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Securing Cycle Wings


Duckpit

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There's lots on this in the archives.

 

Some of the points that come up:

* Preparation of surfaces before the adhesive is applied. Otherwise your weakest bond is metal to paint...

* Looping the Sikaflex all the way round the stay to make a tube, rather than just making a sandwich.

 

Jonathan

 

 

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I realy tried not to go the bolt route, but after the left had to be retained by a tiewrap on the 50th around Hethel, the right tied to the roll bar back from Cornwall a few months later- then the left again back from Goodwood, it had to be done. I spent a lot of time scraping the old stuff off and prepairing the underside prior to resealing, eventually to no avail.

I even complained to Caterham re the first failiure, but didnt get a reply.

Col

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Quoting Colin Cooper: 
I realy tried not to go the bolt route, but after the left had to be retained by a tiewrap on the 50th around Hethel, the right tied to the roll bar back from Cornwall a few months later- then the left again back from Goodwood, it had to be done. I spent a lot of time scraping the old stuff off and prepairing the underside prior to resealing, eventually to no avail.

I even complained to Caterham re the first failiure, but didnt get a reply.

Col

 

Did you have adhesive all the way round the stay, or only as a sandwich?

 

Jonathan

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When one of mine flew off I stuck it back with Sikaflex 292 which I think is designed for sticking bits on boats. Expensive and possibly over specified but it seems to be the gold standard.

 

Tigerseal also has good reviews and is a lot cheaper but not easy to buy on online. Seems to mainly be used by teenagers who want to stick spoilers etc. on Clios.

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Dear weeping Jesus....surely it'd be really very simple to make a proper mechanical fixture on the inside of the cyclewing so that it's held with bolts BUT you can't see them at all from outside?

 

A piece of steel strap one mm thick and2" long. Holes where you want your bolts to go. 2 pieces of threaded studding half an inch long, weld into holes. One bridge piece of strap to go over the round section of the stay and holes in the thing to go over the studs.

 

Bond the flat studded strap to the inside of the wing with fibreglass.

 

Not much weight, but infinitely more solid than even Sikkaflex, good as it is. There's a lot of lift pressure on the wings at speed.

 

Frankly this is how the things should have been made in the first place, but through bolts are cheaper even if they are ugly.

 

Gluing them on is just silly..... IMVHO, of course! *wink*

 

 

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Bond the flat studded strap to the inside of the wing with fibreglass.

 

Not much weight, but infinitely more solid than even Sikkaflex, good as it is. There's a lot of lift pressure on the wings at speed.

 

I don't think so - you are still at the mercy of whatever you bond it on with anyway? It is not necessary - bond bigheads on with either Sikaflex 292 or Bigheads own FS Acrylic and they'll be there forever (as longs as you clean the surfaces first). It really is as easy as that. I've used both and neither have ever given any cause for concern and the car gets quite a harsh road and track life. The bighead would break before the bond broke I'm sure!

 

Edit to add - mine have withstood plenty of track time at speeds around 130 mph, no sign of any movement at all.

 

Edited by - Grubbster on 18 Jan 2012 21:13:09

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Yours are obviously stuck on well, but it seems many have failed, just on the evidence of this thread.

 

The point is with the system I outlined, if you bond the bracket in with fibreglass it's NOT just 'glued on', it becomes part of the structure...it has GRP matting OVER it, so the flat part holding the studs is, effectively, between the layers of lamination of the wing.

 

This will never break off unless you hit a wall at high speed. The other advantage is that if you want to remove the wing, you can do so while leaving the stays in place.

 

Personally, I'd feel more secure in the knowledge that the wings were held on like this than with a glue type bond.

 

Edited by - Unclefester on 18 Jan 2012 22:28:18

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not had to replace/remove a wing yet although the time is looming, why not bond a pair of bighead studs under the wing and then bolt on from below. I have never heard of this being suggested so I presume there is a good reason not to do it, just wondering

 

Tim

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Laminating a couple of small flat plates with protruding studs into the structural matrix of the cycle wing is the obvious thing to do from a best practice GRP engineering POV. It would cost more for Caterham to do it this way as it's an extra manual operation.

 

Anyone with the ability to mix resin and hardener and read GRP instructions can do this for themselves, and it is definitely stronger than big heads as the bond is

 

a/ the same material as the grp/cf,

b/ the plate is encapsulated between the laminations,

c/ the contact area is larger and the stresses are spread properly into the GRP or carbon matrix.

 

It's a simple ish, practical DIY solution.

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