Motorcycle Cargo Rack
A little misleading for the category of one day builds, this project took probably around a week worth of designing and modifying, but a large part of this is because my motorcycle was stolen from where I parked it outside of the campus makerspace hall. I ended up taking it back and waiting outside the police station to report it un-stolen. Turns out people who steal motorcycles with a master key tend to leave these stolen motorcycles in an unaffilitated low traffic area to make sure they aren't tracked before cutting them apart for parts. My bike has multiple trackers for which I am incredibly grateful. Anyways, here's the idea. I wanted something I could attach a cargo net or straps to on the back of my bike to let me carry larger items not in a backpack. The commercial products for this look like the following (but I wanted something simpler and lower profile).
All I basically did was buy some thin strips of aluminum to get the rough shape and measurements, copied that in thicker steel cut and bent on a metal brake (Thanks to Berkeley's metal shop), drilled holes, painted, and bolted in. The attachment point for straps etc is an aluminum bar I bolted to the flat stock I attached to the bike. I think two important things can be learned from this. 1. Just buy steel and weld next time. I did not do this because I did not have a welder. The screws are strong enough for my needs, but maybe not everyone's. 2. Painting is important, especially when bolting aluminum and welding steel in contact due to the potential for galvanic corrosion. Sources I looked up are mixed on whether this is a concern. The chemistry StackExchange verdict is that this will soon erode my entire bike, and the machinist forums seem to have had no problem combining the two. To be safe, the steel is painted.
