top engine bracket

cobrasneverdie

el guapo
Messages
388
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Winnipeg
before I start cutting, got a question. I've been seeing a lot of bikes with no top engine brackets. I heard that it's not necessary to have one. Can I get a solid confirmation on this?
once again thanks for the help
 
It's there for a reason. If you like it looking "cool" and later ripping out the mounts on the backbone, and possibly leaving you with a nasty spill, then go for it.

If not, leave it on and you will have a frame that will outlast the motor.(my choice)

Your call......
 
I've run without the top mount after a rebuild for ease of re-torquing the head. Yeah, it got squirrelly in the twisties and was immediately put back on. Won't do it again.
 
Let the games begin, I have had the front wheel 2ft in the air many times on my bike so far and it doesn't have a top mount, nore does it have the brace. ZERO issues, I preflight my bike for cracks, loose bolts/nuts ect on almost every ride. I say your are fine with out one, but the rest may say your a idiot, and yada yada yada. Of course my bike is not full weight, I do not road race it, it is a chop style..
 
Pretty much. Some say yes, some say no. Personally I think if it wasn't needed, they would not have put it there in the first place. My two cents..............
 
Pretty much. Some say yes, some say no. Personally I think if it wasn't needed, they would not have put it there in the first place. My two cents..............

Think of it this way. Any thing that is factory built, is not just enough to get by. It is built into the bikes to be over kill. Think of a go cart, zero suspension, tiny hard wheels, they get this shit beat out of them. I have seen in rare instances a broke axle or broke frame on those.

A solid confirmation you will not receive.
Flip a coin and go from there.

^^ Exactly.. Its a to each their own situation.


Has anyone personally seen a bike break in half, or twist up under normal riding ? I mean I could see if it was a dirt track bike or was jumped off curbs and all.
 
Think of it this way. Any thing that is factory built, is not just enough to get by. It is built into the bikes to be over kill. Think of a go cart, zero suspension, tiny hard wheels, they get this shit beat out of them. I have seen in rare instances a broke axle or broke frame on those.



^^ Exactly.. Its a to each their own situation.


Has anyone personally seen a bike break in half, or twist up under normal riding ? I mean I could see if it was a dirt track bike or was jumped off curbs and all.

Go carts are built for smooth race tracks. The roads I go on, I would not want to go on something that has no suspension or engine mounts removed!! A lot of bumps and potholes and shit all over the roads. So a lot of movement for the engine, so I would rather have "overkill" mounts than not enough.

But do as you please, I'm certainly not going to stop you.........
 
A lot of people think it's ok to leave out the top engine mount, some also think it's a good idea to hard tail a bike, others run without a front brake or front fender.
I think all these things are wrong, but it's your bike, do as you want.
For a test ride the bike on a twisty road as hard as you can, remove the top mount and repeat the trip.
Same with the front fender.
See for your self.
Leo
 
Exactly and people take them off roading all the time, 99% of the time only thing that gets busted is their back and necks lol. Things are built with overkill designed in them. When we rebuild winches for places there is a limit they are rated to lift. However when the people from the govt come to test they want it to lift up to 15% more then it's max rating. Same thing applies to these IMO. Again a hard tailed bike that weights 280 lb vs a full weight bike is gona be different.
 
before I start cutting, got a question. I've been seeing a lot of bikes with no top engine brackets. I heard that it's not necessary to have one. Can I get a solid confirmation on this?
once again thanks for the help

Hi Cobra,
I modified my hardtailer's rant, just for you. Although I'm sure a proud Winnipegger would put A Maple Leaf on his gas tank rather than a US flag.
- - - - and there's guys who cut off their XS650's rear suspension, rake it's frame out, stretch it's fork tubes, remove it's front brake, fit a peanut gas tank with a US flag on it, wear white leathers, smoke dope and pretend to be Peter Fonda.
Do you wish to be mistaken for one of them?
 
