[eddie]

I found a Boy Scout "Hot Spark" ferrocerium fire starter in a store parking lot the other day. It's got a slender "flint" rod that throws a shower of sparks when scraped with a sharp edge. My mind wandered and today I found it on a shelf and decided to do something goofy with it. I removed the ADV footpeg feelers on the SCR and drilled a 3/16" hole in the end of each one. Then I broke the fire starter rod in half and superglued the pieces in the holes.
My thinking?
If you are gonna drag a peg and make sparks, make SPARKS!! >

 

[Rokrover]

Our southern Arizona region just experienced the devastating Sawmill wildfire that cost over $4 million to fight. Your modification might not be appreciated by Authorities who take a very serious view of vehicles emitting sparks. Just sayin’ ….

 

[eddie]

Our southern Arizona region just experienced the devastating Sawmill wildfire that cost over $4 million to fight. Your modification might not be appreciated by Authorities who take a very serious view of vehicles emitting sparks. Just sayin’ ….

I appreciate the seriousness of wildfires.

There's a geological line between Columbus, Macon & Savannah Georgia where the soil is very sandy to the south. Winds blow the sand onto railroad tracks and the steel wheels of trains create large sparks that have caused wildfires along the railways.

 

[Cruze]

How I love when Eddie gets bored...

You're definitely going to have to find a way to post a video or some photos of this... maybe even night shots?!

Reminds me of when those lowriders air out on the highway and have a shower of sparks fly behind em'

 

[eddie]

Cruze's challenge accepted. Sort of. =)
To allay Rokrover's fears of pyromania in the south, I did a small experiment just now.
The ferrocerium rod is suitable for campfire fire starting because it can be scraped to produce a hot, dense shower of sparks (pyrophoricity).
The sparks are crazy hot (about 5,430 °F), but burn out almost instantaneously at the point of ignition.
As a wildfire threat, the stock steel feelers are waaaaay scarier and more likely to send an errant spark away from the bike.

I took two similar sized samples of steel and ferrocerium rod and ran them against the finer of the two wheels on my bench grinder.
Here's what happened.
First photo: On the left, steel. On the right, ferrocerium.

 

[eddie]

PS: Ironically, the things added to make the pegs spark more actually reduced the spark show size in favor of intensity.
It gave me something to do for 30 minutes on a slow Saturday, though. ;-)

 

[OpenRoad]

Gotta love when you get bored and decide to work on your bike! and if you ever decide to go camping with your SCR950, at least you'll have a way to stay warm.
won't the starter wear down pretty fast if you keep dragging them?

 

[eddie]

Gotta love when you get bored and decide to work on your bike! and if you ever decide to go camping with your SCR950, at least you'll have a way to stay warm.
won't the starter wear down pretty fast if you keep dragging them?

The peg steel is around the flint. So, it's trade off. The peg feelers will wear more quickly with the softer metal center and the spark rods will last longer surrounded by the feeler steel.
The feeler's are inexpensive, something like $6 a pair. So, if they wear out, they wear out.)

 

[Rokrover]

I find these feelers dangerous as more than once I nearly lost balance after snagging my boot laces or jeans under them taking off from a stop. Thought about removing them - they are steel loctited in the folding aluminum foot peg, right? No way could I unscrew them with a 7mm open end wrench across the tiny flats, so left well enough alone. Hmmm, maybe a grinder would work to create my own spark shower under the gas tank…. :grin2:

 

[YamiGuy]

An entire forum could be dedicated to what eddie does while board, oh wait that's happening here! Always good to see riders messing around with their bikes rather than simply riding it and parking it up. Reason why I love communities like this.

 

[eddie]

I find these feelers dangerous as more than once I nearly lost balance after snagging my boot laces or jeans under them taking off from a stop. Thought about removing them - they are steel loctited in the folding aluminum foot peg, right? No way could I unscrew them with a 7mm open end wrench across the tiny flats, so left well enough alone. Hmmm, maybe a grinder would work to create my own spark shower under the gas tank…. :grin2:

I'd need a wrench stretcher to unscrew a 10mm foot peg feeler with a 7mm wrench. ;-)
I added the ADV footpegs to my SCR a while back and used pretty good locking agent when I installed the feelers, apparently. They fought me all the way out during this project. -eddie

 

[eddie]

An entire forum could be dedicated to what eddie does while board, oh wait that's happening here! Always good to see riders messing around with their bikes rather than simply riding it and parking it up. Reason why I love communities like this.

I can't be the only shade tree mechanic/mad scientist in the group.
Get to tinkering, guys!
Make some weird stuff and post it!
I'm waiting for some eBay surfer to fit a 17" front wheel and radials at both ends to make a street tracker.

 

[OpenRoad]

I don't know, you've set the bar pretty high with the latest flint foot peg mod. :grin2:

Only way to top that would be to stick sparklers around the Scr950's exhaust, get some crazy ape hangers and install some LED under-lighting.

 

[Rokrover]

Only way to top that would be to stick sparklers around the Scr950's exhaust, get some crazy ape hangers and install some LED under-lighting.

Don't forget an onboard LPG gas cylinder to inject propane in the exhaust for some serious flame >

 

[TheScrambled]

Just need have the scr950 running rich and you should be able to make the exhaust spit out fire without the need for explosive propane. :grin2:

Then eddie's bike will be the ultimate fire hazard.

 

[Rokrover]

The classic 1987 Coen brothers comedy “Raising Arizona” featured Leonard Smalls as a lone biker of the apocalypse. His rat bike was modified with an exhaust flame thrower kit, propane injected I believe, so there’s precedent for this wild idea. Just need to be downstream of the cat, or face an expensive replacement…

 

[eddie]

The classic 1987 Coen brothers comedy “Raising Arizona” featured Leonard Smalls as a lone biker of the apocalypse. His rat bike was modified with an exhaust flame thrower kit, propane injected I believe, so there’s precedent for this wild idea. Just need to be downstream of the cat, or face an expensive replacement…

Wasn't it a Honda Shadow 1100?
His arm tattoo, "My Mama Didn't Love Me"
LOL

 

[Rokrover]

This vid will provide some inspiration:
https://www.facebook.com/100003111206793/videos/1219632651483763/

 

[OpenRoad]

Accidentally brush up against the tip of that pipe and you may be peeling your pants off your leg. How do I know this? Because me as a kid was dumb and brushed up against an exhaust pipe with my bare leg. Took around a decade to heal and fade...

With how red the end of that pipe is, I can't even imagine the kind of heat it's producing. eddie's mod looks extremely safe in comparison.

 

[eddie]

This vid will provide some inspiration:
https://www.facebook.com/100003111206793/videos/1219632651483763/

Oh, h*ll no!
:surprise:
Not to mention being a huge safety hazard, the radiant heat from that pipe is probably cooking the axle end, which in turn will take out the bearing grease in short order.
Imagine riding along at freeway speeds, "impressing" the locals and the rear wheel suddenly locks up? YIKES!