Another G/S on the road

[bmwloco]

I left Athens, GA on a R100GS in 1992...headed out to go around the world. Rode the US, Canada, then New Zealand and OZ... were the damned drive shaft failed. 3 days stranded on the Nullabar.

I was going to move back to Athens, but opted to go back to the mountains I love.

I still have the 44 liter spun nylon Acerbis tank. Sold the aluminum panniers to someone in Mississippi after five R80G/S. I thought I was done and sold the Acerbis, but thankfully Rev. Eddie is a man of his word and I got it back.

Good to see someone else in Athens laboring over a G/S. Back in the day, I knew Nathan (and still do, thankfully) but I miss John Hoffman and Cycle Specialties of Athens like I miss third grade... I am really glad Nathan, Paul et al started NPR Ducati.

I still sneak into Athens for dental work. Stroll through town, eat at the Taco Stand and high tail it back to the mountains. I love to visit...but... oh, nevermind. Too many memories (and many lost) there.

[bgoodsoil]

Eddie's a good guy. He knows a lot about bikes too. He's put more miles on bikes just doing Iron Butt rides than I've done in my whole life....okay, maybe that's not saying much but you get the idea

I got a good Taco Stand story for ya:

I had to take summer classes one year and didn't want to pay for rent. I figured if I could sleep in the woods for 2 months I could take the money I saved and buy a kayak. So, I loaded up the KLR with my camping gear and found a spot near campus to sleep. I took showers at the gym.

I was offroading near there one afternoon and tried to cross a big log that was on a hill. I wrecked and got my leg stuck under the bike for about 15 minutes. I had to unbolt one of my ammo cans and use a branch I could reach as a lever to lift the bike to get out.

I found my way out of the woods and went to the Taco Stand figuring I deserved some nachos after that. While standing in line I look down and see, oh, about 2 dozen ticks crawling on me. I freaked out. They don't have a bathoom there and I didn't have an apartment to go to so I ran outside, hopped on the bike and headed straight for the library on campus. I rushed into the bathroom and got stark naked in one of the stalls. I pulled almost 30 ticks off of me and out of my clothes. The toilet bowl looked like a pool party.

the good part of this story? I got my kayak!

[bgoodsoil]

I weighed my new racks. I expect they'll be much heavier than the stock racks that Infra's got on his G/S.

The left rack weighed 4 pounds, the right was 5. I didn't pull the center but I'm guessing it's around 2 or 3. So about 12 pounds for the whole thing. the trunk weighs 2 pounds. The boxes are 13 each.

That's 40 pounds all told for my luggage. Wow, I don't think I keep 40 pounds worth of stuff inside them

[datchew]

I love it!!!

If you only had a TIG you could weld an entire GS out of beer cans and really get a 1-up on Stagehand.

[Infracaninophile]

BG:

So, is welding harder or easier than you expected? I'd like to learn as well.

Please continue with the pics and story. Your creativeness and ability to live off the land are amazing. At age 53 I'm done with sleeping on the ground unless it's an emergency.

T.

[One Less Harley]

Originally Posted by Infracaninophile

BG:

So, is welding harder or easier than you expected? I'd like to learn as well.

Please continue with the pics and story. Your creativeness and ability to live off the land are amazing. At age 53 I'm done with sleeping on the ground unless it's an emergency.

T.

Welding is pretty easy if you've got any ability at all, the thick stuff (1/16-1/8") is easier than thin sheet metal. Infra- if your thinking about getting a welder and have the extra funds spring for a MIG and not a flux core welder. MIG is neater and the welds flow better than w/ flux core.


Brad you look like you're having fun w/ the welder. Keep welding on the racks and the G/S will weigh as much as a R1150GS.
Shouldn't you be studying or something? MY G/S is getting new rings and valve/guides soon. I've got he parts looking for a warm weekend to pull it apart. Rods and pistons will be balanced too.
About $420 for all the valves, guides,springs, rings and gaskets. She uses a little to much oil and compression is on the low end. A pretty simple job.

