TT250 oil cooler mount

[superjocko]

I'm in the process of mounting up the oil cooler on my bike and have decided to mount it mostly inside the left fairing area and reasonably close to the front downtube. The existing mounting points for the tank shrouds crossbar and the evaporative emissions canister can make for a nice mounting spot with a little (well, kind of a lot) reshaping of the bracket that came with the cooler. Here are a few pics of the progress last night. I'll update this thread with the additional work on the bracket and the finished product when all is said and done. As you can see by these pics, it's just a bunch of hacking and grinding on the bracket at this point, but I promise it'll look almost like a factory piece when I'm done with it. For reference, the last picture shows what the bracket started out looking like. As for the canister, while I could eliminate it completely and just run the tank vent hose down under the bike, I may look into relocating it to the inside of the airbox and run the hoses to it through rubber grommets to keep the airbox sealed. I'll have to see on that project some time down the road.

[superjocko]

Tonight's project was finishing up the cooler mount. I like to pace myself with the arthritis in these old hands and elbows. Anyhow, the plate is more or less in its finished form at this point. I'll spray a few coats of satin black paint on it to mask the imperfections and call it good. I've added some more pictures here of the progress.

Please pay no mind to the cheesy hardware I've got mounting it up at the moment. That's some stuff left over from a TV wall mount kit and I used it just for fitting purposes. I've got some appropriate stainless hardware showing up from Mr. Bezos any day now that will go on when it's finally assembled.

You may notice that I have the front fender removed while working on it for convenience of access. I did verify that the fender clears just fine. The one area where it is a little too tight is right near the tank seam. I'll be trimming the edge of the inner plate that sandwiches the cooler in that area and also putting a bit of insulating rubberized edging on the plate right there just in case vibration or an unexpected spill would cause the two to touch.

The one thing that just barely doesn't clear when the steering is full-lock left is the reflector that screws into the left side of the lower triple clamp I'll either see if can get an ever so slightly smaller outside diameter reflector, notch the existing one just a bit on its periphery, or just toss the reflectors altogether.

I expect the next update will be when it's all together and functional. That will probably be over the weekend. Like I mentioned, I have to work in short spurts or my arthritis gets the best of me. I do enjoy the tinkering though, and I hope maybe someone finds some of this useful if they don't care to use the one-size-fits-all downtube clamp.

[superjocko]

Just a few more photos.

[Megadan]

Turned out nice. That evap mount is a nice place for it, the carb Hawks lack that little addition.

[superjocko]

Thank you sir!

[superjocko]

Here are some photos of the finished product. I'm pretty well pleased with how it turned out.

As for the EVAP canister (which I know most people probably don't care about), it turns out that simply reversing the orientation of its bracket and then tweaking the bracket just a bit allowed me to mount it with a nut on the backside of its original mounting tab after installing a little longer bolt on the lower side of the oil cooler mounting bracket. I guess I forgot to take a picture of that though. It's all buttoned now, but I'll take a picture of the EVAP canister mounting the next time I have occasion to have access for a good picture. It actually came out pretty clean. If a person didn't know better they might think it was made that way.

In case anyone is interested, this is the oil cooler kit that I bought: aliexpress link

Oh, and I also made a little protective screen from some stainless steel wire mesh. That wasn't on the cooler in the previous photos. Not that this type of cooler really needs the protection. I honestly did it more for looks.

[superjocko]

It was cold and mostly raining today while I wrapped up my cable choke conversion project on my Nibbi carb. I did however have the chance to take just a short ride around town in between the showers. I shot the temperature at the cooler inlet and outlet with my trusty Stanley infrared thermometer and was pretty happy to see a significant difference. I know that the reading isn't super accurate because it's being aimed at a somewhat shiny surface, but since both readings are against a similarly shiny surface the relative difference should be pretty close. You can absolutely feel the difference when briefly touching the fittings too. Granted, this was nowhere near what the oil temps might be after a hard ride on a hot day, but it at least shows the cooler can drop the oil temperature pretty well.

While I was working yesterday evening, I also took the opportunity to take a couple pictures of the way i mounted the EVAP canister after basically installing the oil cooler in the spot the canister used to call home. The tweak I made on the canister bracket didn't come out just perfect, but bending something the opposite direction of how it was originally bent will sometimes turn out like that. It'll do. It's out of the way and secure, and that's what matters.

The last picture just shows the dreariness of the day today as I was preparing to adjust my chain and check/tighten my rear spokes.

Anyhow, I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Good riding and wrenching to all!