Tail Hoop Fabrication

I haven't been able to spend much time on this project lately but I have made a little bit of progress on the tail hoop.  I wasn't thrilled with the battery tray from BCR so I opted to build my own.  I started with a DIY tail hoop from Dime City Cycles.  It seemed a little pricey but it saved me the hassle of finding a local machine shop to bend a pipe for me.

The frame hoop from Dime City Cycles.

I don't have a chop saw so to make sure I got straight cuts I used a regular old pipe cutter.

Cut to length with a pipe cutter.

I also cut some 2" pieces of 7/8" OD pipe to fit inside the ends of the hoop and frame so I can plug weld the pieces together.  The inside diameter of the frame tubing is nearly 2mm larger than the DCC hoop and a bit less than 7/8" so I had to bore out both the frame and the tail hoop with a step bit.

Pipes need to be plug welded before adding the hoop.

I want the entire tray and battery box to be removable so that if I ever decide to change the seat I have the ability to shift the position of the battery box if necessary.  I tacked in two pieces of 3/4" square tubing that will serve as mounting points for the bottom tray and battery box.

Getting the angles and curves just right took quite a bit of patient grinding.

I'm going to weld a 3rd piece of square tube to the frame.  This should provide more than enough support and mounting points for everything.

Checking the measurements before tacking in the 3rd piece of square tube.