Back in black

[Rich C]

I bought this off Rob Farmer at the tail end of last summer on something of a whim really. It's my first airhead and I think Rob was more concerned than I was about wether I'd get on with it or not. It didn't take long for it to start getting under my skin and I'm not sure I could be without her now. My plan was to get myself a usable old bike for knocking around on. The 1150 would still be used for longer trips. Rob had rebuilt the bike and done all the hard bits all I had to do was finish things off cosmetically.....

 

[Rich C]

Back in Black 2

Well after a few weeks fettling I've ended up with this. For the life of me I just cant understand why I seem to want to ride this more than my 1150 adv..

 

[polecat]

Nice job. Looks brilliant

 

[MiGSel]

Lovely airhead

Same thing happened when I bought my R80G/S years ago, the GSA didn't see much use the year after.

Have fun!

 

[MMC]

Now THAT'S a beauty. Still miss my RS...

 

[Tarka]

For the life of me I just cant understand why I seem to want to ride this more than my 1150 adv..

Character,charisma,real feel and grin factor will be contributory factors.

Much as why I often take my 650 Ural out,even on longish runs,in prefernece to some of my more modern and effortlessly capable bikes.

That`s looking well,matey,and here`s hoping you have many miles of smiles.

 

[Rich C]

That`s looking well,matey,and here`s hoping you have many miles of smiles. [/QUOTE]

Well she's only done 118K miles so I'm hoping there's plenty of life left in her!

 

[Twotter]

That's a real cracker

 

[Colt]

looks great Rich.
and as for using the 1150 for longer trips
I ending up touring spain/ portugal on my r80g/s last year
whilst my 1150 turned only a few miles last yr.
enjoy

 

[bustupbiker]

I bought two new bikes last year in May, only done 1500-ish miles each. I use the 100gs most

 

[Kenny]

Nice job

Choice of a big fleet, yet, I to will be on the old Airhead for the Wirral Easter Egg run ( Moreton straights again Tarka..I'll get your piccie again )

 

[Mick Fagan]

Interesting front brake mods. I wonder if you have thought of changing the lower brake lines, the originals (presumably) must be getting a bit soft.

Looks very nice.

Mick.

 

[Rich C]

Interesting front brake mods. I wonder if you have thought of changing the lower brake lines, the originals (presumably) must be getting a bit soft.

Looks very nice.

Mick.

Brake hoses are indeed on the list. I am however trying to keep the budget sensible. This was supposed to be a relatively low cost knock about bike! It would be easy to draw up a long shopping list!

 

[TheWarlock]

I wouldn't call the front brake mods interesting so much as vital. I always made the same conversions to older airheads. I would definitely go with the extra braided hoses though.

Lovely looking bike.

 

[Rob Farmer]

The lower brake lines are no more than two years old and were replaced with rubber lines because I prefer the feel of them, however the upper braided lines fitted because it came as a part of the expensive bar mounted kit conversion from Motobins.


Nice job Rich

 

[John Roberts]

I wouldn't call the front brake mods interesting so much as vital. I always made the same conversions to older airheads. I would definitely go with the extra braided hoses though.

Lovely looking bike.

I'm not with you here regarding the front brake mods, the bike seems to have the same (pre-Brembo) calipers in both pictures, so what mods were you thinking of? Perhaps I am being a little slow here.

 

[Rob Farmer]

It's the Handlebar master cylinder conversion John. Does away with the undertank master cylinder and replaces it with a handle bar mounted one.

 

[Rich C]

The lower brake lines are no more than two years old and were replaced with rubber lines because I prefer the feel of them, however the upper braided lines fitted because it came as a part of the expensive bar mounted kit conversion from Motobins.


Nice job Rich

How could I not finish of what you'd started...It's a cracking bike IMO.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Rob, I know what you mean by, "the feel of them", bit like wire spoked wheels have a certain feel as well.

Actually, those brakes when correctly adjusted and bed in, are very efficient and will continually stop the bike from quite high speed, stop after stop, after stop. Something quite a few people didn't appreciate then, nor these days.

At the same time these brakes appeared in 1974, the 750SS Ducati, Laverda Jota and some other bikes appeared with two finger tyre squealing Italian brakes fitted to the front. Whilst the application of the front brake lever on bikes fitted with those brakes gave an instant hard hit, they were about equal to the softer feeling BMW brakes overall.

In the Castrol 6 hour production race at Amaroo Park in the Western area of Sydney in that era, where bikes had to run absolutely stock brakes, no one particular type of disc brake brand seemed to be better or worse. In fact in 1973 (I think) an R75/5 ran third outright on a very tight race track that used brakes constantly.

Rich, it really does look good.

Mick.

 

[Rich C]

Thanks for the general round of . I have to thank Mr Farmer for the inspiration and opportunity of course. I cant imagine I would have bought the bike, given my general mechanical incomptence, had it not been from him.

Cheers Rob. I hope those that owned her before and in particular your mate Dermot (?), would approve.

Rich