hi Olaf 

yes if you take your time , as we have said many times , big boys meccano , they are super easy to work on in many respects 


re the 85 in 87 bikes , could this be that they were imported some time before being sold or at least put on the showroom floor ,  at all ???

and some very welcome news , at last, received your fantastic pudding in the mail last week , yippeee !!!  


i guess i best find the local k bike folks to share it with , in the near future 


thanks so much for the effort mate 

really surprised me .

whilst at work today (volunteering at the local "mens shed " ) (a group of old farts with nothing much else to do in their day, but to offer learned skills and banter to an aged retiree crew , for the benefit of locals  , in my local and many others , woodworking is still a skill and there are many projects - repairs to worthy items that many homeowners just cant do ) ) 
 
 
fact is the computer driving the cnc router that they had purchased for making place and property signs was rather suspect , later died , as they do , and i was roped in to asses the whole situation and offer some help ...meaning i was asked to repair the computer , and locate the software for driving the machine ...and all that stuff , given that the seller of the goods - machine was no longer interested at all in the organisation .
 
 I repaired and reinstalled the design software , as no one else there claimed to have any "puter skills "  ,(( i should have kept my mouth shut  ))) 
 
with a cheap piece of pine out of the cut off box and newly found cnc router skills i thought to start the design for Freds tank badge 
 
i could have photographed the real bmw logo - roundell and imported it directly to the design software for the router  
 
but i thought to make it different enough to not draw attention from those who must be obeyed (and good solicitors ) 
 
so this is my first attempt at making something that hopefully in the future will develop into a nice and personalised bit of bling ?
 
the aim is to reverse what you see in this iteration so that I can get red enamel into the larger area of the roundel , with aluminium highlights on the perimeters , and a whole lot smaller …
 
actually I started off making the design in a 69mm format , easily cropped and expanded to make this sign out of scrap wood from the bin
 
hey it’s a first attempt …
 
and here it is ….
 

That is great Charlie, master in metal and now wood.

That could also read Ride Rally Recover

Or Ride, Rally, Reurgh!!!! 

lol   thanks guys  



a bit more today 
going back together in the nether regions 











still to find a seal or two and remove the gasket goo around the joints i guess

thought i would move the block off the bench and onto the Gerty block 
and install the crank cover at least , just a couple of screws holding the timing cover on till i can get the head complete 

a cute package arrived from Blighty , inside something to get ahead on the project , with many thanks Chris 




with the valve stem seals now in hand the old ones came out 




a bit of paste to make the seat meet valve better 





and hopefully assembly in the coming days

yipeee ! last set of collets installed (these shakey hands have an issue )





and some shim measurements before assembly 

charlie99 wrote:hi Olaf 

yes if you take your time , as we have said many times , big boys meccano , they are super easy to work on in many respects 


re the 85 in 87 bikes , could this be that they were imported some time before being sold or at least put on the showroom floor ,  at all ???

and some very welcome news , at last, received your fantastic pudding in the mail last week , yippeee !!!  


i guess i best find the local k bike folks to share it with , in the near future 


thanks so much for the effort mate 

really surprised me .

I missed this post and had been curious as to the matter of missing puddings. considering I had all posted in time for Christmas, next time I must ask when that say the latest posting times is it for the upcoming Christmas or the following one. They all got stuck in the Brexit hold up in UK, they all travel through London. 

I thought it might be nice to surprise you. Anyway it should have travelled fine and just needs to be heated up a bit. Some nice lightly whipped cream on top. You can open it and pour a little brandy or whiskey over it.

As for the 2 year old engines, I have seen this before and its strange. Oddly, my frame on my 84 RT started as an RS then got changed and renumbered at the factory as an RT.

Ref. shakey hands, I use a small magnetic pickup tool to manouver the collets. Still can't see what I'm doing and it takes ages, but at least I'm not on my hands and knees looking for them. These days, when I have to get down on the floor to pick something up, I think, 'is there anything else needs doing whilst I'm down here?'

Putting the head on: do you do it by TDC or do you 50/50 the two highest pistons and cross your fingers?

chris846 wrote:Ref. shakey hands, I use a small magnetic pickup tool to manouver the collets. Still can't see what I'm doing and it takes ages, but at least I'm not on my hands and knees looking for them. These days, when I have to get down on the floor to pick something up, I think, 'is there anything else needs doing whilst I'm down here?'

