The Nomad-ADV navigation tower: a new way of thinking
History
Back in 2015, when Husqvarna published the first photos of the then new 701 Enduro, we were in Chiang Mai Thailand, while on a round the world trip. We were waiting for a friend who had broken her arm in two places to be released from hospital. She needed 10 days rest after the operation prior to a check up to get clearance from the doctor to continue her trip. During those 10 days stationary we saw the first photos of the new 701 frame and recognised its potential as a great travel bike. One of the things missing though was proper wind protection. There were several navigation towers on the market, although non for the 701 and all of them were a bewildering collection of weirdly shaped plates and brackets. All the ones we found were either fitted by drilling holes in the headstock or welding a lump of steel to it – both poor practices engineering-wise as welding to an existing frame introduces stresses in the metal due to it being very locally heated by the welding process, while bolting through the front of the headstock will place the load of the tower on the weakest part of the bolt: the head. In the petrochemical industry studs are used instead of bolts for that same reason.
Fitment is difficult too as the slightest mis-alignment at the headstock results in a tower that is seriously mis-aligned at the front. Once fitted they offered no view of the front wheel and most were seriously expensive to boot. On top of that, what we wanted was something which was road legal, which non of them were as they required alterations to the frame. It was clear that something new was needed. A different way of thinking.
The creation
During those 10 days in Chiang Mai we made the design of a new uni-body, self supporting navigation tower, an industry first. A navigation tower that could be bolted to the motorcycle frame without any modification needed to the motorcycle frame itself, with the bolts at a 90° angle to the tower rather than in line with it. One which didn't need a motorcycle frame to give it strength and rigidity. A modular design we could adapt to different frames, we already looked at the EXC range too at that stage. Factory photos of the EXC frame showed us that it would be possible on that model too. As the 701 wasn't even on the market yet, we super-imposed the design as an overlay over the photos Husqvarna released in November 2015. Especially the full side shots, without the plastic fitted, which Husqvarna showed of the 701. To say we were super excited is an understatement. What we wanted to do was start building there and then… but we were on a trip around the world, and still had quite a long way to go too… plus the bike we wanted to start with, the Husky 701, wasn't even available yet!
Humble beginnings and frustrations
Being just back from a 4 year long journey around the world, money wasn't exactly plentiful. We had sold the house to do the trip and were flat broke at the end of the journey. Without the help of our parents/grand parents, who gave us a roof over our heads and allowed us to startup Nomad-ADV on their premises, non of this would have happened. We literally started in a leaky old barn, no heater for the first two winters (!) and limited power to run machinery. I vividly remember 3 layers of clothing under my overalls, emptying buckets every morning when it had rained and warming up the gearbox of the lathe to thin the oil so that we could run it at the high speeds required for aluminium.
We were still scraping the barrel though and urgently needed cash to get the Nomad-ADV tower produced. We therefor started selling motorcycle accessories like panniers and luggage to generate much needed cash. It wasn't what we wanted to do, but needs must, and it wasn't exactly all plain sailing either. Frustrations centred around suppliers being unable to supply… or the quality being below par, or both. Frustrating was also not being able to find people who could/would give us the quality in machining we were after, while having the expertise to do it ourselves but not the funds to buy the equipment needed. The old adage 'if you want to do it right then do it yourself' was certainly true. When the first funds came in, we thus bought a lathe. That lathe was 45 years old when we bought it and, despite needing quite a bit of work, it turned out to be one of the best things we ever bought… it allowed us to start machining our own parts and it's still in daily operation today! As soon as more money became available: more machines were bought! The first year had been a real struggle, looking back at the hours we made compared to the income from it, we must have been mad :-) Seriously: filling the shelves at the supermarket would have given us a three times higher hourly rate. We made ridiculous hours just to make ends meet. On top of that we were also told by various people in the industry that we wouldn't make it. Even our accountant at the time thought we wouldn't make it. Luckily we have the skin of an elephant…
Navigation tower construction started early 2016. As the tower is self supporting we didn't need a motorcycle to test the design for strength and practicality. One of the tests we did was suspending a fully assembled tower from the steel frame in the roof of our workshop with 92kg (ie me…) hanging on the tower. It did not break or bend. We then started rocking it with the same 92 kg and still couldn't break or bend it. The tower was not fastened to anything, We didn’t even bolt it down, all we fitted was one loose hardened steel pin in the mounting points. The tower could rock freely in all directions and the pin could rock in the mounting points to simulate the worst possible method of mounting it. What those initial tests proved was that the self-supporting construction was well up to the job and did not need to be clamped to a motorcycle frame to give it strength or support.
