July 17, 2003
Cycle Wing Fixing
The build manual way of attaching the cycle wings is by bolting them to the wingstays. This has a couple of problems - with all the vibration, stress cracks can form, and if you are unluckly enough to have an accident, the force can be transmitted to the wingstays causing more bent things than absolutely necessary.
One way of avoiding some of the problems is to use nylon nuts/bolts, but these can be difficult to get hold of. Alternatively, glueing them on (as done by Caterham Midlands I believe) stops the cracking problem and reduces the chance of damage spread, but makes them very difficult to remove if you want to for some reason.
Probably the ultimate way of fixing them is to use "Bigheads fasteners" and cable ties.
You get the 'non-drilled' look, plus the advantage of being able to remove the wings very easily if necessary. Andy Brookman (lotusandy) has kindly produced some detailed instructions on this method which you can download here (PDF).
Posted by charles at July 17, 2003 7:21 PM