No prob, it is really late and we ALL should get sleep (hey, it is past 1:15am here!).
We will have to leave the engineering design and analysis to you professionals, of course. It is already obvious your team has the skill, desire, experience, and ability to produce something great. I am sure each configuration has pluses and minuses. As for feedback from us laypeople, we mostly have to go on aesthetics vs. practicality vs. convenience vs. protection level vs cost. The permutations are mind blowing!
At some point, I would suggest a poll, listing (showing) all the possible configurations that are workable and reasonable, along with a simple estimate of level of protection offered, then let people vote on which they like the most (or least). I am not saying it is a democracy- it is your project and your investment money and time on the line, but the potential customers could offer some insight as to what might sell best. Might even be OK as a "silent" poll, where people just Email or private message you their ranked choices.
A poll is definitely a good idea. I'll look into that once we have all available options out on the table!
Also, I've been looking more into doing a two-point bar where we'd keep the horizontal bar and lose the vertical one. This set-up seems like it would suffice for no- extremely low speed tip-overs but not much beyond that. The reason is when you put crash protection on these bikes, it tends to cause a rocking motion when the bike goes over. In a no-to-low speed situation, the bike would hit the bar and that would be it. However, when you add a little motion to the equation (as low as 10mph) and the bike goes over, it tends to rock over that initial hit point and that's when you end up with damaged mirrors and scuffs on the higher part of the fairing.
With this in mind, it seems to me that keeping something similar to the current set-up with a horizontal and vertical bar of some sort would offer the most optimal protection. That's not to say we can't change it around and play with the design, though. I still plan on fixing up a set similar to what RBX QB posted yesterday. Once I get that done I'll post some pics and check back for feedback!
I understand that there must be a horizonal bar, but just so that you understand what I was trying to say, I've attached a screen shot.
The red washers would not be used when the horizonal bar was attached. Hope that this helps.
This type of setup "could" also lead to a different washer and boss combination, where as a highway arm/peg can be mounted. I believe that is what MGvaleri is trying to say in his post. I'm not sure, but does "perni" = "highway peg mount" ?
Ohhhh, I see what you're saying now. That's a pretty badass little graphic you cooked up, too! That looks like it'd be a pretty sweet application for the bike but you have to keep in mind every process and added piece is going to raise the cost of the bars. I'll show this to Armando, though, and see what he thinks of it! It's definitely something we could handle doing, no problem.