Husqvarna/KTM connection
Satisfied with the first tests we contacted Husqvarna Netherlands and showed them the designs we made. They liked the idea and gave us a 701 on loan to use as a mule in. We simultaneously made 4 different versions, all using the same method of construction and mounting. They differed in height, length and screen angle and were each tested for practicality and performance side by side. They were frantic months where we made 14hr days/7 days a week, week after week. In November 2016 the final pre-production model was showed to Husqvarna and approved. In December 2016 the Nomad-ADV navigation tower became available on the market.
The original Nomad-ADV navigation tower took 11 months to design and develop. It was in various forms tested to destruction and over-engineered (computer strength calculations suggested we could use a lesser quality aluminium and much smaller mounting points than we do use for instance). The same basic design and method of fitment, which we designed in 2015, has been used for all our subsequent navigation towers. As we can use the original design, strength and practicality testing has all been done, which means we can develop new models in a relatively short time (no doubt helped by making very long days… :-). It takes on average 3-4 months to fully develop the tower for a new model motorcycle (assuming the frame used is compatible to our design).
Growing pains
A lot has happened since the first navigation tower was sold. Nomad-ADV has grown with our workshop now packed to the rafters with machinery as we've put every cent we made back in the business. We still don't have a car… but we have 5 milling machines now :-), of which 4 are full CNC.
Despite Mike being an automotive engineering graduate and Aad having 30+ years of motorcycle engineering experience, Nomad-ADV obviously had growing pains too. As frustrating as they are, we kept pushing through when everyone around us suggested to give it up. It's certainly true that looking from a business point of view there are many jobs out there which would give us a better income, but we don't do it for the money. The reason we do it is simply because we love what we do. That's evident in the products we make and the type of bike we make them for. Going after the big sellers in the motorcycle world would obviously result bigger sales volumes, but those are not the bikes we believe in. We concentrate on light weight travel enduros, which is motorcycling in its purest form, and stuck our neck out by making a fully road legal travel bike in the sub 150 kg category (with the EXC range it's even sub 125 kg).
Meanwhile our designs have been copied by others. One even went as far as copying our design and then attempting to patent it as his own, nearly 3 years after we designed it(!) He even claimed we stole his idea and threatened with lawsuits if we wouldn’t stop making our own design(!!)… Sometimes you just can't make it up can you? I guess as Oscar Wilde wrote many years ago: 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay.' One thing is for sure, someone who copies someone else’s work has no pride in his own work and is only interested in the money he/she can make out of it...
We get satisfaction out of the work we do, the designs we make and the quality of machining and engineering. To achieve that level of quality all our products are made from top quality materials, such as aircraft grade aluminium from a select few foundries. Anything less is rejected as it takes the fun out of it for us. The parts we buy in are all top of the range too, like the original KTM 450RR rally screen and Vision-X or Baja Designs LED headlights, or even the extremely sturdy European made switches which can handle 180 Watts without needing a relay. A product is, after all, only as good as it's weakest link...
We do like a challenge (take the luggage rack for the KTM EXC for instance) and seeing others enjoying what we make via the many photos we receive from all over the world, makes it all worthwhile.
We hope the above will give you an insight into how the Nomad-ADV navigation towers came about and what the ideas behind them are. We also hope it has given you a little background into who we are and how we operate. If you have any further questions then feel free to ask, we pride ourselves on customer service and answer every e-mail we receive (which, admittedly, at times can be so many that it might take a day or two).