[hardwaregrrl]

Hey Brad, looks nice. I'm hoping my dad will set me up when I go home for xmas, he has a lot of welder friends with plenty of rigs to sell for cheap!!! You get my message about the carb kits?

[bgoodsoil]

I don't know if I'd call it living off the land. If I was doing that I would have eaten those ticks!


tasty!

making a weld strong is a lot easier than I thought it'd be. but making a weld pretty? with this welder? dang near impossible. I'd really like to try a TIG welder. All the smooth welds you see on those fancy stainless steel parts on Touratech are TIG welded. Even a MIG would have been much better than this but I didn't want to spend the extra $100 when I knew I only needed it for a few small projects.

Welding isn't like fishing--you can't just go and do it. You need something that really needs to be welded. I'm glad those racks broke. It was an opportunity. I had a great time doing this and I got to learn how to do something that I've always thought was a mysterious art beyond my ability. Of course, these racks might break halfway across Mexico on next year's trip and I'll find out that welding really was beyond my ability

Jenna: got the message. I appreciate it!

OLH: are you doing the valves and guides yourself? and yes, yes I should be studying. I've got a final tomorrow actually. That crap is always interrupting the really important stuff

[One Less Harley]

Maybe I'll post some pictures of the head removal and such. I'll be pulling the heads and pistons and rods, no big deal. Then take the heads to the machine shop for the valve guide replacement, and grinding the valve seats and seating the new valves.
My compression was about 124 psi, on the low end of spec, plus using a little to much oil. The plugs don't look bad, but I have to keep an eye...or two on the oil level. I'm not sure of the guides are bad but since I'm in there might as well. I'm sure the rings are worn out.
It's a good time to do this in the off season/

[SOLO LOBO]

Originally Posted by One Less Harley

I'm not sure of the guides are bad but since I'm in there might as well. I'm sure the rings are worn out.

If they are the stock guides, I'd bet they are toast... mine were well gone at 21K miles!

FWIW, I bought a set of swiss "intervalves" with springs, retainers and hi-heat guides from motobins for less than the cost of two exhuast valves from BMW... Rob Farmer has been running these in his airheads....

[One Less Harley]

Here's the parts I got from MOTO Bins a very small $440 box.

-Intervalves, intake and exhaust
-Guides and retaining clips-elco high temp guides
-Valve springs and retainers OEM BMW
-wrist pins and circlipls
-small end bushings OEM BMW
- rod bearings OEM BMW
-upper end gasket set OEM BMW
-Rings OEM BMW
- Rod bolts OEM BMW

I priced these from one of the BMW dealers stateside..they offer a slight discount and the parts total, less shipping would have been $680.

I'll get the pistons and rods balanced when I do the job. Look for more pictures latter when I start the job.

[bgoodsoil]

OLH: how many miles are on your bike?

Solo: When you say 'well gone' how did you know they were bad?

I don't know much about heads except that I'll likely be unable to repair them myself. I'd like to know some warning signs though. I'll head over to Snowbum's site and see what I can learn.

Did ya'll know he's stopped riding? He even sold his bike.

[One Less Harley]

100,420 miles well that's what's showing anyway, speedo was shot when I got the bike, so probably more than 100K


420 miles on the "new" tranny w/ taller fith.

[bgoodsoil]

well, that's good to hear. I'm only at 49k!

I'm going to check ibmwr from time to time and try to find a spare set of heads. I think it'd end up cheaper than fixing mine not to mention a lot faster. Hopefully by the time my heads go bad I can afford a car

[Malindi]

I have +80K miles on the valves/guides/springs on the RT and I've not taken the heads off yet. Still the same variance, with some minor (less than 1 thou inch) setting required somewhere (one of the 4 valves). Still use no oil between oil changes (fill to top of marker, at 5000 kms I'm a few millimeters above the minimum)

You really can't do heads/valves/seats yourself. You need special tools to do it right and some experience. The best place in the US to ship your heads to is Ted Porter in California.