Yamaha FJR Gen2 Prototype Build

These photos show the concepts, design, modeling, and fabrication of our first tank for the FJR.

Alan brought his bike to my garage to let me use it to engineer a fuel cell. These shots are the before.

Here's where the cell will go.

Pillion seat and rear rack removed to start making measurements and figure out how to mount the cell.

A 12" scale laid into the well. This looks like a good dimension. There is still room to remove the side cases.

Here is the closest side case locking tab. Cell will be above this so there is plenty of room.

This is why mockups are needed. I measured and measured and still the first set of measurments didn't play right in reality. The rear was 1/2" too far forward.

The second iteration of the angles and lengths brought it exactly where it needed to be.

Cell needs to have clearance to the tupperware on the bike.

Once the measurements were proven I wanted to build up a model to get a sense of what it would look like.

I bent up a piece of material to verify the whole thing. Notice that the cell got wider. I found out the bags could still be removed with this width.

Rear Support bracket

Rear support bracket from the backside

Mounting tabs for the baffle.

Custom made drain fitting. Space is tight and using off the shelf materials wouldn't work.

Tacked in place to verify positioning.

Hoke Toggle Valve positioned to verify form and fit.

As you can see there is little room to play in here.

Looking straight down on the toggle valve. Hose bib in place to verify that the seat latch can still be actuated.

The reason for the custom fittings. Not much sense in maximizing the cell volume if you don't put the drain hole in the bottom (my complaint with the RCI cells. Here I've even dimpled it down to get every last drop out of it.

Fitting welded in place.

Baffle welded in place on the bottom piece.

Crappy looking but strong welds. Once it's all together this won't show.

Pressure Test 4/15/2011

Pressure Test 4/18/2011 The slight variation in pressures is due to thermal expansion.

Rear mounting point uses existing hole for FJR luggage rack. Shock mounted with rubber grommet.

Cell finished, Next step is to mount the flat top deck.

This is the deck that will be mounted over the cell.

I set my iM2500 Storm case up just to see how it would look.

Here it is laterally positioned. It moves the weight back but look at the space in the front!

Ready to the final finish-powder coating. I polished out the major scratches and it will be blasted at the painters.

Arrival at Quality Powder Coating about 1415.

Sean (the owner) agreed that the silver was the best color. He happens to be shooting that color this week and said "God willing and the creek don't rise, it will be ready on Friday. Two day turnaround sure is nice.s

Disassembled and ready for Sean to work his magic.