I'm glad to see we have more people commenting! I definitely dig the small change in design but sometimes things are more difficult in practice. I can tell you now that the bends you have showcased are quite difficult to pull off and can sometimes weaken the bar but I'll certainly do what I can to copy your image since people seem to dig it. I also like the idea of arresting the bracket so it doesn't twist if/when the bike goes over. I'm not sure we'd have that problem as it's currently designed but it's always nice to be sure. I'll try and incorporate a few of these changes Monday and post more pictures! I do agree the bar needs to be a bit more sporty-looking, though.
I'm guessing that you'd probably need to have a wider bend than I'm showing in my images/the middle bend, to accomodate your bending apparatus. The main idea here is to have the lower portion of the bar match the vent angle. Mainly, I was just trying to illustrate it for the masses here.
If the middle bend was mated with a weld, it might be a little stronger. I hear welds are often stronger anyways... but I'm not sure if you'll be using one piece of pipe in the final design or not. Either way it's good.
I did think about 'shortening' the length at the top a bit (imagine the first bend starting about an inch from the end, and bending at a forward angle to meet the center bend, essentially 2 45-55 degree or so angles at different orientations), but I'd imagine that everyone would prefer the extra length to the current top 90 degree bend, as that would be a great place to attach lights... it would look sportier with an 'immediate' bend, but the extra 3-4 inches of length I think would be more useful to the Connie crowd.
As for the third leg, I'm envisioning a bend at both ends of the tube, which depending on your bending apparatus shouldn't be a big deal. The front bend would terminate/be welded to an 'L' bracket perhaps, or something similar, to mate up with the front fairing bolt. The other bend, of course, would need to mate with the guard in some fashion. I'm thinking that both bends would be less than 90 degrees (perhaps a 45 in the rear, and an 80 in the front). Assuming you feel like mocking up a third leg version. That third leg would add to cost, of course, so I'd be interested in hearing how many other people would be interested in a third leg version, if it adds sufficient strength to justify the expense.
You could actually keep the front section of the third leg straight, and weld a longer tab (essentially a 'step' tab) to offset the front of the bar away from the fairing, but I'm not sure how that would look aesthetically. A front bend that terminates at the front of the fairing looks better in my mind's eye, but until you actually see the actual prototype on the bike, it's hard to judge which would complement the bike better.
The crossbar would help a lot in improving the strength, as any forces across the third leg would be distributed across the two front fairing bolts (instead of just one), as well as to a smaller degree the other two mounts on the opposite bar. This would reduce the chance of tweaking the frame if the bike went down hard, and of course would help hold the main guard in place/keep it from bending backwards. This is a canyon cage, after all...
Plus, if done right, I think it would look sportier IMHO, plus it gives more bar to attach things to... dunno what you'd attach though! Bumper stickers maybe?
I'm sure more C-10ers will be commenting shortly. I'm looking forward to what you guys MC Enterprises guys finally come up with!