Putting the head on: do you do it by TDC or do you 50/50 the two highest pistons and cross your fingers?

 chris, i use small pick tool to manouver the collet  , if it falls in too deep ii use a slightly magnetic screw driver to fish it out , i say slightly because often a magnet will also stick to the valve and everything else nearby , confusing the whole process , and some times partially magnetising the collet , which is a real pain ,

usually i back off the pistons to verticle on the crank mark , meaning they, are as you say 50 50 up the bore ,  once i get the cams in i wind back to the horizontal on the crank with the cams set at pointing up , ready to fix the chain onto them , by wrapping round both cam s , with the bottom one located and partially bolted up , the top  one loose on the bolt , but located correctly , the cam chain tensioner cable-tied closed ,and the inlet cam held by a shifter in the correct location , and ease the top cam wheel onto the cam whilst winding the crank to get a little more stretch for the cam wheel to locate , then  bolt up , and set the tensioner loose .... after everything is lined up and bolted

installing cam gear 

and a little while later 












hall effects to go in, water pipe and a few bolts to find ,,,,   soon

Looking good Charlie

Charlie, are you sure you aren't a closet Harley guy?

seeing im getting up into the topend bits and pieces 

thought to do a little bling to the fuel rail (injectors are still to be rebuilt ) 
but to get an idea of the plan huh ?

just an update ,

have been waiting for a while to get some clear coat , so i could cover some stripped metal work and repainted parts 

now going ahead 






as an asside had a few visitors heading north to the Cane toad Rally   a bit north of here , this last few days , unfortunately cant make this one , sadly 

perhaps we'll catch up again next month , heading south to rosscos celebration

hmm recent events have changed the plan for the 85 k100 motor

some knocking sounds from fred had me worried , found a scored big end shell on number 2 , ( i guess some gunk found its way up through the oil paths and deposited stuff in there a while ago ), in addition to the vacuum line to the fpr had collapsed with noticeable fractures along its length  causing an unsteady idle .  

oh well , here we go 

nearing completion and almost ready for install to Fred 

plan is to update the crank and pistons to non pinned type rings on the 90 motor , but ill take time to do that , no big rush indeed ,  just a shame i cant get Gerty done quite so soon 

Why the 'update' to non pinned? 

a little while later 





best way is with 2 people to put the frame on the motor 

but as needs must , can be done by yourself , just some juggling to do eh ?

Suzi Q wrote:Why the 'update' to non pinned? 

just that i had noticed and now experienced the high oil consumption of these types , not that it is usual but definitely much more than the non pinned version

gerty and others 5000 k and not a drop to add , the 90 motor  a litre every 500 - 1000 k  at least 

just makes for another thing to check regularly , yes little smoke after sidestand starts  , but jeepers  i can do without the added expense - stain on the exhaust rear end etc

nearly there 

Nice touch with the exhaust heatshield - first time I've ever looked at the OE exhaust and thought it looked good!

well it actually runs , and seems like a nice engine 

noted when trying to do a tb balence that i have some valve clearances to fudge up a little wider , losing vacuum as heat climbs on a couple of cylinders 

more to come

all back together again
had some cooling fluid disappearing somewhere , so full pull down to head gasket tighten and rebuild the valve - timing area , and swapped out the water pump

seems to be running nicely now

just about ready for the trip south

at last fresh rubber for Fred 

initial feel is, no more tramrailing and no push through on the front end , marvellous what new rubber feels like 

inspecting the old sport demon front , a 2014 product , extremely hard to break the bead and hardened sidewalls 

these shinko 712 should do the job for a while 
 a trip up and down the hills in coming days should tell more .

Lookin' good, Chazza. Let us know how they go.

Winter's fast approaching here. 3 degrees outside in the rain, but the woodstove radiates a warmth. I'm taking the month of December on furlough so I can tidy up my various K projects in the garage, put the '96 K1100RS back together, organise the shelves.

Thanks for the inspiration, the lot of you. Thumbs up for '22 possibly opening things up.

Looking good hopefully we'll soon be free to border cross. I nearly went to Shinko's I'll be interested on your experience.
Regards Martin.

MartinW wrote:Looking good hopefully we'll soon be free to border cross. I nearly went to Shinko's I'll be interested on your experience.
Regards Martin.

Ive tried the Shinko Tourmasters before Martin , and they were surprisingly good 
the unfortunate thing is that the tourmasters are about the same price as the sport demon , albeit some Plus sizes unavailable for that model 

these appear to be an economic version, styled on the heavy tourer class of big twins etc , you know those blokes that like to ride with their ankles hanging in the breeze way in front of their wrists ?
so the jury is out for cornering ability as of just yet  but the rubber is soft and flexible , a positive start indeed
at 60 dollars cheaper than the pair i would normally put on  , its the lot for this old pensioner for the moment ...lol

Two Wheels Better wrote:Lookin' good, Chazza. Let us know how they go.

Winter's fast approaching here. 3 degrees outside in the rain, but the woodstove radiates a warmth. I'm taking the month of December on furlough so I can tidy up my various K projects in the garage, put the '96 K1100RS back together, organise the shelves.

