture.
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It worked very nicely, I just have to make it a bit more rigid.

Here is another couple of shots

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nice set up. ive got to rig something like that before my next trip. off topic, but how do you like the trails tire?

haha, flux core welder eh?

The tire is an MT43 and I love it. I have used it on just about everything and it bites as well as about any knob I have used. I have 5000 k on it and it is about 2/3s done. I will buy another for sure. Mud would be an issue but anything other than that and I like it.