This project was inspired by a GS airhead owned by Tetley of this parish, which was originally built by Mikeyboy albeit in a different colour scheme. I saw a photo of it on the forum and thought it looked great. That little event coincided with Mikey advertising that he had a spare engine and gearbox awaiting rebuild at an attractive price and the rest is history…….
A deal was done with Mikey he got stared on the engine and gearbox while I went searching for a frame and suspension etc. A siebenrock 1000cc kit was procured, with Mikey machining bigger squish bands in the heads to suit. A low 1st and high 5th gear were also sourced for the gearbox.
A late night alcohol infused eBay session saw a frame being ordered from James Sherlock. This turned out to be the wrong one though (twinshock), but Sherlock very kindly accepted it back and another frame was sourced from Motorworks (the moral of this story kids is don’t press buy now when you’re pissed). The correct frame was sent to Mikey who had it braced a la SWT and powder coated in santorini blue.
Meantime I found a pair of almost new KTM 690 forks in the states at a bargain price and was able to bring them home as hand luggage on the back of a business trip to the states. A rear shock was also commissioned from Wilbers and I was able to collect that from their factory and bring it home on the back of the 1150GS at the end of a bike trip to the Harz mountains.
Next on the list was a pair of wheels. I bought a brand new ktm690 hub for the front and a used 4 bolt paralever hub for the rear, luckily with hardly any wear on it. These were sent to Doug Richardson who laced them to a 21” front and an 18” rear with heavy duty stainless spokes. Doug did an excellent job and was brilliant to deal with.
Mikey meantime dug out a decent paralever swingarm, bevel box and drive shaft, all of which he refurbished.
While this was ongoing Roy Martin at BilletBikeBits made me a set of yokes to fit the KTM front end to the GS frame. Roy was brilliant to deal with as well and made a cracking job of them
Photo’s to follow. This one is Tetley’s bike which inspired the project in the first place
A deal was done with Mikey he got stared on the engine and gearbox while I went searching for a frame and suspension etc. A siebenrock 1000cc kit was procured, with Mikey machining bigger squish bands in the heads to suit. A low 1st and high 5th gear were also sourced for the gearbox.
A late night alcohol infused eBay session saw a frame being ordered from James Sherlock. This turned out to be the wrong one though (twinshock), but Sherlock very kindly accepted it back and another frame was sourced from Motorworks (the moral of this story kids is don’t press buy now when you’re pissed). The correct frame was sent to Mikey who had it braced a la SWT and powder coated in santorini blue.
Meantime I found a pair of almost new KTM 690 forks in the states at a bargain price and was able to bring them home as hand luggage on the back of a business trip to the states. A rear shock was also commissioned from Wilbers and I was able to collect that from their factory and bring it home on the back of the 1150GS at the end of a bike trip to the Harz mountains.
Next on the list was a pair of wheels. I bought a brand new ktm690 hub for the front and a used 4 bolt paralever hub for the rear, luckily with hardly any wear on it. These were sent to Doug Richardson who laced them to a 21” front and an 18” rear with heavy duty stainless spokes. Doug did an excellent job and was brilliant to deal with.
Mikey meantime dug out a decent paralever swingarm, bevel box and drive shaft, all of which he refurbished.
While this was ongoing Roy Martin at BilletBikeBits made me a set of yokes to fit the KTM front end to the GS frame. Roy was brilliant to deal with as well and made a cracking job of them
Photo’s to follow. This one is Tetley’s bike which inspired the project in the first place
