My 950 Refresh or Mission Creep...

As a stop gap you may consider de-badging and reversing the Wings so the rivets are on the inside, then and get them polished, they come up looking like something quite different.

Mine are semi polished, but you could almost get chrome like if you had a good polisher (I have short attention span so good enough was close enough)...

What front mudguard are you using Sukurama?Looks carbon fibre.Good luck with the build,looks sweet already.Are you thinking about spraying the plastic too?

Hi Tim,

Yeah, same guy. Of course there's also stuff I never finished on that bike (like a sidestand!) and that Rickman behind has been like that for two years - brand new engine just waiting to go. So my record is hit and miss.

This project has reaffirmed how important time in the shop is for me - it's my sanity to come out to our space and just work on bikes. It makes me feel like tackling that Rickman next.

As for the pipes I like that idea but I've dented them so I have to see if that will work. I also have a bid in on a set on ebay and many projects start from winning a casual auction. If I win it I have to figure out a way to do something different with the exhaust and Flanny has me thinking about an underseat tank and K2M has done such a stunning job on his that it makes me think I could tackle it.

Paint has yet to be decided.

Feel free to PM me...I can give you the run-down on all of the pros (mostly) and cons (very few) of the low exhaust from my vantage-point...

Just checking in to see how this is coming along?

I was sufficiently horrified by the tear down that I'm anxiously awaiting the build-up.


-Pax

Great Refresh, can't wait to see how it turns out!

Get creative w/ the paintjob.

Thanks for documenting it.

Dan

Yeah, me too. If I'd known it was going to be so extensive I'd have taken better notes. I got hung up by backordered swingarm bushings and steering head bearings. I could have gotten them somewhere else but didn't think of it at the time but the rest of the bearings are coming from Bearings Direct. The worst is the bearing in the sprocket carrier - $98 from KTM and $4.95 from Bearings Direct.

Anyway, I got the frame on and I'm pulling the other systems together and I'll update more next week. The goal is end of next week since I've got a week with the GF on vacation so it's extended shop time.

No paint - Revit wants me to document our trip to Labrador for the 2010 catalog so the bike can't have too crazy a paint job. That's a relief actually.

So more photos soon.

I'm in for the rebuild.

Judiaann is in Portland for a week so I'm a bachelor which means today was a big day at the shop. I've had trouble getting over there to work as the five miles can take 2 hours if the traffic is bad - of course if I had a motorcycle it would take 15 minutes...

I wanted to put in a solid day and actually see some progress to encourage me. Earlier in the week I'd put the frame on the engine after putting in new steering head bearings:



This was good. The bike is finally sitting on it's own shiny new center stand. Today I thought I needed to make it look more like a bike so I'd feel like I had the beginnings of a motorcycle. I started with the swingarm which got new guards and bearings:



I then mounted that and started work on the quagmire at the front of the bike; the battery box, relays, and the oil tank. Of course after I mounted the battery box I remembered I had a new fuel pump - two actually as I'd gotten a Facet too but it looked like a hassle to mount and rewire and I decided to put that off for another day and keep the momentum and just replace it with the new stock one I had on the shelf. Then I saw I had a new pushrod for the clutch and thought I'd look into that. The great part of this board is that I don't really use shop manuals any more I just search the archives - in this case Pyndon's thread. I'm glad I replaced this - it's crazy how much it's worn:



From Pyndon's thread to Cyborg's on sealing the rims. I'd used silicon for years but hated how thick it had to be and was excited to try Cyborgs method as I'm always glad to see an improvement to an idea. Here's his method: Here's the link to Cyborg's rim sealing.

So I went back and forth all day from the rim to the parts. Here's the first nipple sealed with the Seal All - looks good:



I did two coats but the stuff seams to bubble up as it dries which is strange but Cyborg mentions small bubbles are okay - I hope so:



By this time I'd done the whole wheel so I'm going to hope for the best and add the GOOP tomorrow and then let it sit for a day or so and by then my new Conti Attack will be here and I'll see if it worked. I'm looking forward to getting a 170/60-17 on that new rim.



So I got the radiator and subframe mounted as well and I'm beginning to run out of clean parts but that's okay because this is now starting to look like a very clean new bike - the basic shape is there:



This is important in these sort of projects and partly why my Rickman has been so neglected - it's just a pile of parts which is too overwhelming to deal with so you put it off. While there's a ton left to do I can now see it all coming together and it's looking good:



I'm hoping to have it together by the end of the week but that might be unrealistic as there are some backordered parts I'm waiting on and there's a lot still to clean. The wiring harness might take a day to sort, clean and reinstall and I'm not looking forward to it but that's okay because I almost have a motorcycle again.



I just need a rear tire and another day and I'll have a roller! Once I get stalled I'll clean up the mess but today was all about making some progress.

Sweet! Keep it up.

Congrats S - that looks tres fantastic

That it does.

Hi there HGL

Hey Mark

Man my 950 is starting to kind of look plain.

Today was the day I was dreading - the wiring harness. I didn't really make good notes and there were a LOT of wires and it was all filthy. I started with a bath in the sink. I used spray cleaner and a towel after I mounted the fairing/headlight mount and then I found three photos from when I was hastily taking it apart. Not much but they showed a couple of crucial details about the routing.



Check the background of this shot - Jordan just picked up a brand new, in the crate, Honda RS125. He was uncrating it today as I worked on my project.



From this I cleaned the harness and then fed it over the radiator and under the frame and the let the wire memory show me which way they went:



Surprisingly it was a fairly easy puzzle the length of each wire and the bends sort of made them only fit a certain way and then the plugs would just line up with their mates. Each time I ended up with an extra plug I couldn't figure out I'd check my photos or the harness or just keep thinking it through and then I'd figure it out. I hate to say it but it was a fun problem.



Then the forks and carbs went on. Of course what I'm not telling you is how many times i took things off because I forgot something else - that's the nature of the organic process I'm working on. I like to think of it as just getting to know my bike better.

So this is where I ended today. It doesn't look substantially farther along but it is, it was just all the small details today.



The harness is in place, the carbs are on, the pegs and bars are on and the wheels are prepped and clean and ready for tires. Depending on how much more I want to put into it I could be done this week. Mostly it's the little things I'm waiting on to get both the covers on then the rest will fall into place. It might be time to check in with James about the seat...

Looking bloody good mate, I like the black subframe and swingarm.

Very cool. I love these threads.

Sorry for the hi-jack, but do you know which size adapter on the Pit-Bull stand fits the steering stem? I was looking through their catalog just a couple of days ago, but there were no KTM listings.

Thanks,

Douf

I'll check the dimensions when I get back out to the shop in the next day or so. I think you could just measure the inside diameter of the steering tube and use that measurement. I think the stud I have was for the TZ250 and the boxer and I just got lucky it fit the 950.

Anyway, not much to report today. I mounted tires so I'll know in a day or so if the rim sealing method of Cyborgs worked but it was certainly holding pretty good when I left. I dropped some forgotten parts at the powder coaters and sanded down the windscreen which has gotten pretty scratched. Since I'm not going to paint the whole bike I'll just paint the screen a solid gloss black.

Mostly I'm waiting on parts that are hopefully going to show up in the next few days but until then there's not a ton to do...

Looking good. Love the gloss black powdercoat on the swingarm too.