Airhead Rally Project

Hi All,

After posting a few pics of the bike on the Mono Register page, a few guys asked for a build report and some details so here we go.....

All started when earlier this year a good friend of mine in Belgium, Wilfred VanBalen, persuaded me to enter the Rallye des Jojo in France. This is a 'Historic Rallye' for cars and bikes held entirely in France and open to vehicles pre-94.
It is in effect a 'mini Dakar' and encourages the owners of the old classic rally cars and bikes to get out and have a go!

http://www.rallyeraidjojodelhistoire.com/

It is billed as not a speed event and this has allowed them to get use of over 1500km of off-road tracks across France, much of which is not normally open to public vehicle use. The rally starts in Paris, under the Eifel Tower, and ends six days later in the dunes near the eastern Spanish border.

One thing I had been thinking about for some years was the subject of an off-road airhead and this was the opportunity to scratch that itch!

First thing to do was find a bike!

Good old ebay, and this was secured!

Project

The strip-down of the bike started with the liberal use of an impact wrench and a large bin for most of the rusty bits removed!

As you will see later, it was the plan to build the lightest-weight and best suspension'd bike I could ( within reason ! ) and also to make something that was fairly unique.

I had already resigned myself to emptying the piggy bank and spending plenty but little did I know....

Here is the bike being stripped. It is an '89 R100GS, a US import that has seen a fair bit of use, I'm sure someone out there on the site will recognise it!

The main thing I was looking for was a complete bike with a sound engine block ( not too many leaks! ), good frame and a tank in good condition. most of the other stuff was to be ditched.

Project

The next stage, once the bike was completely in bits and stripped was to start with a shopping list for the basics.

I already had ideas as for the major items such as drivetrain and suspension etc but the list of small items that I would be replacing was huge!

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time ( and money! ) talking to the guys at Motorworks and Moto-Bins!

Plenty of telephone time with Wilfred in Belguim and with Richie Moore also took place. Wilfred is a real boxer enthusiast and a very good engineer, with loads of airhead off-road specials to his name ( Gary H has had a few I believe! ). Richie M was the guy to speak to regarding the motor mods.

The bead-blaster got plenty of use in the workshop and before too long I had a clean engine and heads to start working on.

Electronic ignition, Enduralast brushless alternator and the Motoren Israel one-piece rockers are evident!

The crank had been re-ground, I think fairly recently judging by its condition, and needed no further work ( although with hindsight I would have got it balanced.. ).

Siebenrock asymmetric cam and new chain and tensioner fitted, along with new oil pressure reg and cam bearing. Crank bearings fine and left as is.

................ keep it coming

Project

The postman now started delivering parcels of goodies:

Siebenrock sent me a complete Big-Bore kit with new barrels, lovely lightweight rods and those skinny pistons! Mmmm.... Airhead Porn!
They also supplied the 'Enduro' valve covers and a complete exhaust system.

Head porting and big valves with new seats and guides courtesy of Richie Moore. Nice job!

Stainless subframe and suede seat from Gletter in Germany. Great kit but not cheap! They also supplied the triple-clamps to fit the WP forks whilst keeping the frame geometry sound and steering lock unaffected.

Pic also of the Triple clamps and the forks - WP closed cartridge forks, sprung and valved to HP2 specs, as this was probably the closest spec.

Next was the lovely cast mono-arm made for me by TAG in Italy. This was one of the first things on my wish-list and I am really glad I put the cash aside for this part. Moorespeed supplied me with the 100mm extended shaft for this with a new heavy duty UJ.

The frame was welded and reinforced to the 'usual' HPN specs by a mate ( Thanks again Timpo! ) and blasted and painted to my choice of colour.

oh man alive that looks smart

I'm drooling already

Don't stop now we need more

Enjoying this. Keep it up

Project

With the heads back from Moorespeed it was time to finish the engine build. A new ND starter was fitted, the heads torqued-down and the valve-gear set-up.

The two-piece valve covers with their alloy clamp were the last items to fit.
I like the black finish on the covers, hope they stay nice and shiny!

The frame was set up on the work ramp and the main stand fitted. The stands ( main and side ) were supplied by BMW Boxer Supplies in Holland http://bmwboxersupplies.com/ as were the heavy duty engine bars. They supply stands extended to allow longer suspension. I still had to add 30 mm to the main stand however! All these in polishes stainless to match the subframe.

The triple-clamps and forks also fitted. The front wheel and the brake caliper/rotor are KTM 690 RR parts.

The next pic shows the engine and swing-arm fitted with the wheels on - starting to look like a bike!!

