1150 GS Adventure SE Rebuild

[stolzy]

Interesting thread Nin, for me particularly; I've known the bike since is was new, indeed it was the one that convinced me to buy mine after a test ride in a hotel car park in Warwickshire.
I've spent many a happy hour waiting for Andy to catch up with me on it during our various jaunts around Europe.

Very sad when he binned it, but great to see the bike is in good hands and on its way to recovery.

 

[Nin]

Interesting thread Nin, for me particularly; I've known the bike since is was new, indeed it was the one that convinced me to buy mine after a test ride in a hotel car park in Warwickshire.
I've spent many a happy hour waiting for Andy to catch up with me on it during our various jaunts around Europe.

Very sad when he binned it, but great to see the bike is in good hands and on its way to recovery.

Cheers Stolzy, glad to hear you're enjoying it. It will live again! Not for a while yet though ...

 

[Nin]

Right I think I'm just about at the end of the beginning.

A pile of bits going off to the metal finisher and powder coaters on Thursday.

I've made up a list of parts, and ordered up my generic bearings for the wishbone and fork seals, starting to think about rebuild, but I'll have to work through the loom first and check for breaks and shorts - spotted a couple of points where the insulation had almost worn away.

 

[Nin]

The poor old thing is looking a bit bare now

And will get barer - heads and barrels come off at the weekend to get those studs out, and while we're at it get blasted and coated.

New rings while I'm at it? What do you reckon? They're not cheap!

 

[Karlread]

If you are going to do the job, you may as well do it properly particularly given the state of dismantling that you have reached.

 

[Borderbob]

Check the high tension leads too. I meant to say to you, in the dark, you could see some tiny arking. Never affected performance or starting noticeably but as you've replaced virtually everything else worth doing! About £50 I think.

 

[Borderbob]

Interesting thread Nin, for me particularly; I've known the bike since is was new, indeed it was the one that convinced me to buy mine after a test ride in a hotel car park in Warwickshire.
I've spent many a happy hour waiting for Andy to catch up with me on it during our various jaunts around Europe.

Very sad when he binned it, but great to see the bike is in good hands and on its way to recovery.

But almost worth it to see it coming back to pristine condition. When you've finished that, I might get you to sort out the slight twinge in my collar bone I collected at the same time as remodelling the GSA!

 

[Nin]

Thanks for the heads up Andy - there were a couple of compressions and nicks in the HT leads for the lower plugs, and checking the resistance across the plug caps one was much lower than the other so I think they've been breaking down as well - not surprising after having had some good use over the years. But £50 for replacements seems a bit steep - I can make a set up for about £10 !

One good thing about working on the bike is that it doesn't complain much. Not sure I could guarantee the same situation if I was fixing your collar bone.

Loads of stuff is now off with the powder coater - a man with a beard working in a reassuringly basic shed surrounded by a mix of old and brand new looking VW Combi vans. This weekends job is heads off and get them either to Mikey boy or a mate's contact in Reading to get the studs milled out and helicoiled.

The only outstanding major parts I need now are a beak and a screen, I think I'll go for an MRA having had one on my 1100 and it was great. Oh and of course all the gaskets, seals, filters, hoseclips, fluids, caliper and master cylinder refurb kits. I think I'll do a list and ask the usual suspects to tender for my business!

Rebuild starts in May ...

 

[Deleted account 220427001]

how much you spent so far !!!!

 

[Nin]

how much you spent so far !!!!

Hmmm. Is it rude to ask? Nah not really.

For front end, wishbone, instrument holder, indicators, mirrors, FD and bits & pieces I need - only about £400 so far. Powder coating will be £170. A bit more on things I want like a Y piece, light bar and so on.

Paint, brake cleaner, abrasives about £40.

Screen will be about £110, paint job about £600, all the spares and service kit will be around £400.

None of this stacks up financially - but I end up with a really nice SE that I know inside out, for about half what I'd normally have to pay. And I'll have had a great time getting it there.

