undertray (tail tidy) part 1

I wanted to fit an undertray"tail-tidy" to my b4 for sometime, I had attempted to making a "tail-tidy" few years ago without success, this time around I can announce my latest attempt seems to have faired a little better? .
Unlike many other makes of bikes, you couldn't buy a tail-tidy for the Bandit 400.
Than why not make one from scratch? As I mentioned I attempted this before and the outcome wasn't great and as I'm not dismantling the whole bike this time. I looked online for mould making materials but couldn't find anything that I thought would help in making one up and that didn't cost the earth, though I did find wax sheets very handy.

One choose I could go with is what several project builders do when they're what to tidy-up the underside of their bike and that is make one out of sheet of steel or aluminium, I'm not that good working-cutting sheet materials i.e. keeping it flat! Even if I manage to cut one out of sheet material, fixing it would be another problem! I didn't want to drill holes in the frame for fixing or welding as this would require me to repaint the frame, which I don't want to do at this moment in time. You maybe thinking why not use cable ties/zip ties? I know cable ties are being used in a wide range of applications these days, but not by me here.


What then! What if I brought tail-tidy for' Let say, Bandit 600, other makes may work too! And modified it to fit the 400? This alternative looked the best and is what I went with..How hard could this be? .





Once I received the tail-tidy-time to get out and see how it fits the b4! So I removed the battery tray, which will be returning to the same location later, fixing the front end of the tidy in place where the battery tray normally lives, at the time of the first fitment I didn't know whether my ideas would work? The front area of the tail-tidy will need some modifying to fit the battery tray back in its location. I also realize by cutting the pillion grab rails off it would achieve neater-sharper-bodyline between tail-tidy and the original bodywork, but this would require modification to the frame as well as we've back to repainting again, which I had already discounted doing.



Another problem to overcome is that the bodywork goes in an upwards direction while the tail-tidy goes in a downwards direction in the area of the pillion grab rails and pegs, my aim at first, was to meet the edge of the tidy to bodywork. But after lot of thought I decided a compromises was needed! So fitment would be to the bike frame rather than to the bodywork. I realized afterwards that there was another possible fix, so after I've completed this tidy, maybe I make another up using that idea?. But that will have to wait till the bike back on the road.


After a lot of work I did achieve a good fit at the rear of the tidy and bodywork leading up to the rear lights, when viewing the bike from the rear you can see both sides of the bodywork and tidy, therefore both sides have to look similar if not hopefully the same, even though the rear indicators and UK number plate will obstruct some of the view. Where on the other hand looking from the side of the bike you can only see one side at a time so it doesn't matter so much if they a little different between them. (not shown here/next post: pt2)



Here's what the rear tail-tidy look like before any modifications, other than cutting bit of the outer edge off the tidy to fit the panel into place.

   Now it's time to stick my head out and get cutting!
And gamble on an uncertain outcome!!.