Converting std R80 to off road (GS) spec

BigyellowGS

BigyellowGS

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Afternoon all!

Righto.. as a few of you may ahve noticed in the for sale/wanted section I have just got my hands on a 1986 R80 monosock. It's running, reasonably tidy.. and set me back a whopping 400 quid!

Now.. unfortunatly someone whispered something like "nice, but I thought you really wanted a R80GS... Why don't you convert it.. the frames are the same after all!"

Oh.. nutts.. another crazy plan emerges.. oh well..

Anyway.. Has anyone ever done this conversion.. And what parts etc do I need?

I dont care too much about looks.. just that it can handle some rough stuff!

Anyway thoughts please?
 
hmmm.. not sure I like the phrase "massive project"... might have to stick to plan A.. cafe racer.. its easier and will look nice when done.. And then I'll just have to use the XT600 for going green laning instead! :D
 
Whatever you do, you will enjoy riding the "80" in whatever form it ends up in
Just put a 21" front wheel and forks from an old Jap Traily, put some Metzler enduros [1 and 2] on her and dip yer bread, cast rear wheel won't hurt on green lanes
 
BigyellowGS said:
hmmm.. not sure I like the phrase "massive project"... might have to stick to plan A.. cafe racer.. its easier and will look nice when done.. And then I'll just have to use the XT600 for going green laning instead! :D
Click to expand...

Now your talking...build the cafe racer :bounce1 and use the XT ( I use my KLR650 )for the rough stuff :thumb2
 
You could always do it on the cheap.

One of the Americans posted a modified R80 on here a while back (wish I could remember who it was). Looks great, didn't cost much and more importantly he's having loads of fun with it.

His has a Paralever GS front end, GS bars and Harley look silencers and thats about it.

rattybike020ow8.jpg


The biggest problem is getting rid of the cast rear wheel. You would need a genuine g/s bevel box and swinging arm unless you fitted a twin shock back end.
 
Hmmm.. Gs style on the cheap.. Might think about that.

At present the bike has given me a list of faults to sort out before I start working on either cafe racering or GS'ing it.. namely:

Speedo doesn;t work!
dash lights dont work
Indicators have a mind of their own
Kill switch doesn't work
r/h exhaust blowing at the cylinder head
handlebars hit the tank on full lock

And I guess she needs a good servicing as well.. as she it a little tappety and the carbs are well out of snyc

So this weekend is going to be spent getting her road worthy and ready for an MOT next week... Then who knows :D
 
An update:

As you can see from the picture my quick clean and tidy up seems to have resulted in a lot of the bike ending up in bits all over the floor.. ops!
 

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oh.. And Phils been testing the new monowheel R65 design.. Not sure if the handling will be up to much though :D
 

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update: The bike now runs & rides.. just got a monkey puzzle of a wiring loom to sort out and then she's off for her MOT.

As for GS'ing the old girl.. think a change of plan is in order.. I'm going to sell my ZX9 and maybe my XT600 and plough the cash into buying an air cooled GS of some sort.. probably a better bet!

:D
 
The ST and g/s have 3 stud rear wheels, everything else, like Proff says, is 4 stud. The rear shock on the RT mounts onto the bevel box, on the g/s / st is fits on the swinging arm. The four stud Paralever rear wheel doesn't on the earlier bevel box either. It can be done but the hub needs turning down to fit.

If you haven't got the parts to hand it's a huge project fitting gs wheels. You're probably going to be better off selling the RT and buying a gs.
 
Evening all,
As has been mentioned earlier in the the thread Airfan turned an R100R into a GS type thing and I'm the one who inherited it (or bought it if you prefer). I'm planning to carry on from where he left off and slowly prep it for a trip through the America's in a couple of years time, so if you've not given up on the idea yet and want any info/photos etc give me a shout.

Logic says that it would probably have been easier to go straight for a GS in the first place, but that's never stopped me before and hopefully I'll end up with exactly what I want. First challenge is getting the heated grips and hand guards working in unison, obviously TT will sell me the correct bits but they'll also be at TT prices so its off to the Acerbis shop first.

Cheers, Shaun
 
Righto... the saga continues..

I've been looking for a airhead GS over the christmas break.. managed to scrape together about 1.5 > 2k to fund the purchase.. But have yet to fin one!

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169356

But alas.. even after searching around on the net (eg autotrader, ebay etc etc) I have yet to find anything good within a reasonable distance!

So.. Now I think I might resort to plan A and create a bitza from my R80.. (she's now up and running and the engine sounds good and sweet).

Hence I'm on the hunt for the suspension parts I need to do the conversion:

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170835

And also any information on undertaking the conversion would be greatly appreciated.. I'm guessing if I have all the parts it will be a matter for bolting them on? (god I'm an optomist arn't I?) :D

James
 
Instead of trying to track down expensive hard to get parts why not just fit a twin shock swinging arm and subframe. You can then buy a cheap ex police wire rear wheel You will then have a large range of cheap readily available bevel boxes to choose from.

Keep the standard downpipes and look for alternative small silencers - Harley slip on's or similar.

Psycomotos bike looks great with it's twin shock backend.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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