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1Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty My K75 Xcountry Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:01 am

Gaz

Gaz
Life time member
Life time member
Hi all! I have started to compile a thread on the journey I have been on for the last 2-3 years personalising a K75. It may take me a few sessions to get it down hence the Chapter 1 description.

The thought bubble for this project started way back in February 2012 when I was on the return leg of my 3,000km round trip to Phillip Island for the Australian round of the World Superbike series. I was riding my R80G/S Paris Dakar at the time, daydreaming (as you do on a long trip) about how much I loved this bike but also how good my K1100LT was for touring.

By the time I had completed the two day trip home I had a picture in my head of a K75 modified into an all road tourer influenced heavily by the style of my R80G/S. At the time I had never even sat on a K75 and had only ever seen a couple of them in the 15 years that I had owned my K1100.

So the search began …..... I looked at a few for sale but they were S models in very good condition and consequently far too expensive for what I had in mind. At the end of May 2012 I found what I was looking for in the back corner of a bike wrecker's warehouse in Sydney – a 1990 K75 (naked model with low seat and rear disk) with 77,447km showing on the odometer for $800.00. Apparently it hadn't run for the 3 years or so that it had been there but no parts were missing. Deal done, loaded onto the trailer and home it goes.

An initial walk around indicated that the fork seals were shot with most of the fork oil having soaked the brakes, broken mirrors, a few small cracks in the seat vinyl, badly faded paint – even though it looked orange the paint code said it was red, not too bad really if it will run.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0310

My K75 Xcountry Img_0610
Drained the old fuel from the tank and added some fresh stuff, changed oil and filter, new coolant and purchased a new battery – lets see what happens.
Good, she runs so lets get the forks off and clean up the front brakes. It took quite an effort to get the caps off the tubes as someone's previous effort at working on the forks had resulted in the top edge of the tubes being belted with some sort of punch which burred the inner edges over preventing the caps from coming out. I made up a small clamp like a bearing puller to hold the caps down against the springs so I could grind off the burrs and let the caps come out.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1529

Next challenge was to get the fork tubes out of the triple clamps which again took quite a bit of time and patience combined with a fair bit of swearing. Once out new seals were fitted, a helicoil insert put in for the stripped drain plug on the left side, the sliders repainted and a pair of gaiters  fitted, then slide them back in. These are the S type forks made by Brembo so I used 280 ml of 5 wt oil as recommended by TWB.
Since I was not going to use the radiator shroud I took it off and removed the radiator for a good clean as it had collected a fair bit of the leaking fork oil and was now full of oily dust. A check of the fan revealed the melted brush holder syndrome so I ordered a new motor from EME and fitted it. Before refitting the radiator to the bike I made up a stone guard using the mesh from the original shroud secured to adapter strips of aluminium that I mounted to the top and bottom of the radiator frame (arrowed in photo).
My K75 Xcountry Img_1612
My K75 Xcountry Img_1613
Cleaned up all of the front brake components ready for refitting. While the front guard was off I decided that it needed to be matt black to fit with the picture of the bike in my head so painted it before refitting.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0810

The standard location on this model for the horn has it hanging from a bracket just below the bottom of the radiator (circled in the photo) right where it will get hammered by stones while travelling on gravel roads, which I hope to do a bit of with this toy. To improve the situation I used my well worked method of walking around and around the bike with measuring devices in hand testing every space that I could find to fit the horn. If I am relocating or fabricating any components for the bike I always try to utilise any existing holes/bolts etc. so that I do not drill, cut or weld onto the original frame; that way it can always be put back to standard by myself or a future owner if required. So the horn ended up living behind the radiator on the right hand side mounted on a little custom made bracket bolted to the frame at the front gusset.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0510

My K75 Xcountry Img_1614


Time to have a proper look into the tank – what do we find? A non standard fuel pump, type is a Delphi 6443224, hanging loosely in the plastic mounting collar secured by a cable tie.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0610

My K75 Xcountry Img_0611
Checked the pump dimensions and ordered a spacer sleeve, rubber skirt and plastic collar from EME and fitted up using worm clamps and remade the soldered connections onto the pump (has now been happily purring away for 17,000km).
My K75 Xcountry Img_0710

My K75 Xcountry Img_0711
My K75 Xcountry Img_0710


Noticed that the tank had the usual weep from corrosion at the lowest point on each side.
So I took it to a guy in Sydney who had done some weld repairs on my R80G/S tank. He welded and pressure tested the tank so that should be it for the foreseeable future.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1530

My K75 Xcountry Img_1531


Once the tank and radiator were refitted the bike was run up to temperature to ensure the fan was coming on as required – it did, so cross off another couple of jobs.

