Project Katmandu: GS rebuild

[(RIP) maverick]

Pete I am not sure how extreme your ride is going to be to Katmandu but if it is anything like this in Namibia

then you will want to make the bike as light as possible to pick up OR improve you riding so much that you don't fall

My GS with 43 liter tank etc has standard shocks in front and WP in the back. It handled perfectly if gave it enough throttle and ride a bit faster in the loose stuff than I felt comfortable with. Given the tyres I had on was really crap but all I had available last minute besides normal road tyres ( they were off a KLR 650 )

2500 km in 12 days no tar and a mixture of rock/sand/corrugated etc. The bike was pretty good all over with the exception of deep sand which required alot of man handling and in 35+ degrees very tiring

They are mile munchers of epic proportions and given your riding style and experience will get you anywhere regardless

Looking forward to the rebuild

 

[Redboots]

Forks must have cost a fortune?

€110 from Ebay Gerrmany

If you have the time would you mind measuring and letting me know the dimensions of the forks.

Alas, its not my bike. I don't have the exact figures to hand, but I think the forks are shortened by around 80/90mm.
With these forks, the axle is 17mm and BBS utilise a sleeve on the 17mm axle if you want to retain the tubeless rim.

I have shelved the project at the moment because the local French machine shops are complete wankers and incapable of following instructions for making stuff up

I ran my GS to Goa via China and the only serious mods you need are a decent rear shock, a grease nipple'd drive shaft.
Nice to have are the ND starter and a decent alternator/battery.
The rest is TOYS and don't we love 'em!:

John

 

[pete.keys]

Getting the bike home

I picked up the bike yesterday and eagerly applied the jet wash and .... nothing really happened!!

All the aluminium parts are nearly black

I spent a couple of minutes with a scourer on a bit of the front wheel and it started to come up fine. I guess aluminium is good like that!

Ok so now my questions start. I'm going to take the bike apart to get it blasted and powder coated. All the bearing are shot so need replacing. Should I just get everything shot blasted in one go - wheels, paralever , engine ?

The spare forks that came with the bike look good.

The bike appears to have a Fournales air shock

Unfortunately it doesn't hold pressure. Does anyone know about these ? Do i put it in the bin?

It came with a new pump which cost the previous owner £100 so I guess this goes on ebay?

And another question. I have seen this on other frames .. what is the square frame bit that sits behind the grey and yellow relays?

I have seen this on other bikes and it never seams to be used. Should I just cut it off before powder coating the frame?

So its just questions for now and working on the plan. Do I fix up and ride before stripping down or go straight for the strip?

I have set up a web album with all the photos - which will grow as the project moves on.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/111317638752294414681/MyR100GS?authkey=Gv1sRgCOuLm7LGudaRMQ

Not sure if this link works.. let me know if it doesn't

 

[Beemerboff]

If you twin plug it you can fix the second coil there, or if you need a relay for spot lights or air horns the can go there too.

 

[bowser]

You would be a fool to put the shock in the bin they are the dogs dangle bits.

If you contact fournels direct in france by e mail they are very good at replying, All the shocks are completely rebuildable and they dont charge a lot for it, way less than a new shock of any type that is any good.
Get it fixed and you will not go wrong, I have them on both our harleys my brother in law has them on his 1100, and to be honest I wish I had bought them rather than the wilbers.

 

[(RIP) maverick]

Do I fix up and ride before stripping down or go straight for the strip?

Do you need to ride it at the moment as mode of transport? If not rather get the bits sorted and put it back together. You will probably be to tempted to keep on riding it when it does run

Having said that I prefer to know it is a running bike and just needs to be put back together cosmeticly afterwards

Sorry been of no help whatsover

 

[Kenny]

Could be a long thread this !!

Top man

 

[pete.keys]

You would be a fool to put the shock in the bin they are the dogs dangle bits.

If you contact fournels direct in france by e mail they are very good at replying, All the shocks are completely rebuildable and they dont charge a lot for it, way less than a new shock of any type that is any good.
Get it fixed and you will not go wrong, I have them on both our harleys my brother in law has them on his 1100, and to be honest I wish I had bought them rather than the wilbers.

Thanks for your comments - I need to look them up and find out more about them. It worries me though - the thought of it failing thousands of miles away. At least with a spring - if the shock fails you can still ride the bike. With this thing failed the mudguards sits on the rear wheel.

If you are so keen maybe 1 could swap it for your Wilbers

 

[pete.keys]

Do you need to ride it at the moment as mode of transport? If not rather get the bits sorted and put it back together. You will probably be to tempted to keep on riding it when it does run

Having said that I prefer to know it is a running bike and just needs to be put back together cosmeticly afterwards

Sorry been of no help whatsover

No I have a g/s for my daily commute. I'll let g/s go when this one is up and running.

.. offers now please

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

No I have a g/s for my daily commute. I'll let g/s go when this one is up and running.

.. offers now please

a few bob

 

[bowser]

Thanks for your comments - I need to look them up and find out more about them. It worries me though - the thought of it failing thousands of miles away. At least with a spring - if the shock fails you can still ride the bike. With this thing failed the mudguards sits on the rear wheel.

If you are so keen maybe 1 could swap it for your Wilbers

love to only, I have the 1100 and you have the airhead damn!!!