Mike and Aad Schram
Nomad-ADV
Back in 2015, when Husqvarna published the first photos of the then new 701 Enduro, we were in Chiang Mai Thailand, while on a round the world trip. We were waiting for a friend who had broken her arm in two places to be released from hospital. She needed 10 days rest after the operation prior to a check up to get clearance from the doctor to continue her trip. During those 10 days stationary we saw the first photos of the new 701 frame and recognised its potential as a great travel bike. One of the things missing though was proper wind protection. There were several navigation towers on the market, although non for the 701 and all of them were a bewildering collection of weirdly shaped plates and brackets. All the ones we found were either fitted by drilling holes in the headstock or welding a lump of steel to it – both poor practices engineering-wise as welding to an existing frame introduces stresses in the metal due to it being very locally heated by the welding process, while bolting through the front of the headstock will place the load of the tower on the weakest part of the bolt: the head. In the petrochemical industry studs are used instead of bolts for that same reason.
Fitment is difficult too as the slightest mis-alignment at the headstock results in a tower that is seriously mis-aligned at the front. Once fitted they offered no view of the front wheel and most were seriously expensive to boot. On top of that, what we wanted was something which was road legal, which non of them were as they required alterations to the frame. It was clear that something new was needed. A different way of thinking.
The creation
During those 10 days in Chiang Mai we made the design of a new uni-body, self supporting navigation tower, an industry first. A navigation tower that could be bolted to the motorcycle frame without any modification needed to the motorcycle frame itself, with the bolts at a 90° angle to the tower rather than in line with it. One which didn't need a motorcycle frame to give it strength and rigidity. A modular design we could adapt to different frames, we already looked at the EXC range too at that stage. Factory photos of the EXC frame showed us that it would be possible on that model too. As the 701 wasn't even on the market yet, we super-imposed the design as an overlay over the photos Husqvarna released in November 2015. Especially the full side shots, without the plastic fitted, which Husqvarna showed of the 701. To say we were super excited is an understatement. What we wanted to do was start building there and then… but we were on a trip around the world, and still had quite a long way to go too… plus the bike we wanted to start with, the Husky 701, wasn't even available yet!
Humble beginnings and frustrations
Being just back from a 4 year long journey around the world, money wasn't exactly plentiful. We had sold the house to do the trip and were flat broke at the end of the journey. Without the help of our parents/grand parents, who gave us a roof over our heads and allowed us to startup Nomad-ADV on their premises, non of this would have happened. We literally started in a leaky old barn, no heater for the first two winters (!) and limited power to run machinery. I vividly remember 3 layers of clothing under my overalls, emptying buckets every morning when it had rained and warming up the gearbox of the lathe to thin the oil so that we could run it at the high speeds required for aluminium.
We were still scraping the barrel though and urgently needed cash to get the Nomad-ADV tower produced. We therefor started selling motorcycle accessories like panniers and luggage to generate much needed cash. It wasn't what we wanted to do, but needs must, and it wasn't exactly all plain sailing either. Frustrations centred around suppliers being unable to supply… or the quality being below par, or both. Frustrating was also not being able to find people who could/would give us the quality in machining we were after, while having the expertise to do it ourselves but not the funds to buy the equipment needed. The old adage 'if you want to do it right then do it yourself' was certainly true. When the first funds came in, we thus bought a lathe. That lathe was 45 years old when we bought it and, despite needing quite a bit of work, it turned out to be one of the best things we ever bought… it allowed us to start machining our own parts and it's still in daily operation today! As soon as more money became available: more machines were bought! The first year had been a real struggle, looking back at the hours we made compared to the income from it, we must have been mad :-) Seriously: filling the shelves at the supermarket would have given us a three times higher hourly rate. We made ridiculous hours just to make ends meet. On top of that we were also told by various people in the industry that we wouldn't make it. Even our accountant at the time thought we wouldn't make it. Luckily we have the skin of an elephant…
Navigation tower construction started early 2016. As the tower is self supporting we didn't need a motorcycle to test the design for strength and practicality. One of the tests we did was suspending a fully assembled tower from the steel frame in the roof of our workshop with 92kg (ie me…) hanging on the tower. It did not break or bend. We then started rocking it with the same 92 kg and still couldn't break or bend it. The tower was not fastened to anything, We didn’t even bolt it down, all we fitted was one loose hardened steel pin in the mounting points. The tower could rock freely in all directions and the pin could rock in the mounting points to simulate the worst possible method of mounting it. What those initial tests proved was that the self-supporting construction was well up to the job and did not need to be clamped to a motorcycle frame to give it strength or support.
