Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Fantastic News!

For those of you who might have been lamenting my retirement from making Aux Tanks I've found somebody to take over fabrication of my designs.

The gentleman is Mr. Walt Preston, owner of Preston Machine and Fabrication in Newark, Ohio. 
His background as a mechanic, machinist, fabricator, and race engineer will give him ample experience in picking up where I've left off. 

His machine shop is much newer and more capable than mine and the more centralized location will be a benefit to many potential clients.

I will continue to maintain my web site for inquiries and price quotations as he gets his feet on the ground. 

Please join me in welcoming Walt to our crazy community of Long Distance Riders.

Mike

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Vacation Time

Hello to all my clients and potential clients.  
It's been a busy year and I appreciate the tremendous support I've received. I've finally caught up on my external obligations and now need to turn to some internal obligations. The list has grown long: familial, household maintenance, travel, and my motorcycle says I haven't had it on a trip since October.
As such, we will be shutting operations down until August 1st, 2017 to catch up. Some web pages at www.maplefarkles.com may be down for maintenance.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Mike

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Revised Tank for Suzuki Water Buffalo

After a 3 week holiday on a Mediterranean cruise and recovering from some illness, I finally got back to work.

Here's the latest. A revision to the Water Buffalo tank I did last year. Turns out the client really did want to go to the IBR max of 11.5 gallons.

This version, in addition to being larger, has an improved oil tank. Sight gauge for oil level and it's integrated with the tank.





Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Triumph Trophy SE Accessory Shelf for Stock GPS Mount

We had a request to make an accessory shelf which would accommodate the GPS mount from Triumph. This GPS mount puts the GPS in the center of our existing shelf.
Thanks to by DAVID G. for the photo.
With a little help from the client we made the required modifications. We added lots of holes so there would be lots of variety on mounting Ram Balls.

Here is the result [We'll add more photos of the actual installation once it's installed with the GPS]
:






Sunday, July 10, 2016

Butt LIte VIII Rider's with our Aux Tanks

The results are in from the 2016 Butt Lite Endurance Rally. We followed the activities with great interest. It's always fun to vicariously participate in these rally's. Especially when we are rooting for our customers.

Here are some Farkles by MaPLE stats:

  • Out of 100 entrants almost 20% of the field (19) were sporting our products
  • 17 finished the rally (one did not start and one had to drop out for personal reasons)
  • 4 finished in the top 10
  • 3 finished in the top 5 
  • 1 finished first place

Congratulations to all the riders. While we'd like to take some credit for your success we've been at this sport long enough to know that it's the rider not the steed.

Well done all!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

R1200RTW Pillion Mount Luggage Platform (and Auxiliary Tank UPDATE)

At the time I posted availability of this tank I was in process of obtaining some luggage platforms. My initial thinking was that you could have the luggage platform OR an auxiliary tank. After some more thinking and engineering I've figured out how to make it dual purpose. Tank AND platform or just the platform.

I got my prototype this week and it's a work of art. Some really neat CAM fabrication. Here is how it looks sitting atop the tank, Bear in mind this isn't powder coated yet.

As you can see it's loaded with tie down slots. The neat feature of these slots is that they are custom designed for bungee hooks. On the back side of the slots are grooves that have been cut to capture the end of the hook. Neat idea, wish I would have thought of it.
This 1/4" thick 6061 aluminum platform is mounted to the top of the tank using 1" x 1/2" 8020 rail with M5 T-slot nuts. 
Use of the 8020 rail allows the platform to be slid on and off by just loosening the bolts. Plus it allows some forward and reverse positioning. Another advantage of the 8020 rail is that it is multi-purpose. Want to take the platform off and mount something of your own? Not a problem since there are literally 100's of options available for this rail.

For mounting the platform without the tank we use the same mounting as the tank, Four M6 stainless steel bolts attached under the deck.

Pricing for the platform (powder coated with choice of color) depends on mounting:
  • $175.00 for a platform which mounts with and without the tank (must be ordered with tank since the 8020 rail is welded in place)
  • $140.00 for a platform without the tank (this is addition to the cost of the mounting system.
Please visit our product page for more details.


Sunday, May 22, 2016

Updated Videos on Bulkhead Fitting Installation (late model R1200RT)

I fixed the unedited (long) video showing the tank removal and installation of a bulkhead fitting. It's a bit shorter now.  I hope you find this info of some value. I broke it into two pieces "Removing the Tank"
and "Drilling the Tank"