Its really not a problem, they rarley fail, and they can be dismaltled by any decent shop, the seals as I recal are of a common size anyway, so they are fairly rebuildable.
As a matter of interest have you ever tried riding a bike where the damping has gone and you just have a spring ? its not fun, you are going nowhere in a hurry!!!

 

[Kenny]

It worries me though - the thought of it failing thousands of miles away. At least with a spring - if the shock fails you can still ride the bike. With this thing failed the mudguards sits on the rear wheel.

What other owners have done is cut a thick piece of steel ( just over the length of top and bottom shock mounts ) and drill a hole each end the same distance apart at the shock locating bolts...then if it should fail, simply bolt on the length of metal and you have a hardtail to at least get you somewhere for repair etc

 

[pete.keys]

What other owners have done is cut a thick piece of steel ( just over the length of top and bottom shock mounts ) and drill a hole each end the same distance apart at the shock locating bolts...then if it should fail, simply bolt on the length of metal and you have a hardtail to at least get you somewhere for repair etc

That's a great idea - I'll put this on my kit list for the expedition !

 

[Benjamin M]

What other owners have done is cut a thick piece of steel ( just over the length of top and bottom shock mounts ) and drill a hole each end the same distance apart at the shock locating bolts...then if it should fail, simply bolt on the length of metal and you have a hardtail to at least get you somewhere for repair etc

Which I guess is fine if you don't need to accelerate

 

[peepingtom]

That's a great idea - I'll put this on my kit list for the expedition !

may be use a heavy duty tyre lever ? drill bolt holes in it and bolt it between your pannier racks to give them support
3 jobs in 1

interesting thread

 

[ChasF]

I ran my GS to Goa via China and the only serious mods you need are a decent rear shock, a grease nipple'd drive shaft.
Nice to have are the ND starter and a decent alternator/battery.

John

I'm inclined to agree. For our trip to Cape Town the only serious mod to the bike was the WP shock. The drive shaft failed in northern France on the way back but the alternator packed up in Namibia.

Don't remove the oil cooler. I did on the advice of the bloke who owned Bracken and I think it contributed to some other engine faults we had - mainly leaking cylinder/crankshaft joint due to threads stripping.

A lot of modern forks/yokes have a much smaller offset resulting in a very limited amount of steering before the forks hit the tank as well as significantly larger trail which changes the handling. Also it would be easier to modify your mono to suit longer forks - 43ltr tank fits??

 

[pete.keys]

may be use a heavy duty tyre lever ? drill bolt holes in it and bolt it between your pannier racks to give them support
3 jobs in 1

The idea got even better thanks!!

 

[pete.keys]

17 Sept - progress mainly in planning & acquisition

Still mulling over whether to try and ride the bike as is. The airshock seams to be holding up after initially loosing air quickly.

I took the front brake off .. are the pads and pins meant to look like this:

The pistons might free out but if I can't get them to work then I'll go straight for the strip and rebuild and not waste time getting it on the road as is.

I have a mate with a machine shop who came over today. Reckons he can make all the parts I need.

So what am I after:

• G/S subframe
• monolever
• 32/10 3 hole bevel drive
• or 33/11 4 hole bevel drive
• G/S shock
• G/S seat - dual or single or both

Visited A and C shotblasting in Newbury. £80 to blast and cost the frame in any colour (provided in stock) - sounds like a bargain to me!
£10 to blast any other component like wheel, engine etc

Need advice on this: do I shotblast engine or is this going to cause problems with grit getting every where. I was planning to do it in one bit before taking it appart to prevent grit ingress.

 

[pete.keys]

Progress: nervously called Richard Moorespeed

Called Richard Moorespeed today about doing engine work and his +10% top gear replacement.

I was nervous about it as i thought I'd go in with a figure in mind and he'd blow it out of the water. I was surprised to hear him tell me I didn't need to do many of the mods I mentioned. So this is the upshot from our conversation.

+10% gears are really expensive as its 3 gears. - +5% more realistically priced.

Engine - he said just to go for the high compression pistons and some head work and not to go further than that unless I wanted a racing engine. I asked about dual plugging and he said that his design of high compression pistons make dual plugging unnecessary.. so that'll save some money.

An interesting aside. My G/S engine has 1000cc, 800cc head (gas-flowed) and 32mm carbs and dual plugged. I have tried the engine with dual plugging switched on and off. On is much much better. engine pulls harder and runs smoother.

Oh and another thing: Richard said that his high comp pistons wouldn't be suitable for poor quality fuel so if i put them in I'll have to do something different for the Katmandu trip. he said he could skim the crown a bit to make them more suitable, but i want to use the bike on the road and want it as good as possible for that. Figured I might just slip my existing pistons back in for Katmandu. hey ho

That brings me on to cam. Brian reckons the standard 308 cam is great for anything other than racing - so didn't even try and sell me another!

Anyway going up to see him next week to discuss further. Although I could just swap engines with my g/s .. would that be bad?

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Need advice on this: Do I shotblast engine or is this going to cause problems with grit getting every where. I was planning to do it in one bit before taking it appart to prevent grit ingress.

Engine....................bead (risky) or vapour blasting on the engine cases would be preferable