F800 Stealth bike build

[Ronin ADV]

So in the beginning my F8 looked like this:



Then after many farkles and some new paint it looked like this:



But despite all the positive feedback I got on this look in the De-beaking thread (insert sarcasm), I still wasn't completely satisfied. I'm not a big fan of the low fender and since Lost's spectacular crash, I have been meaning to get around to re-doing the brake lines. In addition to this, my F8 is set up primarily for the dirt and I wanted to simplify the front end with less breakable stuff like blinkers and mirrors sticking off. So after a bit of work I have come up with my latest version. And a new version needs a new color. So if its going to be black, why not go all out black.

[linksIT]

Looking good like the front fender.

[Ronin ADV]

Before I get into any specific description I want to thank all the inmates who answered my questions (Lost, Dendrophobe, GP Racer, MCMX, and others I am forgetting. All these guys did these mods first. I shamelessly copied them and modified things to my own bike. Once again ADV comes through as a repository of bike knowledge. I think I'll divide my description of my mods into three parts: The fender / fork guards; the brake lines; and the bars / lights / other stuff.

There are several excellent fender mods described on ADV. I like the look of the KTM 690 fender so I went with that one. First order of business was to strip the bike down.



My dog Boof assuming the management / critic position:



The stock plastic plate that covers the horn is reused to help attach a new fender mounting plate. First you have to drill a 3/4" hole on the right corner that will allow the brake line to pass through later.



I built my fender mounting plate out of 1/2" thick PVC plate (available through various sources including Amazon). Its relatively light weight and strong and can be worked with woodworking tools such as a table saw and router table. I tried several different versions and various hole patterns but ultimately settled on this one:



The KTM fender needs a 3/4" hole near the front two holes so you can reach in with a socket and grab the main mounting bolt that comes down off the triple clamp (M8 60mm).



From the bottom of the triple you can attach the plate with 2 M6 bolts near the back and then by using a longer M8 bolt down through the stock horn mount you can pass this down through the stock plastic plate and the new mounting plate. This will pass through the larger aluminum spacer visible near the front (spacer from Aluminumspacers.com, I think its 3/4" long). The fender is then bolted up onto the PVC plate.



The fender is attached up to the PVC plate using M8 bolts passed through aluminum spacers. By changing the lengths of the spacers you can vary the angle of the fender. After trying different combos, I went with 3/4" length spacers both front and back. This gave me the right angle and clearance I wanted.

[Moto4Balance]

Originally Posted by WW Ronin

Once again ADV comes through as a repository of bike knowledge.

Thanks for adding to the repository with a great write up!

[High Country Herb]

I really like the new fender. When you first did the de-beak, I thought to myself that I would have removed the lower one and kept the upper. This is even better! I did like the green color, though.

[Ronin ADV]

The fork guards take a bit more effort. I went with the same Kawasaki ones that GP Racer described in his mod.



I liked the idea of the upper plastics ring that goes around the fork tube for added strength. However, after getting the product in hand and looking more closely at it I was less impressed with the ring idea. I just couldn't see how to fix it to the fork tube so that it wouldn't shift around or eventually be knocked loose so I bagged that idea. I still wanted to achieve maximum stiffness / security to the fork guard as the brake lines will attach here so I started looking for other options. I knew I was going to have to make some mounting brackets for the bottom of the guards and then I noticed that there is also another mounting hole up high in back on the bottom of the forks where the rear strut of the OEM fender attached. So I decided to mount a metal bracket from here up to the side of the guard.





The fork guards have three holes in the bottom and the forks have two bolts at the bottom for attachment. The rear one lines up OK but the front one (pointed out in the picture) doesn't line up.



Therefore the attachment bracket has to be shaped to fit this hole combo. I fashioned mine out of 16 gauge(?) sheet metal and cut it with a jig saw, then bent and shaped it with pliers, vise, grinder and a file. The holes are marked and drilled and I used several small aluminum spacers to fill in the gap between the bracket and the guard.



After returning from getting powdercoated (black of coarse).







And the rear strap.



All bolted up this configuration turned out to be stiff as hell.

[Ronin ADV]

Time to drain and get rid of those crazy crossover brake lines.