Thanks for the inspiration, the lot of you. Thumbs up for '22 possibly opening things up.

cheers Dazza , glad to hear and see you made it through the tough times of the pandemic , i can tell you i was fairly worried for many of our us based appreciators

just so you know i have been busy with many things during my time out here in the hills and the cold , including skilling up and joining the mens shed organisation  locally , engineering the works and software of a cnc wood router for the production of wood signs etc  , as  the group members are complete ludites when it comes to computers , i guess i just fell into the position after i broke my ankle on that wet Karuah visit a couple o years ago  , so far over $1000 has been raised by myself as my contribution to "the shed ) with minimal expenditure in running costs , after they purchased "the bench " without any foreknowledge of the skills required . 

also have obtained an old dr 200 dirt bike , the ambition being to explore many of the dirt roads around this area , that were just a little cumbersome for old Gerty to negotiate safely as a single up explorer , in parts of course , as i do , engine from Smithy , broken crankcases after a chain wrap-up , a frame for another local acquaintance , and bits an pieces  as you do , adding a digital speedo and led headlight and windbreaker .
 soon to be historically registered and on the road with the local heritage club , bit hard to get 3 bikes to Inverell for "rego day " some 70 odd kilometres off , ok for fred and gerty to traverse twice in one morning for the test , but 3 ? cant do it . so alternative options sought .

face book followers will know, but here's a few snippets eh ? 

before 



after





have fun mate

Some nice looking rides there, Charlie!  I think you will like those 712's.  I know I've liked them on my bikes.

Wow!  That DR came back pretty nice as well.  200cc is the perfect size for off-road, IMO it's the sweet spot between power and weight.  Should be a really good summer for you

Looking nice, Charles.  

If the border does open up as scheduled, there is a chance that a couple of us will be driving down with a few K parts for the next stop on the line.  Planning for between Xmas and New Year.  

If you require anything bought down from here, just let us know.  

Dave.

Point-Seven-five wrote:200cc is the perfect size for off-road, IMO it's the sweet spot between power and weight.

I think I'd pretty much agree with that. Over here back in the Eighties everyone wanted a Yamaha DT-175, but in back-to-back tests the Suzuki TS185 always beat it. I had a TS and I put absolutely stupid day-trip mileage on it (200+ journeys were pretty common). Eventually the exhaust blew through at the head; copious quantities of Gun Gum failed to fix it and the bike was left to rot in the shed. IIRC there weren't any aftermarket pipes for the TS and even if there were, I couldn't have afforded one back then.

Dai I had a TS125 Duster, orange with white stripes and bought a  2nd hand OEM TM kit off the local bike shop in Townsville. It consisted of a piston, head, barrel, carby, expansion chamber and electronic ignition kit. It went like stink and it used to rev off the tacho. After being chased by MP's in a low compression Falcon ute through camp I was warned by an MP mate of a stand by your bike inspection. The next morning after a frantic overnight change of colour I was asked if my bike had always been that colour (now black). The MP asking the question was accompanied by my grinning MP mate. I owned a blue TS185 Sierra a couple of years later great bike.
Regards Martin.

After competing successfully in enduros with a Honda XL125 I switched to the then new XR185.  2.5 times the power and only 15-20 pounds heavier.  What a beast in the woods!  It was a lot of fun, but the powerband was too narrow and it was hard to keep it pulling smoothly.  While underpowered, the 125 was easier for me to ride fast.  Moving up to the 200 expert class didn't help either.  Unfortunately, I got a job that ended my racing before I had a chance to learn how to ride the 185. 

In the muddy clay hilly woods we raced in, the 200 class riders were the ones who almost always took the overall trophy.  250 and up are just too darn heavy to wrestle with for 100 miles in the wood and the 125 bikes just don't have the top end speed when things open up.  Smaller displacement engines can be tweeked to go faster, but at the expense of being "pipey" and unreliable.

Hey Charlie, I  know this is an old thread but I have to say that motor looks GREAT! Love it in Fred. What did you use for clear coat? 

Thanks 
 Bill

hi Bill , just saw this question , sorry for delay 

i used a no longer available from the regular places  , a crystal clear clear coat , made by concept paints here in aussie .


my past experience has been not too clever with browning occurring in direct sunlight , with some of the cheaper brands available .

but this one , seems to work really well .

the crank and cam covers are naked aluminium , polished first , erm somewhat , then waxed with maguires easy wax , which has a conubia ?(sp) wax content , which keeps it easy to manage .

hope that helps 

my advice is get something that works for you , time will tell, especially in the sun browning issue , causing flaking later as it cracks .

good luck 

and thanks for the welcome comment

I actually have been using a product called white diamond. It also is a carnuba wax  polish. Works very well with a buff. Seems to hold up  well. Was just wondering if it was better to clear coat. I will  say it has  been around 3 months and it still doesn't show any signs of tarnish.