R80 restyle project

[SeanW]

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=678840&highlight=R100GS

And pay attention to all the guys that have the high exhaust , and burnt themselves..

...oooh, hadn't seen that. Lots to look at!

yeah, non dangerous exhaust is going to be a challenge, but the high level look is a must have for me, unfortunately

I think there may be room to route the pipe under the seat then out the other side maybe if I copy the Richie Moore type airbox layout. though it will require the battery moving or maybe swopping for something more compact

 

[Beemerboff]

Had a look at the airhead scramblers ADV thread - amazing how many of the bikes still had the flat plate top triple clamp and no fork brace.

In my experience if you actually ride at any pace OFF ROAD the flat plate simply isn't up to the job. It flexes and twists and will unscrew the top nut no matter how tight it is.
And without a decent lower brace you can see the 36 mm forks flexing and twisting over the slightest bumps.
If you actually intend riding on the rough a billet top triple and a tubular lower brace would be the first things I would fit, followed by a Ohlins rear shock, matching fork springs and decent suspension fluid in the forks.
From that point on everything else is fashion / cosmetics / style, but it is nice to start from a point where the bike is actually capable of doing the job the style suggests it is designed to do.

 

[the civil one]

amazing how many of the bikes still had the flat plate top triple clamp and no fork brace
.

Beemer Boff , I reckon its a style thing , very few of those actually go off
road . If any . If you follow the thread through , the mudguard types
in use , not to mention the tyres are just wrong for a trail machine.

But they do Look Good !..

 

[SeanW]

interesting thoughts, but this is primarily and unashamedly a restyle rather than an attempt at a proper off road bike.

Saying that, it will be a load lighter than a standard 80/7 and I think it'll be fine for some gentle pottering on trails; I think of it as the perfect Isle of Man bike - able to negotiate the secret trails and tracks that allow you to access secret viewing points and to get around the island even when the roads are closed, mid-race. But also still practical enough to get you over there in comfort with a tent and bit of luggage. And hopefully different enough to attract a few admiring glances parked up on the prom

I just skimmed that whole ADV thread too and was dismayed to find the couple of "original" ideas I thought I'd had for my bike were nothing of the sort. Oh well...

I also couldn't find a comment from anyone who had actually burned their leg on a high exhaust - just a lot of repeated "it looks like you might burn your leg" comments from some superior sounding n*be*d who clearly didn't belong on the thread or have any actual experience of a high exhaust....

 

[the civil one]

I also couldn't find a comment from anyone who had actually burned their leg on a high exhaust - just a lot of repeated "it looks like you might burn your leg" comments from some superior sounding n*be*d who clearly didn't belong on the thread or have any actual experience of a high exhaust....

Just laying about these days , recovering from an op , so have wayyyy to much time on my hands , i have read the full 58 pages ! sad eh ?..
believe me its there , the guy in question even went as far as to say he
he had to remove the Handle he fitted to help him put the bike on the center stand , in off road conditions .sure isnt it obvious ? . But i have to say your pipe work is
beautiful , it has a lovely curvature to it , i like it . where did you get it fabbed , Pipey ?.
BUT do you like it enough to Possibly suffer for it. Thats the only one that
matters in this equation.

 

[SeanW]

Just laying about these days , recovering from an op , so have wayyyy to much time on my hands , i have read the full 58 pages ! sad eh ?..
believe me its there , the guy in question even went as far as to say he
he had to remove the Handle he fitted to help him put the bike on the center stand , in off road conditions .sure isnt it obvious ? . But i have to say your pipe work is
beautiful , it has a lovely curvature to it , i like it . where did you get it fabbed , Pipey ?.
BUT do you like it enough to Possibly suffer for it. Thats the only one that
matters in this equation.

- yes, that's the same guy I'm referring to. I read the bit about removing the lifting handle, but couldn't see anything where he actually said "I have ridden a BMW airhead with a high pipe and repeatedly burned my leg on it" - still I may have missed it in my skimming of the 58 pages.

