I've done many rebuilds in my time, this build was a bit of a journey for me, the plan was to build a bike that would take me across Russia to Siberia and back, so there's a bit of a story to this
This is the bike when I first bought it, it may look as if you could just ride it, the the rust and road grime will be visible as I start to take it apart,
I bought this without seeing it in the flesh, I bought it from a policeman he told me it was in very good condition, he lied never trust a plod,,,, lol,,,,,
I do my fare share of off road stuff, I use to ride a BMW 1100gs so I was thinking the 1150 was the bike for me
This is the start stripping and prepping, I don't know if any of you guys have worked on a big bike like a BMW, it's not as complicated as it looks just remember to take photos as you go, that way if you forget how it came apart you can always revert to the photos, that should apply to any project.
as you can see the bike was really very poor condition, when the salt gets into the engine it's never going to get it perfect so grinding off the worst of the grime then a lot of elbow grease work best, there's no quick way to do this, put in small amount of time each day, don't Sicken your self.
Most of the parts that I took off went out to the powder coaters, the engine crash bars, the rear rack,,,,, the tank and plastics went to the paint shop, I started making my list of parts I wanted to replace with new ones, I also order a good quantity of stainless steel Allan bolts in different sizes, ordering allan bolts works out a lot cheaper just to get quantity of 50's of each size rather than order just what you want.
at this point I started to prime the engine and forks and the paint some of the parts
I once started a project few years ago a yamaha Virgo 700 an American import, I wanted to turn it into a bobber, that's all I had in mind I didn't have any plans I just start to cut and weld, all I new is I wanted to make it as low as possible, cut a long story shorter, I got fed up with it so I put to one side, a guy had herd that I had a chopper in my work shop, he was looking for a bike he could ride across the country for help the Hereros, so now I had a bit of an incentive to a least do something with the bike, I didn't give it a paint job or polish all the chrome I just made the bike sound, and it looked the part as well, the guy was very pleased and so was I.
don't start a bike unless you know where you are going with it
Crash bars and rear frame turned up from the powder coaters, I've put the rear frame on its looks the bees knees, the tank came back from the painters also the other panels, I've painted the top rack in silver I've installed that, I'll post some pictures tonight.
On the last photo burning the midnight oil, as the project comes along you tend to spend more time in the work shop, just because the enthusiasm starts to get momentum you can't leave it alone. As long as you are happy to do that and the misses then crack on.
On the last photo burning the midnight oil, as the project comes along you tend to spend more time in the work shop, just because the enthusiasm starts to get momentum you can't leave it alone. As long as you are happy to do that and the misses then crack on.
I totally agree that the finishing off is the best bit but, it gets difficult to know where to stop