Tuesday is a great day for a homebuilder to wander around the pits at the Reno Races – more specifically, the Sport class hangars in the pits. It’s the second day of qualifying, and many of the racers have already laid down their times to get into the event, so they are relaxed and working over their machines. With cowlings off, and the pilots a little more relaxed, you can see all sorts of interesting things – some of them quite small.
Today I saw an interesting new product from LockRight LLC, the GripLock Tie – a nylon tie with rubber strips permanently bonded to the inside of the nylon. These high-temperature ties are perfect for those who want a light-weight and easy alternative to Adel clamps for securing wiring inside the engine compartment. Most builders accept that it is poor practice to wrap zip-ties directly to an engine mount tube, since in rare instances, oil and grit can cause the tie to do a little sawing on the tube itself. That’s why to use them correctly, you have to wrap some silicone tape or rubber around the engine mount first – and by the time you’ve done, that, you might as well just use an Adel clamp. With the rubber bonded to the Griplock ties, you have no worries – just zip them in place, and the tie protects the mount all by itself.
New technology always trickles down from high end racing – and we’ll keep our eyes open for more track our readers can use.
