The rehabilitation of Sir Gustave Sebastian & the Supertanker

Thought I'd throw up a couple of pics of the bent bike. Taken in Auckland. I haven't taken it off the trailer yet.

those front forks could be twisted

Doing a bit of clean up work prior to the RS selling. One job was to check that the bike was charging properly. I have a variety of stators. Didn't realise that there was such variance. Interesting to note the 18amp & 21amp alterantors have the same part number.



The other thing has been starting to get the bent bike ready to go into the garage. That involved stripping some stuff off the bike to allow the front wheel to turn. Found this. An HPN thermostat oil cooler filter cover. I suspect that will go on Gus.

Nice find. Subtract that one from the purchase price!

ahem boxa, mine being the closest "HPN" bike in the vicinity i feel it is my duty to free you from the binds of ownership ..........................










worth a crac ?

Your a generous man trying to help a guy shift out of the garage and back into the house as the weather gets cooler

oh sorry ,not the bike,

just that cool little thermostat housing haha...

you've mistaken me.........

No Tony, he knows what you mean. He's been trying to sell bits off the bike to others as well. Very helpful.

A little thread hijack
A question for you and Tony to comment on. I guess you have ridden Tony's bike. How does the long mono compare to your para, both offroad and on road ( gravel and tar )

Cheers Phil

Haven't ridden Tony's bike yet.

Ahh ! will have to see if Tony has experience on a Paralever. The rear suspension on our bike is its biggest letdown. Great on tar and smooth gravel but hasnt got enough travel to soak up holes and gets overwhelmed on corrugations.
I guess it works as a speed limiter Not that i want one !!

I bought Rufas as a wreck (Rufas the Junkyard Dog, Ruf As). The Bike was originally purchased & ridden in Germany, imported into NZ, and at some time had done a trip to Pakistan. It had been crashed, & the front wheel & forks replaced. The frame had been straightened once.

Just prior to my ownership, the bike was loaned to a Swiss guy, Jurgen, who had toured NZ. The day before he was due to fly out, he visited Gaudenz at Gislers Mototech in Tuakau. He had left, turned onto the main road, & was tee-boned by an inattentive driver.

I picked Rufas up from Gislers. The bike was in the workshop, resting on its centre stand, which was on top of pile of 2x 6 planks. Because of the bends in the frame & forks, the bikes wheelbase was reduced, but the ride height was up considerably. The forks were very twisted, both backward into the engine, & also to the right side. To be able to shift the bike required the front tyre to be deflated, the fairing bra was busted off & the front engine cover needed to be removed.

Dropping the bike off the trailer back at Wgtn was 'interesting'. I'd put it on backward for the trip home thinking it would be easier to tie down on the rear, where the swingarm action was still good, rather than the forks, which weren't really able to be compressed.

It was a wet night when I wanted the shift the wreck from trailer to garage. No front brake, so I put it into gear & started to edge down the plank. The rear started slipping, & it got a bit of momentum on. I couldn't stop it, & in deference to my injured back just let it go. It dropped the front wheel off one side, the rear of the other, & slide down the plank on its belly. The centrestand wedged under the plank, & it came to rest upright at the bottom, just as if I'd planned it all along.

Now the RS is gone from the garage, I've started pulling Rufas to pieces. The frame is very bent & I can't see it being straightened.







Obviously the forks & fork brace are bent, but not so obviously, so is the axle, which now resemble a banana. When you consider that is a 25mm axle, the bike has taken a fair shunt.



The fairing stay between the light & main frame is semi collapsed.



The instrument panel has taken prior damage, & to fix that an alloy plate has been riveted in.

The speedo & tacho bezels have been accident damaged previously, then attacked by a prior owner, I assume in an attempt to get them more water tight. If that was the aim, it was a failure. They are a mess. The speedo is missing the reset button & rubber cap. It dropped out about a ½ litre of water when I removed it. The speedo drive was broken at the back of speedo, held in with a zip-tie.





The bike has a fair bit of fibreglass repair on it. I wish that this had been properly plastic welded.

I assume the 1st owner put on all the rubber tubing, which was taped all over the bike, I assume to reduce chaffing & rattle. The tape is painful to get off.

The flat strapping pannier racks weighed a tonne when I took it off. Good fodder for the scrap metal man.



Wudo sender unit for oil pressure & temperature guages. Carbs were 40mm Bings off a street bike (float bowl vents at the bottom of the float bowl - no good for stream crossings. The airbox is one of those with the EPA plumbing. Lots of weight & complexity for no gain.



The Collector box has been chopped around a bit & needs repair, given a patch has cracked / broken



The plan from here is to reduce it to component parts. Then we’ll see.

It's like an Archeological dig. Really interesting to see what has been done to the bike as we dig down lower into the dirt...

We'll see, assuming that this bike is resurrected

looks like thats an Ohlins shock in there and adjuster. And the PD tanks and bits are worth good money.
Are you thinking of a mono rear end ?
I ying and yang between the mono and an 1100. The disc is easier to fit to the 1100 but ive seen a few random and sudden rear bearing failures with the 1100/1150 rear final drives.
the monos are seem bulletproof but the rear disc isnt as easy, well that is ive not seen many done. I think it may be possible to do with a 4 bolt mono. I'm not sure what bikes had the 4 bolt mono. a lot of messing around but I sure do like that back disc

The drum rear on the mono is a million times better than the drum on the Paralever.

It would want to be, the Para rear is shite
Maybe the mono brake lever with its straight rod connection has better leverage than the Para cable setup. I think the drum is big enough to do the job. It's the same size as the rear on our car. !

I owned both at once at one stage, but the mono had a Koni or something on it and the Para an Ohlins.

Where you couldn't lock the rear of the Para even if you jumped on it the mono was quite controllable and easily locked.

As far as a suspension travel and behavior comparison I don't think it would be fair to use a mono bike with a cheap shock with no adjustment and a top end shock with adjustable everything to be compared.

That's not saying much

Re. a disc on a mono - I've always wondered about using a disc final drive from a mono K bike. If we're extending and welding swingarms and driveshafts anyway, why not mate the two?

Here we go - proof of concept. I knew I'd seen it before.



K75 unit will give you 32:10. One of these might be useful - replacement splines for K driveshaft:



There must be a way to weld it to the mono drive shaft.

Steve - Rufus is quite something. Is the front wheel bent?