So a lot of other builders are concerned about my safety after drilling my aluminum Renthal bars. Renthal is pretty explicit on their website to not even center-punch these bars to locate switches. They won't necessarily snap right away, but they may develop stress fractures which can lead to that happening. And there's really no point in owning a bike that can't do wheelies :toot:

I'm going to keep these on the build to mock-up only. They'll be swapped with heavier LSL stainless bars of the same design. After the last one I do refuse to go down again -- especially on something built with so much love.

An extra picture of the switch + lever setup.

The switch is pretty tiny. It's 41mm width, 18mm height, sticks out 8mm from the bars. (1.6" x 0.7" x 0.3" for you savages). There's an extra 4.75mm (0.19") inside the bars for the wiring loom. 5 wires total, two are grounds.
http://i.imgur.com/VDtqTZB.jpg

Stupid question but couldn't you just reinforce the drilled area?

Be a man and just zap strap it

What would you suggest? I'm thinking of making a stainless collar to place just under the switch housing.

I'm not sure, something like that or maybe an insert that extends past the drilled area to strengthen it. I'm not familiar with how bars would fail from this so I imagine that would affect how you prevent it from happening. If a divot from a center punch could cause them to fail then wouldn't any decent nick or scratch pose the same risk?

I don't know man... I took a look at those bars and it's pretty thick.
Understood that it is aluminium, but you said it was 6062?
Otherwise, if you wanted to reinforce from the inside, get something like an insert milled and a channel cut out for the wiring. not that difficult to be honest.

yo update

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!

Sitting in my Herman Miller practicing leather-crafting techniques for wallets and accessories... :pokerface:

I'm looking for an update. :) You've had 2.5 months since Jas asked. :)

Haven't thought about it much, have been procrastinating on other projects... However I just picked up a sweet new MIG welder to do the battery box + some visual frame gussets. When that gets done the custom electrical system can go in + with a carb cleaning the bike should start right up. The rear suspension needs to get redone -- hoping a Kawasaki Ninja 650 direct-link rear shock will do it. Then onto seat upholstery and it should be a ridable beast! Maybe even in time for the summer meet :alonehappy:

Have you done any updates to this? Also I've tried messaging you but I guess I can't figure out how forum messaging works haha