It took a lot of swearing to get the engine into the frame without taking that nice paint off the frame!

Next was the gearbox. I purchased a recon unit from Motorworks and when I was in Holland earlier in the year I called in at BMW Boxer supplies and they fitted lower first and higher top gears - while I waited! These are really nice guys and supplied coffee and chat whilst the gearbox guru got to work. Only took him about an hour!

This pic also shows the SWT pegs - lower and rear-set, the bling Siebenrock shifter, the engine bars ( you can see the forward mount of the sidestand ) and last but not least the lovely Keihin FCR39's - none of that old Bing stuff for me! I really like the FCR's on my other dirt bikes so I bit the bullet and shelled out for the most expensive bit of kit on the bike!

The last pic shows the bike almost ready - but I can assure you that it took many months to get from a rolling chassis to here.

I also added a bit of 'Corporate Branding' to the bike - why not, i'm bloody proud of this thing!

I would say at this point the most time consuming job is the finishing details - getting the wiring fitted neatly, the cables routed, the new instruments grafted into the loom etc. Time here though is well spent. You have to resist rushing to get the thing fired-up!

The devil is indeed in the detail!

This isnt just Porn its M&S Porn !

That is so fecking gorgeous i think ive soiled my pants !

Project

One of the requirements of the Rallye was the roadbook so I made the decision early on to incorporate the RB and ICO trip into the bike.

I used a Trailtech headlight but needed to be road-legal so fitted a PIAA rally light with a H4 main/dip bulb. The screen is a Puig item and the RB assembly is from Rally-Raid.

Speedo is a Koso unit and has more 'functions' than you can shake a stick at including cylinder head and oil temps.

Handlebars are Magura HP2 bend and controls/switchgear standard BMW with the controls/brackets bead-blasted back to alloy and lacquered. I have uses Ram mount balls on the mirror locations for the GPS and 'double-take' mirror. When on the continent, I switch these over to the opposite sides.

'Barkbusters' do the job of keeping my mitts intact.

Plastics are UFO items, from their 'vintage' range.

.... like them carbs

and the seat, and the mono, and the fact that you've got steering lock

makes me want to clean mine up....

pictures of the headlight please


you beat me to it (on the headlight)

Stunning

More pictures please! but, so far, that has to be one of the nicest (most functional) airheads I've seen.................and as for those FCRs, I've not seen them on an airhead before

Andres

RickA - or Ricky Bling as he should be known as - proof that someone shouldn't be judged by post count!

Awesome looking bike Rick - looking forward to the ride report from the rally!

Project

Thanks for the guys!

Yes, one of the aims of the project was to make something unique.

This bike is a keeper - there is just too much of me invested in this to ever part with it.

Before I post anymore pics, I bet some of you are wondering how she runs?

Well, as you can imagine, with so many new untried 'systems' on the bike, such as high-performance engine build, hot cam, FCR,s, new ignition, new charging system, new wiring, new instruments etc. etc. etc., my heart was in my mouth when I first pressed the button.

She ran!

I turned it off quickly and scooted around the bike looking for oil pissing out and other signs of disaster - none to me found!

Fired her up again and gently warmed it up. Runs lumpy as hell but she runs, and does she ever make a fabulous sound!

A while with the Carbtune plugged into the carbs ( the FCR's don't have a vac port so I had to drill into the body to fit ports - gulp! ) and a couple of fans running flat out to keep the bike from melting, I had the carbs almost balanced on the idle screws ( no air mixture screws either - these Keihin guys don't make things easy...) and the 'idle' smoothed out quite a bit.

Still a very lumpy idle, but what do you expect from a tuned engine?

Anyway, time to put the lid on and take it out.

Wow! Feels somewhere between my old HP2 and my 690 Rally - really snappy on the throttle, completely unlike any airhead I have ridden.

Put it on a Dyno yesterday and was correct in my 'seat-of-the-pants' assessment that it was way too rich.
Have ordered a set of new jets in sizes down from the std and am back next Saturday for a proper test run and tune.
The first thing I have already fitted is an old bald road tyre - we managed to melt the Mitas Dakar tyre in a few short runs on the dyno and above 55 hp at the rear wheel it just spun, despite lashing it down as tight as we could.

There's so much on that bike that's stunning but that swinging arm is a work of art on it's own




Just looked at the price

Wow, wow, wow.

I'm in heaven just reading this/looking at the pics.

Let us know how the rally progresses.

I'm raiding the kids piggy banks tonight, oh, and the local post office etc.

The quality of the components used looks really high, and the finished job looks 'so right'.

Well done, very nice indeed.