^^^^ and that has to do with what again ? It's his bike if he wants it to look like oscar mayer wiener it's his bike to do so. Hahaha people crack me up :thumbsup:
 
...Has anyone personally seen a bike break in half, or twist up under normal riding ? I mean I could see if it was a dirt track bike or was jumped off curbs and all.

I've seen steering heads snap off motocross bikes.
I've seen engine cases bust out from broken rods.
I've seen heads separate.
I've seen hi-speed wobbles caused by heavily loaded saddlebags.
I've seen hi-speed wobbles caused by excessive dive.
I've seen spokes snap.
I've seen rear drum brakes fail from loose or broken stays.
I've seen sidecar rigs flip over.

I've seen poor engineering.
I've seen over engineering.

Never seen a hardtailed/raked/extended chopper or cruiser do those things.

But, I've seen some strange physics-defying phenomena when the rider is three sheets to the wind...
 
I knew this thread would open the same can of worms as usual.
. Funny I never see the hardtail guys talk about non hardtailed bikes. Especially when the OP question wasn't even ABOUT hardtail or suspension. Some people.....
 
"If a man wants to carry two cats home by their tails, by all means let him. He’ll learn things that he might not have otherwise even guessed, and the experience will be one he’ll not soon forget!"

I won't tell what I've seen , what I've done or what I would do if i were you (I'm not)
All I'll tell you is that I owned my first XS in the '70's . I have since owned and modified several XS's . All stock framed XS650's I've owned or modified retained their top mount .You could ask my reasons and beg an explanation but I think it speaks more to the issue that if available or even reasonable I will use the top mount .

Do what you want I prefer to use the mount

~kop
 
if you don't like the puzzle that is called the top motor mount, redesign it. lots of guys use round bar, and bungs and such, most look great.
Btw, mines chopped, and I use the top mount. I did have it off until the first head torque after rebuild, went back on after re-torque.
 
My guess would be that if all a person were ever confronted with was ~the norm~ then the bracketless idea may be ok. However, there's no such thing as "normal" when it comes to riding a motorcycle.

That said, riding it without the bracket may be fine as long as you are not presented with an e-situation. You have to ask yourself if you're ok with having to do evasive gymnastics at 70mph on a busy freeway full of oblivious morons that are texting someone while driving that they brushed their teeth this morning (or some other ~who gives a shit~ thing that Americans seem so obsessed with publishing) when rush hour is beginning and traffic is going from full tilt to full stop in a blink. Will the bike respond as expected when you're cruising around that lazy road in the foothills when you discover yourself in the middle of both an oil spill or some loose sand, and a corner? Or will that missing connection bone that connects the bike's shoulders to it's spine still be enough to keep the bike well mannered and stable?

I'm going with the "keep it installed" side of the aisle. Like TwoManyX1Bs said, I've seen a bunch of nasty stuff (Hey .... that headstock snapping off the MX bike, was that Roger DeCoster in 1975? I was there when he did that! Landed from a 70mph downjump and the entire front end of the motorcycle just snapped right off of the bike. He did the monster faceplant of the entire 1970s decade. The steering stem broke inside of the steering head, and the entire front suspension simply excused itself from the party at 70mph. Suzuki's MX bench techs just removed too much material from the stem in an effort to reduce weight, damned thing busted at the worst moment possible.). I've also had probably more than my share of hard get-offs (2-dozen+ bones broken since 1973). I've designed, engineered, and built my own racing frames. While I'm NO KINDA engineer (you kiddin me? I barely graduated from a rural high school in Arizona with a D- average), I have had enough experience in some of this stuff to have learned that there's some stuff that you're better off not doing.

If you feel that your riding style is docile enough to deal with the unused engine mount, then make the best decision that suits your wants. Just make sure to be honest with yourself. If this bike is to be more of a showpiece than a daily rider, you may be able to get away with what it is you wish to do. Maybe. I say that because I do not want to be the guy that encouraged you to run without the upper mount and then something happened to you because of that decision. I have enough on my conscience every night as it is.

:)
 
Back
Top