T-shirt design is in!!

After starting a donations post for the blog that you can see here I realized that we didn't have any t-shirts available and didn't think people would want a plain fruit of the loom.

My solution was easy, call Sacha Halenda of Form Five and have him whip up something superb.  Sacha is responsible for creating both the Cosentino Engineering logo and the 'Cosomoto' name and gear/wing logo, among many others.  He has a great talent for creating an identity that is new and unique yet still allow that graphic to evoke the familiar emotions that consumers need to relate to a new entity.

The first shirt design focuses on the V4 engine design and features a large wireframe drawing of the motor on the back side and the text 'crew' on the front with some stylish accents.  Although we have not finalized which vendor will print the shirts we will be using shirts that are 100% Made in the USA.

Front:

 

Back:

 

The bonus of having one of these shirts is that if you are wearing one at a race event we're at you are welcome to come in our pits, pull up a chair and make yourself at home.  Without one of these tees you can come in but you'd better not pull up a chair.....  Also, you'd better like Mexican food as we have a rule about not eating anything else for dinner during an event.  We have a detailed map of every Mexican restaurant (or taco truck in the case of the Bonneville Salt Flats) within 50 miles of every US racetrack so are never caught unprepared.  Cue whatever jokes you can think of about more gas to help the bike go but it works for us!

As we continue with the project and as interest allows I'll have Sacha make more shirt designs relevant to our current state of progress.


If you like the shirts please go over to the donations page and make a contribution.  Don't forget to let me know what size to send.


Chris

Machining the front spider

With momentum still rolling along I started on machining the center spider for the front suspension.  This is a multifunctional part that holds the upright legs, defines the steering axis, and connects to the control arms and steering links.

We'll move along the well-rehearsed path of machine fixture, mount part, machine part, reorient, machine part again.  The fixture has several dowel pins to register the part in correct alignment before it is clamped down onto the swivel pads that provide proper spacing and restraint.

Here's the part clamped in place:

I then machine the part in 3 steps in this arrangement: the top and 2 sides.

These first 3 operations are all done with simple end mills and drills.  When I index the fixture 90 degrees to machine the steering stem bearing seats we will need to use some extended reach tooling.

Here's the 2 flute insert mill used for roughing, the boring bar used for finishing, and the custom long reach retaining ring groove tool made from a slim carbide slitting saw and some precision ground 5/8" diameter shafting.

Here's the finished bore:

And some finished parts:

There are 2 different versions of the part, a tall one that provides much less front end brake dive than telescopic forks and short one that provides closer behavior to teles.

Once I do some deburring and test fitting I'll post some images of the front upright assembly.  It will look really cool.

That's all for now.