recommissioning r100gs

Hi

Have an R100gs which has been stood for 7years. In good condition, just cleaning fuel system chaininging fluids and new battery. its first outing will be in Wales for a 2 day off road rally, anyone suggest good upgrades. Would like Ohkins but piggy bank wont go that far!

Looking at fork upgrades and have seen mention of Thunderchild diode board.

Thanks

Lowering the footpegs and putting bar risers is a good cheap option especially off roading. Then good off road tyres and sort out suspension depending on your budget. Hand guards like bark busters and some crash bars ?

Ride it for a while, that will tell you what you need to change,

The brakes for instance, before the thunderchild. That’s if you want brakes that is

Sump guard and collection box guard(goes on the centre stand). Relocate oil cooler to centre so it doesn't get cracked if you have an off.

It should have a silly sump guard as stock which is best junked .
Crash bars are standard- the silly flip up side stand fits to them. Most folks fit a aftermarket stand, anything is probably going to work better than the stock item.
Metz Enduro 3s work well with the bike and ccope well with deep sand and mud. Mitas E09s are tough off road tires if you can afford a set just for the two day trial.
My rims dont hold air and I use tubes but not hard to check if yours do - just give the bike a good thrash down a bumpy and twisty road and if they go flat you need tubes. Thy usually break away from the bead when they do, so they take a bit catching.
Nothing wrong with the forks except a little soft, 10 mm more preload on the stock springs and 15 wt in the compression side and 5 in the compression work OK for some. Moxima or Belray Synth suspension fluid works best, Dino fork oil went out with Dino engine oil.
HPN inserts work better, but they are NLA.
Front brake works fine with HH pads, either EBC or Brembo's own if you can find them. Lucas shoes are good in the rear
The stock Ohlins with a 450 lb spring works excellently , Wilbers are reputed to be OK and are a bit cheaper- Richie Moore sells them and will know what works with the GS.
Around 60 mm rider sag at the front works with the Ohlins at close to stock settings.
Never had a problem with diode boards in half a million ks on an Airhead, just dont jump start them and buy a quality AGM battery.
If you must change EME have a modern reg/rec complete with a harness for around US$100- ,and a few other goodies too.
Centre stand gaurds, Barkbusters, relocated oil coolers, bar risers, lowered pegs, etc, etc are fashion items and tou may find the bike will works fine without them
Even with the stock pegs the brake and gear pedals dont work well with my size 12 Gaerne off road boots, so you might have to to a bit shortening/ extending to make the work, and you will need majer worh with lowered pegs.
Stock ignition system works fine, Boyer Micropower system has a better digital curve but takes a little fiddling to fit into the hall effect bean can.
I found that higher top/ lower first gear conversion are unnoticeable on a properly tuned bike but they seem to be popular.
Never found the need for more watts than the stock alternator puts out, but if you plan on fitting a heated bidet on the rear carrier or whatever -----------!
But Ianb's advice is the best off all , before you do anything ride it as it is - they are perfectly acceptable bikes stock and after a few months you will know what, if anything, needs to be changed to suit you and the use you put the bike to.

Pencarreg Rally 1999.

Bog standard R80G/S with knobbly tyres. It was fine. Just do it.

Steve.

ianboydsnr said:

Ride it for a while, that will tell you what you need to change,

The brakes for instance, before the thunderchild. That’s if you want brakes that is

Click to expand...

That^^ Wise words.

I bought my R100GS specifically for a trip from the UK to South Africa, 2 up. I had owned a few BMWs by this time and decided that the 100GS was the bike for us. We fitted bigger panniers, a decent (White Power) rear shock and a homemade low front mudguard and that was was it. With hindsight, the only thing that I would have done differently would be to carry less weight which had a detrimental effect on the shock which started to leak at around 25 k miles and the shaft which expired in France on the way home althoughhad been grumbling since Jo’burg. These days we would fit hardier tyres which are now readily available but the Metzeler Saharas were fine in most conditions (except deserts, of course).

Moving on to the other end of the scale, my R80G/S has an extended swinging arm, DRZ forks with special tripleclamps designed to suit the GS, knobbly tyres, improved sump guard etc. but other than that it doesn’t have a centrestand or crashbars in order to save weight.

Horses for courses really.

Funny, no one has mentioned the driveshaft or rear paralever joints yet.
When the time comes to replace them there are better options than stock, from Emerald Isle.
Both have been revised a few times since they were introduced so might be starting to get reliable.
They also do a ignition system with a replacement bean can and ignition ICU, but the mark 2/3 version is not out yet so give it a miss until it does!