Husqvarna/KTM connection
Satisfied with the first tests we contacted Husqvarna Netherlands and showed them the designs we made. They liked the idea and gave us a 701 on loan to use as a mule in. We simultaneously made 4 different versions, all using the same method of construction and mounting. They differed in height, length and screen angle and were each tested for practicality and performance side by side. They were frantic months where we made 14hr days/7 days a week, week after week. In November 2016 the final pre-production model was showed to Husqvarna and approved. In December 2016 the Nomad-ADV navigation tower became available on the market.
The original Nomad-ADV navigation tower took 11 months to design and develop. It was in various forms tested to destruction and over-engineered (computer strength calculations suggested we could use a lesser quality aluminium and much smaller mounting points than we do use for instance). The same basic design and method of fitment, which we designed in 2015, has been used for all our subsequent navigation towers. As we can use the original design, strength and practicality testing has all been done, which means we can develop new models in a relatively short time (no doubt helped by making very long days… :-). It takes on average 3-4 months to fully develop the tower for a new model motorcycle (assuming the frame used is compatible to our design).
Growing pains
A lot has happened since the first navigation tower was sold. Nomad-ADV has grown with our workshop now packed to the rafters with machinery as we've put every cent we made back in the business. We still don't have a car… but we have 5 milling machines now :-), of which 4 are full CNC.
Despite Mike being an automotive engineering graduate and Aad having 30+ years of motorcycle engineering experience, Nomad-ADV obviously had growing pains too. As frustrating as they are, we kept pushing through when everyone around us suggested to give it up. It's certainly true that looking from a business point of view there are many jobs out there which would give us a better income, but we don't do it for the money. The reason we do it is simply because we love what we do. That's evident in the products we make and the type of bike we make them for. Going after the big sellers in the motorcycle world would obviously result bigger sales volumes, but those are not the bikes we believe in. We concentrate on light weight travel enduros, which is motorcycling in its purest form, and stuck our neck out by making a fully road legal travel bike in the sub 150 kg category (with the EXC range it's even sub 125 kg).
Meanwhile our designs have been copied by others. One even went as far as copying our design and then attempting to patent it as his own, nearly 3 years after we designed it(!) He even claimed we stole his idea and threatened with lawsuits if we wouldn’t stop making our own design(!!)… Sometimes you just can't make it up can you? I guess as Oscar Wilde wrote many years ago: 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay.' One thing is for sure, someone who copies someone else’s work has no pride in his own work and is only interested in the money he/she can make out of it...
We get satisfaction out of the work we do, the designs we make and the quality of machining and engineering. To achieve that level of quality all our products are made from top quality materials, such as aircraft grade aluminium from a select few foundries. Anything less is rejected as it takes the fun out of it for us. The parts we buy in are all top of the range too, like the original KTM 450RR rally screen and Vision-X or Baja Designs LED headlights, or even the extremely sturdy European made switches which can handle 180 Watts without needing a relay. A product is, after all, only as good as it's weakest link...
We do like a challenge (take the luggage rack for the KTM EXC for instance) and seeing others enjoying what we make via the many photos we receive from all over the world, makes it all worthwhile.
We hope the above will give you an insight into how the Nomad-ADV navigation towers came about and what the ideas behind them are. We also hope it has given you a little background into who we are and how we operate. If you have any further questions then feel free to ask, we pride ourselves on customer service and answer every e-mail we receive (which, admittedly, at times can be so many that it might take a day or two).
Mike and Aad Schram
Nomad-ADV
