01. Here's the Texas truck plate and our used plywood puck.
Disclaimer: Read no further if you are a fanatical motorcycle purist and you identify with the BMW bike owner in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance who is outraged when Robert Pirsig uses beer can aluminum as a shim to tighten the BMW's handlebars. On the other hand, if you enjoy practical, functional, and playful things, you might find this piece useful, if not amusing.
Now, we really like the kickstand pucks and plates from our vendors. They are a bike saver on gravel or soft ground. But in the heat of the summer, we have a problem with hot, sticky asphalt. If we throw down a puck on that black goo, then it becomes a permanent road fixture.
What are we supposed to do carry a bag of pucks in the summer? Might as well throw down silver dollars. Nah, that ain't the answer. Normally we carry a small square of plywood in our left saddle bag. The wood block works great. It's cheap and easy to replace and we didn't mind leaving or loosing it. Only, it's hard to retrieve from the saddlebag while still astride the bike. So it wasn't convenient.
One day we were busy moving junk from one pile to another and came across on old Texas truck license plate. Inspiration struck as we realized that it would make a nice holder for our plywood puck. We did a little figuring, measuring, cutting, and bending. Then pop-riveted the plate pocket to the front of our left saddlebag.
We could have used a nice new aluminum sheet. We could have painted the plate black. But what's the fun in that? We are rarely asked about most of the really good stuff on the bike. But the Texas Plate usually gets a "What is that?" Followed closely by an "Oh, yeah!"
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02. We marked the cut and bent the lines for a small box that would hold the puck and fit nicely on the front of the saddlebag. Tin snips worked fine to cut the plate.
02. We marked the cut and bent the lines for a small box that would hold the puck and fit
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03. Here we used our handy Veritas Metal Bender from
www.garrettwade.com to make the square bends in the holder.
03. Here we used our handy Veritas Metal Bender from www.garrettwade.com to make the sq
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04. Here's the completed holder from the backside with the plywood puck.
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05. Next, we clamped the holder to the saddle bag and pop-riveted it in place.
05. Next, we clamped the holder to the saddle bag and pop-riveted it in place.
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06. Here's the final product. We may yet spay some black paint on the edges so it blends in better. But we'll leave the "Texas Truck" just for the comments. Have you got an old state plate in your junk pile?
06. Here's the final product. We may yet spay some black paint on the edges so it blends