Anyway, to answer your question, I bought a load of "mandrel bend" pre-curved stainless sections from Demon Tweeks (90-degree, 180 or just straight). Some will require more careful cutting than others before they're welded up. They even make a pre made Y-piece. So all I've needed to do so far is make some formers to grip the tube in my vice without squashing it, then get busy with hacksaw and file. Not much harder than Meccano really. Most of the header parts are now currrently with a workmate who's going to weld them up this week with a bit of luck.

Will post a pic when that's done. Have also fitted wirespoke wheels with TKC80s now...

Final bits of prep will include welding some custom-made (by me) footrest brackets to the frame to accept some beartrap pegs, and making sure the gearchange and rear brake will work with those.

Stuff still up in air:

What to do with instrumentation, or more sepcifically, idiot lights. Make a custom plate to mount them and a classic repro speedo, probably.

Rerouting / replacing right hand fuel tap and hose so it's as far away from exhaust as possible. Ditto right side HT lead.

front brake lines might need a bit of rerouting too, though I think it would be better for a number of reasons to replace the undertank m/c with a bar mounted one. Does anyone know a good/cheap solution to this? Ie which bar mounted m/c to use, where to split the lines etc? I'm keeping the ATE calipers for now...

 

[SeanW]

Am making a bit more headway on the Skrambler project...

Some welding done on pipes - left header still held together with tape at top at this stage.

It would be easy to take the rear pipe under the seat (pic one), which would probably be best for the health and safety of my calves but would need also need to swap to some kind of very small battery to make this work

Will probably just stick to the plan of having it exit on the right and keep it as close to the frame as poss, and adding a heat guard. Silencer options still up in air, only limitation is it will need to fit the 2in rear pipe. Looking at repackable car racing silencers among others

Have also made brackets to take folding beartrap footpegs, modified an RT brake pedal to match the higher and more rear peg positions, and made a plate to mount the gear pedal directly to the frame. Will need one of those rose jointed linkages if anyone has one to flog?

Have also invested in a bar master cylinder, in the hope this might squeeze a bit more performance/feel from the Ate calipers.

A bit more welding work to be done on the stuff mentioned above and I think we should be quite close to pulling it apart for cleaning, powder coating etc

 

[SeanW]

Dry build complete-ish

Pretty much done now with fabrication, welding, and figuring out what parts will go where.

Front part of exhaust is complete (rear part/silencer TBC), footrests and controls are sorted out. Sitting on it, the exhaust has plenty of clearance from your leg, though I'll add a heat guard when I've worked out what silencer I'm using.

I've started creating a single clock pod by cutting the rev counter section off and rotating the remaining part through 90 degrees (also needed the mount cutting /rotating and an extra section welding in

I'll make up a new face for the speedo so it reads normally (not much can be done about the mileometer) and am making an aluminium plate to slip over the top of the pod, with holes drilled for the idiot lights. Think it could look quite tidy in the end, and best of all it needs minimal buggering about with the wiring.

Next will pull it all apart for cleaning, painting etc, plus get a few bits sorted on the engine, like new exhaust seats/valves.

Feel it could probably do with marginally longer shocks - if anyone has any ideas/recommendations / bits they want to sell, let me know.

 

[SeanW]

heres a slightly better pic of it before I started stripping it back down again (manky bits now out for powder coating or vapour blasting)

forks have been a bit of mare. there's a large rubber washer on the damper rod that was badly deformed on one leg and split on the other, and one of the stanchions turned out to have a big piece of missing chrome plate, so have had to remove the damper rods from the stanchions, which had hoped to avoid.

removing the threaded plugs that keep the rods in place was a mess and each of the 4 plugs is junk now. and they're 12 friggin 50 each.

still have a few bits and bobs of fabrication to do around the foot controls, speedo and silencer end of the exhaust, but overall am pretty happy that the look is what I was aiming for...

