It wasn't long after my old bike met its untimely end...
...that Aviva Insurance agreed a payout and I went looking for a new bike. I soon found what I was looking for...
A 2003 twinspark 1150 Adventure with 15,000 miles on the clock - less than 10% of my old bike's mileage...
I agreed a price with Ryan (ecnirpr), collected the bike on 13th December...
...and got it home.
I had done a lot of thinking about what to do with the bike before even starting to look for one and had come to the conclusion that I wanted to replicate my previous bike as closely as possible. I had spent 10 years and a lot of trial and error getting it to where I wanted it, so I was happy I knew what needed to be done.
The new bike was nicely equipped and in immaculate condition. I didn't need most of the accessories, though, so I began a long process of 'asset-stripping' in order to finance buying the replacement parts I wanted.
My original bike...
...had been extensively modified - and I was aware that a lot of the equipment I'd want to fit to the new one was no longer available new - and more of it was very difficult to source in this country.
I had a couple of really good strokes of luck - Jon (UKGSer) bowled me over by donating a kit to convert the rear end of the bike to a standard two-seat GS rear end - thanks again Jon
I managed to find a full set of Jesse Panniers, tailpack and top box from just up the road in Norwich (thanks Gadget). They were fitted to an R100GSPD, but the bags were identical. Sourcing the mounts became a problem as Jesse Luggage only makes them in batches every few years and there were none in stock. Thankfully, I stayed with Al Jesse when I was last in Arizona and I was able to get him to find me a set on the 'old pal's act'...
I also managed to find a pair of Bill Mayer seats in the USA. Jorge Carbó, my long-suffering "Adventure Butler", kindly agreed to become a clearinghouse for all the stuff I managed to accumulate in the continental US.
Altogether the bits I sourced were (this is not an exhaustive list):
Ricky bars & mounts (USA)
Top of The Line Headlamp Guard (Australia)
HID Dipped & Fast Rise Time HID Main Beam (UK)
New MRA screen
Bill Mayer seats (sourced in USA, recovered in leather and fitted with seat heaters in Norwich)
Steptoe head guards (used)
Boxer Design side panels (new)
Fastway footpegs (USA)
Verhoelen footpeg lowering kit (used UK)
Beemer Boneyard chromed brass fuel QDs (new - USA)
Used Brembo front callipers (USA)
New front discs & pads
Used Kisan signal minder (USA)
Remanufactured fibreglass cockpit trim (UK)
Acerbis handguards (new - UK)
Acerbis handguard spoilers (USA new - ridiculous price)
Front Ohlins (new USA) - the bike came with a rear Ohlins fitted
Hepco & Becker Crashbars (used)
B&M Mirrors (as-new UK)
LED spots & fogs (new Hong Kong)
LED indicators and stop/tail light (new UK)
Tyre pressure monitor (new UK)
Compass (new USA)
Thermometer (new USA)
Touratech GPS Mount (used UK)
Throttle lock thing (new UK)
I removed the Servo and fitted a replacement rear brake hose - I also replaced the handgrips, as they were damaged (some over-enthusiastic tying down some time in the past, I should think).
I was lucky to source an entire Adventure gearbox and the innards of a standard GS gearbox from a breaker on eBay and had them shipped to Steve Scriminger at Sleaford, who assembled me a custom gearbox with the low 'Enduro' 1st gear from the Adv gearbox, and the high 'Overdrive' 6th gear from the standard GS - a gearbox option not available from BMW. I then rode the bike over to Steve, who fitted the gearbox and replaced the clutch slave cylinder, which was knackered. The clutch showed no appreciable wear (as expected on a low mileage bike) and was therefore not replaced.
Weather forced me to collect the bike by trailer and I then started work.
The paintwork was so good on the bike that I agonised over whether to spray it or not. Eventually my inner tart won and I got everything sprayed in Audi Onyx White (or some such daft name) - I also got Aerocoat to powdercoat everything that wasn't painted...
I got the headers ceramic coated by Camcoat.
Like most people, I had added electrical accessories piecemeal to my old bike and the auxiliary electrics reflected this fact - they looked like a dog's breakfast. Since I was doing this upgrade in one go, I decided to make the aux circuits as hardy as possible and as neat as possible. With a great deal of help and advice from Ian Hartley (who took his bike apart a couple of times to answer questions for me
), I decided to put a second bank of fuses in the fuse box...
...and mount all my relays in a pair of relay boxes mounted where the Servo had once lived...
There are several spare cicuits and two spare relay holders - effectively 'future-proofing' in case I decide to fit some other gizmo at sometime...
The wait for the bracket the relay boxes are bolted to probably delayed the job by about five weeks. To be honest, the weather has been so poor this year that it is only recently that this became irksome.
I replaced the LH stick coil to overcome slight rough running and last weekend spent Saturday and Sunday finishing up details.
Happily, I managed to keep the project within budget (ie sponsored by the proceeds of parts I asset-stripped from the bike).
Today, Chad (UKGSer) - the metal bender form Rugged Roads Accessories - delivered a pair of light brackets allowing me to fit the lower spotlights to the original BMW light mounts and - quite suddenly - the project was finished...
Just one final touch, courtesy of Humvee Graphics...
Now - where was I?
