An Experiment in Design

While I was been between contracts, I was able to pursue a project that I've had in mind for a while, as well as spending some quality time with my child. After finishing the project - or at least this iteration of it - I thought I'd sit down and put a few thoughts together about it, because I any project or task can teach us something, if we're willing to look for the lesson and learn.

A little about the project

I have a 2002 Honda Rebel, and as much as I love the bike overall, there are a few design features that I just don't care for - a good example is the battery box cover and the matching air filter cover

You can see the chrome trimmed white plastic battery box cover on the bike in the picture to the to the right under the seat/fuel tank.

There's nothing terribly awful about the covers, they just stick out too far and are too plain for me - and I'd like a little more of the machine to show through. For the battery box cover, the solution was simple - remove the plastic cover and expose the battery and paint the black plastic liner white. That the metal frame that keeps the battery liner in place is black is a bonus, because I think makes a better contrast than chrome. For the air filter cover; however, the solution is a little more tricky, because the cover is not held in place with multiple screws, but by pins that extend out of the OEM air filter cover and rest in receivers on the white/chrome cover - but I was sure I wanted to change that as well.

What I did

After considering a number of options - among them fabricating a metal replacement or drafting and 3D printing a part - I settled on what I considered to be the most cost-effective and forgiving - polymer clay.

I started the process by creating a template using the existing air filter cover and then working the polymer clay into the correct shape. After the piece was the correct shape, I cured the clay according the manufacturer's instructions. Once the clay was cured, I took it to the bike and trimmed and filed it into the best fit possible. Once I knew it fit, I put ink on the receiving nuts inside the air filter compartment and pressed the plate onto the nuts and then made the holes in the correct position. To make sure I won't have to repeat many of the steps in this process, I used the completed part to make a permanent template that I also annotated with specific dimensions so I can more easily duplicate the process in the future - that's the image you see to the right (which in its original form is 8.5"x11" - you can get a PDF copy by contacting me).

Once the part was completed, I selected an image and began the process of transferring it to the part. I had originally tried transferring the image to the polymer clay the normal way using a transfer sheet; however, that did not work well (I assume because of the size of the image). Since that didn't work, I switched to the old-school method, masking off portions of the part and painting the unmasked portions. Because the image I chose is one that's typically political graffiti, I chose to skip the airbrush that would have given a "too polished" look and instead used a paintbrush. I also considered only masking the top, bottom, and inside borders and using a dry brush, but wanted the image to be really clear.

Again, I'm keeping costs on a near-zero level, so I'm using Testor™ brand enamel, which turned out better than I expected on the polymer clay, and was way better on the budget than a $20 can of orange paint that I'd use once to cover a few square centimeters and then wait for it to fall off the shelf and spray random items in the garage. I don't know about you, but I prefer to not have random items partially spray-painted orange - or green for that matter, even though green is a better color than orange.

At this point, I added the motto (Tiocfaidh ár Lá) under the graphic, but I was very dissatisfied with how it looked overall at that point. I didn't, however, let this one minor failure set me back - I simply repainted that section and moved on.

After the piece was painted and dry, the next thing I needed to address was the bolts used to install the cover. The OEM bolts fit the OEM cover - which is about 15mm from the top of the housing to the outside of the cover. Since my part is only about 10mm thick, the OEM bolts were about 5mm too long. A quick trip to the hardware store for M6 x 16 x 1.0 bolts and I was back to the project. A few sprays from the white Rustoleum™ on the bolts and washers, a little time to let them dry, and I was back in the garage bolting the part down with the now-white bolts.

Although the fuel tank and the cover are different shades of white, the difference is not nearly as noticeable in person as it is in the photo where the flash was pointed right at the newly-fabricated, freshly-painted part.

What did I learn and how does it apply elsewhere?

First, before I started this project, I only knew that I was dissatisfied with a couple of features on my bike - I had no idea what options there were. As I searched in vain for an aftermarket theme-based kit or even parts I could use to mod the bike, I began to get a little discouraged. There are standard accessories - floorboards, saddlebags, grips, windshields, and so forth - but nothing that would allow you to take a bike from boring, off-the-showroom-floor standard to an interesting, showcase, theme bike in a weekend (or two) of work. Without the encouragement an easy solution offers, we often settle for mass-market produced, mildly interesting designs, when we can have more. We need to recognize more often that making our mark is usually easier than we think it is and is always worth the attempt, even if we fail. I still think it would be cool if there were aftermarket theme-based kits...maybe when I win the lottery and can pursue all my hobbies with abandon, there will be and we can all express ourselves a little easier.

Second, I mentioned that I was able to spend some quality time with my child - that was because she was right beside me during much of this little project. I did not allow her to handle the paint, but she was able to hand me tools while I took off the OEM covers and help keep track of the handful of little bolts, she also helped condition the clay and helped with the first fitting, and eagerly expressed her joy when seeing that what didn't really look like anything at the beginning (while I was cutting out the image for the center panel) was recognizable when it was complete. She didn't really have an idea of what the "big picture" was, she just trusted that her contribution was valuable and valued - which it was. It's worth noting that the small encouragement in her joy meant mountains to me - it's easier to face challenges or the threat of failure when your teammates are so encouraging. In a lot of ways, as engineers we're unlike my daughter, but we need to be more like her. Sometimes we see only bits and pieces of a project, but that does not mean we should think one contribution or another is less valuable; all contributions are valuable and deserve recognition - even if the contribution is that we're "just part of the team". We don't always see how things fit together until they do, but making judgments about which are the most valuable pieces before we understand the puzzle invites assumption.

Finally, as I told my wife, this was something of an experiment. I wondered if I could easily, inexpensively modify my bike in a way that I liked. I had a few things going against me - I'd never modified a vehicle before, I'd never fabricated a part before, I have no CAD skills, I don't have a workshop full of tools, I don't...I'd never...all the negativity was nearly overwhelming. I did it anyway. Overall, I consider the experiment successful. I spent less than $15, took less than 5 hours all together (though it was broken up into 5-year-old attention span sized pieces), and was more than mildly pleased with the result. Along the way, I learned a few things - I know I'm very likely to change the design at some point, and I very likely to even change my approach - but by being willing to set aside the negativity while still realizing that I may fail, and realizing that "failing" would be OK because I would have learned how not to do something, I made things better - I like the new look better and I like the new feel of the bike too, made it my own, and it's now like no other.

Get out there. Try something different. Make your mark. Above all, ride safe.