Paul Rochdale
Registered user
For a while now I've been adding bits and bobs onto Dogbyte's thread but as things are changing as I speak, I think it's about time I started my own one. Let me tell you about my bike. She's a 1989 R100GS-Paris Dakar that spent the first four years of her life in Germany and was registered here in the UK in August 1993. I bought her in December 2004 as a running bike for a mere £1000 from a previous owner in Bury St.Edmunds.
At the time I was riding a Pan European and could foresee the day when the Pan would be too heavy for me. I'd also been riding my R100/7 for about ten years. I was particularly pleased to get the PD as I had dreams of a possible RTW bike and this would be ideal. Enough performance for me, good load carrying, soft suspension and cheap! I soon sold the plastic BMW panniers and bought some Touratech 'Zegas' in eBay as well as some stiffer Touratech panniers frames. The engine went well but did leak a fair bit of oil so I decided to take her off the road and when time and money permitted, restore her. I wanted a strong, leakproof and reliable bike.
Whizz forward to 2013 and I decided that sadly the Pan had to go as her bulk had become too much for me. I have found a buyer and she will be collected in a few weeks. This mean't no bike so should I rebuild the R100/7 or the PD? Well it was the PD.
The Plan. Well I pretty like like the bike as she was so I had no intentions of making any drastic changes. The frame was rusty, oily and grotty so I read with interest Pete Key's and Dogbyte's threads and made copies of their HPN-style frame stiffening fillets. These are now welded in place - I wanted them to be bronze welded but could I find anyone local to me prepared to do that? - anyway £60 later and the frame is a little stronger.
2-pack or powder coating? Well after a bit of research it would be powder coating but few powder coaters local to me (Kent) would zince primer the frame between blasting and coating, and then I discovered Cray Metal Finishers in Dartford. Not only could I hav a light silver, a colour I preferred, but I could choose from dozens of shades. They did it in Omega Silver 22 and for £85 I got the frame, rear subframe, centre stand, rack and forward fairing strut done in a fortnight. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Slowly the bike is coming together and I am presently working on the standard Marzocchi forks. I painted the sliders this morning in etch primer, primer, Silver Wheels and lacquer, and very neat they look. More to follow.
Extra stuffening with 1" square section tube welded under the headstock. This won't interfere with the fitting of the tank.
I made these fillets from 1.6mm, 4mm and 1" square section tube.
I bought this 'Alpos' alloy topbox on eBay for £45. Cheap compared to Touratech but not so well made and the alloy is pretty thin. In fact all of the mounting holes across the base had large splits. I've since strengthened the base by using Sikaflex adhesive to glue on a shaped piece of 2.5mm aircraft quality alloy sheet.