...that Aviva Insurance agreed a payout and I went looking for a new bike. I soon found what I was looking for...
A 2003 twinspark 1150 Adventure with 15,000 miles on the clock - less than 10% of my old bike's mileage...
I agreed a price with Ryan (ecnirpr), collected the bike on 13th December...
...and got it home.
I had done a lot of thinking about what to do with the bike before even starting to look for one and had come to the conclusion that I wanted to replicate my previous bike as closely as possible. I had spent 10 years and a lot of trial and error getting it to where I wanted it, so I was happy I knew what needed to be done.
The new bike was nicely equipped and in immaculate condition. I didn't need most of the accessories, though, so I began a long process of 'asset-stripping' in order to finance buying the replacement parts I wanted.
My original bike...
...had been extensively modified - and I was aware that a lot of the equipment I'd want to fit to the new one was no longer available new - and more of it was very difficult to source in this country.
I had a couple of really good strokes of luck - Jon (UKGSer) bowled me over by donating a kit to convert the rear end of the bike to a standard two-seat GS rear end - thanks again Jon
I managed to find a full set of Jesse Panniers, tailpack and top box from just up the road in Norwich (thanks Gadget). They were fitted to an R100GSPD, but the bags were identical. Sourcing the mounts became a problem as Jesse Luggage only makes them in batches every few years and there were none in stock. Thankfully, I stayed with Al Jesse when I was last in Arizona and I was able to get him to find me a set on the 'old pal's act'...
I also managed to find a pair of Bill Mayer seats in the USA. Jorge Carbó, my long-suffering "Adventure Butler", kindly agreed to become a clearinghouse for all the stuff I managed to accumulate in the continental US.
Altogether the bits I sourced were (this is not an exhaustive list):
Ricky bars & mounts (USA)
Top of The Line Headlamp Guard (Australia)
HID Dipped & Fast Rise Time HID Main Beam (UK)
New MRA screen
Bill Mayer seats (sourced in USA, recovered in leather and fitted with seat heaters in Norwich)
Steptoe head guards (used)
Boxer Design side panels (new)
Fastway footpegs (USA)
Verhoelen footpeg lowering kit (used UK)
Beemer Boneyard chromed brass fuel QDs (new - USA)
Used Brembo front callipers (USA)
New front discs & pads
Used Kisan signal minder (USA)
Remanufactured fibreglass cockpit trim (UK)
Acerbis handguards (new - UK)
Acerbis handguard spoilers (USA new - ridiculous price
)
Front Ohlins (new USA) - the bike came with a rear Ohlins fitted
Hepco & Becker Crashbars (used)
B&M Mirrors (as-new UK)
LED spots & fogs (new Hong Kong)
LED indicators and stop/tail light (new UK)
Tyre pressure monitor (new UK)
Compass (new USA)
Thermometer (new USA)
Touratech GPS Mount (used UK)
Throttle lock thing (new UK)
I removed the Servo and fitted a replacement rear brake hose - I also replaced the handgrips, as they were damaged (some over-enthusiastic tying down some time in the past, I should think).
I was lucky to source an entire Adventure gearbox and the innards of a standard GS gearbox from a breaker on eBay and had them shipped to Steve Scriminger at Sleaford, who assembled me a custom gearbox with the low 'Enduro' 1st gear from the Adv gearbox, and the high 'Overdrive' 6th gear from the standard GS - a gearbox option not available from BMW. I then rode the bike over to Steve, who fitted the gearbox and replaced the clutch slave cylinder, which was knackered. The clutch showed no appreciable wear (as expected on a low mileage bike) and was therefore not replaced.
Weather forced me to collect the bike by trailer and I then started work.
The paintwork was so good on the bike that I agonised over whether to spray it or not. Eventually my inner tart won and I got everything sprayed in Audi Onyx White (or some such daft name) - I also got Aerocoat to powdercoat everything that wasn't painted...
I got the headers ceramic coated by Camcoat.
Like most people, I had added electrical accessories piecemeal to my old bike and the auxiliary electrics reflected this fact - they looked like a dog's breakfast. Since I was doing this upgrade in one go, I decided to make the aux circuits as hardy as possible and as neat as possible. With a great deal of help and advice from Ian Hartley (who took his bike apart a couple of times to answer questions for me
), I decided to put a second bank of fuses in the fuse box...
...and mount all my relays in a pair of relay boxes mounted where the Servo had once lived...
There are several spare cicuits and two spare relay holders - effectively 'future-proofing' in case I decide to fit some other gizmo at sometime...
The wait for the bracket the relay boxes are bolted to probably delayed the job by about five weeks. To be honest, the weather has been so poor this year that it is only recently that this became irksome.
I replaced the LH stick coil to overcome slight rough running and last weekend spent Saturday and Sunday finishing up details.
Happily, I managed to keep the project within budget (ie sponsored by the proceeds of parts I asset-stripped from the bike).
Today, Chad (UKGSer) - the metal bender form Rugged Roads Accessories - delivered a pair of light brackets allowing me to fit the lower spotlights to the original BMW light mounts and - quite suddenly - the project was finished...
Just one final touch, courtesy of Humvee Graphics...
Now - where was I?
Can't keep a good man down for long
but your taste is your taste so enjoy 