For my brake lines I used the Spiegler lines and the dimensions posted by MCMXCIVRS here:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...&postcount=142

The left fork guard comes with a attachment point for a brake line clamp but the right doesn't. So I made a small bracket out of metal and attached this to the right fork.



Then with both attachment points in place I found these billet brake line clamps to attach the lines to the guards.



The brake lines then can be attached to the calipers, run up through the stock plastic upper plate and then they arc over from each side and meet at a common central T fitting. From here a short line connects the T to the ABS return then another line up to the master cylinder. The real crux of this whole brake line change in my opinion is making the bracket that will attach the T in its central position over the horn. While this may look simple enough, there are several tricky clearances here such as the steering stop, and the diagonal strut up to the instrument cluster. These all come into play in subtle ways in the final assembly to allow the lines to turn and flex up under compression smoothly. I actually made four different versions of this bracket before I got I right. I tried a flat bracket with spacers and various bend and hole combos before the final product. The bolt that attaches this bracket is the same M8 60mm that than goes down through the horn bracket, the plastic plate, the triple clamp and is attached to the PVC fender mounting plate described previously.





In position as viewed down from the left front:


View down from the right front:


Close up:


The yellow zip tie points to the steering stop that must be cleared:


After filling the lines with new brake fluid I did get a ABS error code so I took it to my dealer to get this cleared and as luck would have it, the code went away as I got to the dealer. I had it checked anyway since I was there and everything was cool. These length lines seem to be right on and after a couple dirt test rides, so far everything moves smoothly with no problems as the suspension compresses.

[murph76]

nice- had mine black since apr 10- love it

[señormoto]

I really like the new look. Great work on the front fender. I'm putting an orange 950SE fender on mine once the new WP forks arrive.

[dendrophobe]

Lookin good! I haven't seen anybody do the high fender with the beak remover before, it looks good! I'm pretty partial to green 800s myself, too!

Originally Posted by thematt

I really like the new look. Great work on the front fender. I'm putting an orange 950SE fender on mine once the new WP forks arrive.

Have you sized that up at all? The 950SE fender looks the same as the 690, but is a bit bigger... Most people switching over on the 800 or the KTM 950/990 Adventure have found that it's a tad too large. If you have the opportunity, try putting the 690 and 950SE fenders side by side...

[señormoto]

Originally Posted by dendrophobe

Lookin good! I haven't seen anybody do the high fender with the beak remover before, it looks good! I'm pretty partial to green 800s myself, too!



Have you sized that up at all? The 950SE fender looks the same as the 690, but is a bit bigger... Most people switching over on the 800 or the KTM 950/990 Adventure have found that it's a tad too large. If you have the opportunity, try putting the 690 and 950SE fenders side by side...

I have both 525EXC and 950SE fenders, the EXC one definitely doesn't fit at the rear as it's too long. The 950SE fender fits just about perfectly; I'll know more when I move the brake lines around as they're in the way at the moment and preventing a test mount. I don't have a 690 fender around for comparison.

[señormoto]

Originally Posted by dendrophobe

Have you sized that up at all? The 950SE fender looks the same as the 690, but is a bit bigger... Most people switching over on the 800 or the KTM 950/990 Adventure have found that it's a tad too large. If you have the opportunity, try putting the 690 and 950SE fenders side by side...

Turns out the 950SE fender fits like a charm:


I have a 690 SM fender and a 525XCW fender that I'll take side by side pics of for you. The difference is rather dramatic :)

[dendrophobe]

Originally Posted by señormoto

Turns out the 950SE fender fits like a charm:


I have a 690 SM fender and a 525XCW fender that I'll take side by side pics of for you. The difference is rather dramatic :)

Looks good! I'll be interested to see the difference... I have Lukas building me a set of forks, and I'm probably getting a new fender for when I paint my Touratech tank... Might have to go with the 990 version!

[toro618]

Very nice setup.

Where did you get those billet brake line clamps?

[Ronin ADV]

Originally Posted by toro618

Very nice setup.

Where did you get those billet brake line clamps?

They are Fastway brake line clamps (#22-9-906). I found them on OEMcycle.com.