 

[degsey]

Looks good

 

[SeanW]

forks have been a bit of mare. there's a large rubber washer on the damper rod that was badly deformed on one leg and split on the other, and one of the stanchions turned out to have a big piece of missing chrome plate, so have had to remove the damper rods from the stanchions, which had hoped to avoid.

removing the threaded plugs that keep the rods in place was a mess and each of the 4 plugs is junk now. and they're 12 friggin 50 each.

...also the 4 bolts that hold the brace to the sliders were completely corroded in place - so unmovable I broke a vice jaw trying to get them to rotate.

Am getting them drilled out by engineering shop...

 

[Fluffmeister]

Really liking the look of this, keep posting the updates, it's an interesting read

 

[Bugbear]

Nice work but that exhaust is going to get you at some point and it will really hurt

 

[SeanW]

oh, just remembered something else on the pigging forks....

it;s missing the little breather pipes that go thru the bottom yoke on either side which also act as locating lugs for both the indicators and the gaiters (all the indicator wires were showing bare wire due to friction with the moving mounts).

neither motorworks nor motobins list these parts on their sites (will check on phone though) but wondered if both do come up negative if anyone has any spare ones or knows a simple way to make some

ie a bit of standard size plastic tubing might do the job? if not could probably just make them out of some aluminium or plastic rod on me mate's lathe...

 

[SeanW]

Nice work but that exhaust is going to get you at some point and it will really hurt

I really think it won't, by the time I've tucked it in and fitted a decent sized heat shield.

But if it does end a health hazard, I might move the battery under gearbox a la degsy's bobber, and then route the pipe under the seat and out the left sidepanel instead... also becomes cold weather arse-warmer!

I already have some experience of burned calves, by the way...

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=308450

 

[degsey]

oh, just remembered something else on the pigging forks....

it;s missing the little breather pipes that go thru the bottom yoke on either side which also act as locating lugs for both the indicators and the gaiters (all the indicator wires were showing bare wire due to friction with the moving mounts).

neither motorworks nor motobins list these parts on their sites (will check on phone though) but wondered if both do come up negative if anyone has any spare ones or knows a simple way to make some

ie a bit of standard size plastic tubing might do the job? if not could probably just make them out of some aluminium or plastic rod on me mate's lathe...

What exactly are you after

 

[Devon]

Your bike is starting to look seriously cool Sean

I envy the skills of people like You, Rob and some of the others who make these specials

 

[SeanW]

Your bike is starting to look seriously cool Sean

I envy the skills of people like You, Rob and some of the others who make these specials

Thanks chief.

You should have a go yourself - it's really not that hard. You don't need Rob's skills and experience to make a half-decent go of it.

Beyond regular maintenance tools, the only things I've had to use for this one are hacksaw, files, electric drill and grinder. I've just bought odd bits of metal stock off ebay as I needed them.

It helps to have a mate with a lathe (and who can also weld). But otherwise I'd just have done what I did for the blasting, coating and drilling out of seized stuff - wandered round various Corby industrial estates until I found a light engineering/ welding businesses who'd do the trickier stuff for me for beer money. It's amazing when you knock on doors of these places, how many turn of the guys turn out to be into bikes...

 

[Rob Farmer]

oh, just remembered something else on the pigging forks....

it;s missing the little breather pipes that go thru the bottom yoke on either side which also act as locating lugs for both the indicators and the gaiters (all the indicator wires were showing bare wire due to friction with the moving mounts).

They're just roll pins Shaun. You can but 230 for less than a fiver at Screwfix. I'm sure you'll find a couple to fit in that lot http://www.screwfix.com/p/metric-roll-pins-pack-of-230/98042#

Nice Job with the bike. It looks good as it is.

 

[Rob Farmer]

You should have a go yourself - it's really not that hard.

+1

The Airheads are a pleasure to work on, loads of bits from different models and years are interchangeable and you don't need that many tools. They're also well made and forgiving to mechanics.