Half hood ‘droop’ idea

[Stridey]

 

 

I have an old style roll over bar, and a half hood, that even after tightening up is a little low and susceptible to ‘droop’. This can on occasion touch my head when buffetted at speed.

I came up with a little solution, lightweight, cheap and collapsible to fit in boot. It uses two rods bought from Decathalon at under £5. https://www.decathlon.co.uk/lakeside-1-travel-300-id_8324377.html. Two spring clips.

Take two lengths of rod from the middle.

After cutting a slot and bolting the spring clip to a length from the rod you cut down a second length to fit the spread from bar to screen.

i wrapped string round the clip just to secure the clip even more. I also put a bung into the screen end.

 

[Jonathan Kay]

How's it located at the screen end?

Happy Christmas

Jonathan

PS: Inspired by the Elise? :-)

[Stridey]

How's it located at the screen end?

Friction!

The hood just gently presses down on it. I may add a bit of handle bar tape when I find some, just to wrap that last inch of tip

[DJ.]

If it sits on top of the screen and roll bar, there will be accelerated wear above these points and you will get holes in the hood I suspect.

 

Westfields often have sockets fitted to the front of the roll bar and back of the screen to fit support tubes, while allowing the material to sit flat on the screen and bar.

 

Duncan

[Stridey]

Thanks for the suggestion. I may glue a small material patch there, even a loop too.

Cheaper than buying a Westfield. Though probably similar smell. 

[SLR No.77]

I have the Oxted half hood rather than the Softbits version, it has the "felt" band over the top of the screen the same as the full hood which offers a little extra height to fashion a suitable front mounting, I had an early Softbits hood and it didn't have the band, not sure about later versions. What you've achieved is not dissimilar to the extra supports that are used with the Elise hood, definitely a good idea, when I get a minute after all the other jobs on my list I'll give it a go myself, if they're tough enough at least I can confidently tighten the rear straps without fear of cracking the screen!

Stu.

[Jonathan Kay]

Friction!

The hood just gently presses down on it.

I was wondering about making the screen end of the strut L or U shaped to help location. But U would change the fit of the leading edge... so how about L?

Duncan's point is probably more important if it isn't slipping at the moment.

Jonathan

[Stridey]

My Soft Bits has the felt flap/ridge affair.

[Stridey]

I was wondering about making the screen end of the strut L or U shaped to help location. But U would change the fit of the leading edge... so how about L?

ill see how it goes... the telescope effect join is quite stiff when extended (fnarrrr fnarrr)...

i have a plan to maybe fashion a dowl to present a flat edge to the screen, but as the screen edge is tipped back a few degrees and that the tube diameter is approx 10mm anyway I think it may not be needed. What I did do is bung up the end with a rubber rivnut, so I may put a washer on the end with a flat top edge cut to lower the profile but give the bottom edge a small lip to grab the edge. That's the 'L' I think you mean?

 

[Jonathan Kay]

I was thinking of an L with the ascender sitting on top of the edge of the screen, and a U like that but with another bit coming down on the forward edge of the frame. But the first would increase the load on the fabric, and the second might disrupt the attachment of the hood to the screen, which is the usual mode of failure.

Using the bottom inside edge of the screen wouldn't have those disadvantages, but, as above, none of this might be needed.

Jonathan

[Ian B]

I had an "original" SBFS half hood (for an SV) for almost 15 years. It had the felt "sausage" along the top of the screen and never had an issue with sagging (and I'm quite tall so was quite close to the hood).

I also never had issues with the side straps un-popping that a few seem to mention, and I think both "issues" are down to having the correct one-way poppers fitted to the side fixings, and keeping the HH correctly tensioned (eg really tight). 

[Stridey]

I think correct tightness will of course reduce sag, though as a ‘96 thin roll bar I think it’s always going to be low...and I’m usually flustered as I leave it to the last moment to put it up.  I had thought of raising height by using the forward full hood hoop but that’s too wide...

i drive to Bruxelles a few times a year, and have endured 2 hours rain UK side and 2 hours continental side... if I can make it as comfortable as possible I will... but no desire for a full hood. I might try it sometime...

meanwhile, here is an ‘L’ shape end for JK... electrical ring end in rubber riv nut.

[Stewart Collier]

I'm pretty tall, so to lift my SBFS half hood a bit further away from my bonce I have a section of roll bar foam in my boot. I pop it on the roll bar and it does the trick.

Stewart 

[Anton]

Never had this problem with the SBFS half-hood, but have put a support from screen to rollbar under the longnose showercap to avoid having a big puddle in the middle of the roof after heavy rain!