Thinking about the next projects already. I'd love to do a '90s Harley Softy, and maybe get my old vfr740f back.

 

[Karlread]

Yep, been there done that. Bought a 1996 R1100RS for £1500 last Feb and by the time I finished sorting it out the bike including the purchase price stands me about £3500. Completely non sensical but strangely satisfying that it is now a properly sorted bike, the thing was having started one thing it led to something else and simply snowballed.

 

[Nin]

Got a bit carried away with the Techkote at the weekend ...

 

[Nin]

And NeilDD came up trumps - many thanks Neil, and Katie on reception sends her regards

 

[Ash]

Goodies arrived from Ash. Standard GS screen mounts for the MRA, and an impulse buy light bar.

Thanks Ash and for your delivery service!

Glad it's gone to a good home & enjoying the rebuild...

 

[Loutre]

Mine is exactly the same. I tried lots of different chemicals, (white spirit, alcohol, acetone, T cut, solvol autosol, plastic polish) but nothing worked, the stain has penetrated the plastic coating. In the end decided too live with it. Mainly because I could spend lots of money and/or time fixing it, only to have another fuel leak and end up back at square one.

But I will be interested to see if you succeed.

Ian

on mine acetone worked but I applied it within the first 24 hours of it. after that it happened again and ate itself into the paint. now ignoring is the only option that I came up with

 

[Nin]

Time for an update. There's been a bit of a lull in activity recently. Family life, work and a distinct lack of cash have all intervened to slow things down a bit.

But I have been able to make some progress, if taking even more bits off it is considered as progress.

I think the old girl is probably in the smallest constituent parts she's going to be in on this build in any case.

The heads are off at an engineering shop getting studs milled out and replaced with some nice shiny new ones. Well, "shop" doesn't really describe it properly, it's a reassuringly old fella in a shed crammed with mills, lathes with, drills and other stuff. Those should be back next week.

Barrels are off as well and they'll all go to the metal finishers in Reading to be cleaned up, blasted and painted. Decided to go with paint on them instead of powder coat, be interesting to see how they fare.

 

[Nin]

Taking the heads and barrels off gives a good chance to examine the condition of the bores, rings, valves and seats on this 70k miler.

The bores are like new, there's no discernible wear on them anywhere - that nickasil must be hard as diamonds!

At first examination I was a bit concerned with the exhaust valves, especially given the litany of failures on here recently.

But a good clean-up shows they're actually in pretty good nick, and with a very gentle lapping on rebuild I reckon they will be fine for a few more thousand miles.

Inlet valves look good as the nearly always do

 

[Nin]

Lots of ancillary bits have been taken off, returned to bare metal, primed and re-sprayed. Very therapeutic ...

(Side stand mount if you're wondering)

Starter motor cover looks better now

Fork lowers get the ubiquitous smooth rite treatment.

I think I'll treat them to some rugged road fork protectors as well.

Top yoke gets the same

 

[Nin]

SO mostly waiting on others to finish their work so I can start rebuilding. Last major acquisitions are an MRA screen, all the spares/parts for rebuild (gaskets, filters, plugs, leads hoses, seals etc). The plan is to rebuild to the point where I can make sure everything works , then take the tank and beak down to Tunneruk to work his magic on them.

All over by Christmas? Maybe!

 

[West coast gser]

Time for an update. There's been a bit of a lull in activity recently. Family life, work and a distinct lack of cash have all intervened to slow things down a bit.

But I have been able to make some progress, if taking even more bits off it is considered as progress.

I think the old girl is probably in the smallest constituent parts she's going to be in on this build in any case.

The heads are off at an engineering shop getting studs milled out and replaced with some nice shiny new ones. Well, "shop" doesn't really describe it properly, it's a reassuringly old fella in a shed crammed with mills, lathes with, drills and other stuff. Those should be back next week.

Barrels are off as well and they'll all go to the metal finishers in Reading to be cleaned up, blasted and painted. Decided to go with paint on them instead of powder coat, be interesting to see how they fare.

How much did he take to get the exhaust studs out ??