HPN or Richie Moore?

That bike really was special, guy has owned it since 92 & had some lovely touches - v well put together
 
I had an HPN (Chassis HPN 540), built with a friend down in Cape Town for a trip around Sub-Saharan Africa about five years ago, couple of pics attached. HPN did the frame (from a donor R80G/S) and everything else was shipped from HPN to RSA.
I threw everything into that bike, chucked out all the BMW stuff that would fail (like Valeo starter for Nippondenso; new electronic ignition etc). WP suspension front and twin shock rear. I had HPN's 1043 engine with twin spark heads etc, etc. Engine was a delight, far sweeter than the 1200GS I have in the UK. It was built like a brick sh*t house, crashed, dropped, hit by trucks and generally abused! You can see in the third pic why I didn't take a modern GS! (As well as having one monster fuel tank, and another under the seat!)
Happy to give any advice on build etc.
 

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I had an HPN (Chassis HPN 540), built with a friend down in Cape Town for a trip around Sub-Saharan Africa about five years ago, couple of pics attached. HPN did the frame (from a donor R80G/S) and everything else was shipped from HPN to RSA.

I take it done by Altus aka DustDevil, one of my very good mates just bought #663 off him :thumb2
 
The very same! I did the GS Challenge in Leydsorp RSA with him as my buddy on his 663, see pic.
Sadly that was the last run of that great event as one rider was tragically killed on day 2.
 

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The very same! I did the GS Challenge in Leydsorp RSA with him as my buddy on his 663, see pic.
Sadly that was the last run of that great event as one rider was tragically killed on day 2.

Ahh good old red dusty Africa roads - nothing like it :drool

Do you still have your HPN?
 
Thanks for the offer to talk through the build. I'll take you up on the ... pm sent.

Spoke with Richie today... definitely picked the right guy. I best start rolling my coppers! I'm going to put together a wish list and take it from there.
 
Cannuck, if Richie pulls his finger out and gets my bike finished before the depths of winter, I'll bring it over so you can have a go on it and maybe help you decide which way to go with yours. I stripped my old 80GS out 4 years ago, if it gives you an idea of worst case build timings.
 
To give some balance to the discussion Richie turned my cylinder heads around in less than a week. Other parts have been very quick to arrive (a day or so).
 
Cannuck, if Richie pulls his finger out and gets my bike finished before the depths of winter, I'll bring it over so you can have a go on it and maybe help you decide which way to go with yours. I stripped my old 80GS out 4 years ago, if it gives you an idea of worst case build timings.

I'd really appreciate that... I'd be happy to drive up your way though. When i was younger we had a off-ice (i was a ice hockey player) trainer who was pure evil. If you were one of the 5 to finish any of the training drills you had to do 'the chair'... basically stand with your back against a wall and slowly step your feet out until your knees are bent at 90 degrees, you lap is parallel with the floor then raise your hands above your head. You had to hold this position for 2 minutes... unless you gave him red licorice! I'm just wondering if Richie may want some licorice as encouragement?!? :nenau :D

To give some balance to the discussion Richie turned my cylinder heads around in less than a week. Other parts have been very quick to arrive (a day or so).

Good to get a balanced view... my thinking is that I couldn't do it myself (though I did weld once back in school when you were allowed to do such things as a 13 year old) so even if it takes 1.5 to 2 years it is faster than I could go. I'm willing to wait that long for a 'perfect for me' bike.
 
Looks like I will also go the Richie Moore route with my R65 project. I might get rid of another spare bike to fund this one.

Looked on his website and it mentions the mono back ends but I would like to keep the twin shock back end like on Sycos bike. I presume he can also extent the twin shock swinging arms?

I'll have to try to give him a call. Away in Jersey all next week so will have to be in October now.
 
Richie promised me my bike would be ready for Christmas.........................2 years ago.I know he has turned a lot of stuff round , including full engine rebuilds, from members on this site pretty quickly, but I can only speak from experience.
 
Richie promised me my bike would be ready for Christmas.........................2 years ago. I know he has turned a lot of stuff round , including full engine rebuilds, from members on this site pretty quickly, but I can only speak from experience.

Blimey, that really isn't good enough ! :(
 


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