Question for the Mono Shock guys...

What is everyone else doing on the the bottom shock mount? Are you reinforcing the center stand mount at all or just using it as is? Im thinking of welding on some top and bottom plates for extra support. Anyone had any issues? Thoughts?

I didn't reinforce mine. My thought process was that if the cross bar was strong enough to hold the bike up on the center stand, then it would be strong enough to support it when rested on the suspension. Part of the reason that I didn't go hog wild with the engine to begin with was that I wanted to observe how the frame handles the modifications that I made before I started asking it to handle more power. So far so good with periodic inspections of all of the welding sites.

I did have to cut off the tabs for the center stand, but left the pads that are attached to the cross bar. I just welded the new tabs for the linkage to those pads. That gives me a double thickness of tubing at the mounting points, and helps to distribute the load a little bit.

Not only did I not reinforce them, I used the center stand tabs as they were. I done it this way working on a design for a drop in monoshock kit. Design has yet to be tested on my end but in all my experiences I haven't seen a weld brake on these frames but they do wiggle a lot.
Les Holt

Les makes a good point. One thing about old flexible motorcycle frames is that the flexing in the tubes relieves some of the stress on the welds. Any dynamic force on the bike has to be absorbed by the frame and suspension as a system. Hence the reason for my periodic inspections of all the weld sites on my frame. I have stiffened the frame with gussets and new crossmembers, and the suspension with more rigid forks and swingarm. I was originally concerned that this would lead to issues of welds cracking due to additional stress. It's the butterfly effect. One change effects another. So far so good.

Exactly, a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, strengthen that one and the next weak link is now the weakest. Most machines are designed with an intentional weak link, potentially a safety factor but I'm pretty sure I don't want the welds on my frame being the weak link. It definitely isn't going to hurt to strengthen them. I'm not going to and I'm going to beat on this thing HARD, it's a test platform and I'm looking for the weak link in the design.
Les