Since I had now run the engine a few times naturally the water pump started to leak from the telltale hole, so order a rebuild kit and read up on the dreaded water pump overhaul procedure. The pump was removed and cleaned up (took much longer to do than to say), seals replaced and the pump repainted then refitted. I was not that confident when it was test run but all was well.

My K75 Xcountry Img_0713
My K75 Xcountry Img_0714
My K75 Xcountry Img_0715

For this project I didn't want to initially spend a lot of money on a high quality shock until I had an idea of how much I would use this bike since I have two others in the shed but the original shock shaft looked as if it was scored. I sent it to RAD Shocky repairs in Brisbane who overhauled it and re-chromed the shaft for $240 which will do me for now.
While I had the rear shock off I was cleaning up around the rear end and noticed the cable to the speedo sensor had been crushed. The outer sheath was split open and one of the cores was cut through to the copper. I wasn't sure how sensitive the speedo electronics were to the impedance of the sensor circuit and whether a solder repair would affect it but decided to give it a go as water would get in and corrode it as it was – worst case is a new sensor. Happily the repair worked fine.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0811
My K75 Xcountry Img_0812

Now seemed the right time to check the condition of the drive shaft splines – not that happy with these.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0813

After much agonising I decided to install a new aftermarket design drive shaft (and yes, I am aware of the mechanical issues of mating new and slightly worn splines) made by the Emerald Island company in Taiwan and sold in Australia by Munich Motorcycles. It was half the price of a BMW shaft. I liked some of the design features such as the blind cavity at the final drive end which means that the grease cannot migrate up the hollow shaft, grease-able and replaceable uni and replaceable cush rubbers. These are photos off their web site.
My K75 Xcountry Emeral10 My K75 Xcountry Explod10
The big drawback is that you have to remove the swingarm to fit the shaft as the diameter across the uni is a fraction too large to slide in from the rear. There are some posts on the internet of people taking some material out with a grinder (from memory it was no more than a couple of millimetres) to allow the shaft to be slid in from the rear but that didn't sit well with me so I took the long way (hey - I had not had the swing arm out before). Gearbox output splines were good so re-lube both ends of drive shaft and reassemble. Still need to get into the gearbox input splines for a clean and lube.

The picture in my head always included the removal of the ducktail and replacement with a retro style short rack over the tail light with the bike being able to be fitted with either a dual seat or a single seat with intermediate rack. I have the ability to do this on my R80G/S having both the factory dual seat and single seat with rack.
The sequence of achieving this needed to be;
Fit the dual seat,
Remove the ducktail and fabricate the rear rack and tail light arrangement to align with the dual seat,
Have a single seat made up and fitted to the bike,
Fabricate the intermediate rack section to fit with the single seat.

The first step along this path was to remove the factory low seat on the K75 as it was too low for me and fit the BMW dual comfort seat from my K1100LT (I figured I could only ride one at a time so if dual seat was required it was only a few minutes work to change it over). All I had to do was fabricate the bracket for the rear seat hinge using the one from the K1100 as a pattern. Of course I didn't think of just buying a second hand one or in fact just bringing the bracket off the K1100 when I changed the seat over, but hey it was a good little fabrication exercise. I also obtained a second hand standard seat height toolbox/EFI control mount section with splash guard (this bike will not have side covers) and seat lock mechanism.

We are now up to January 2014 (it was a slow process finding the time for the project while having to fit work in) and it's time to get it registered and get some riding done. New mirrors were fitted and the necessary inspections completed with a few minor hassles due to the fact that this bike was imported into Australia privately and last registration (expired 3 years earlier) was not in New South Wales. Anyhow, licence plates on and away we go.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0822
Now that it was on the road with tyres that had heaps of tread and were heaps of years old it was time to mount some new tyres. I had spent many hours on the internet reading tyre reports and checking available sizes as I intended to fit dual sport tyres if possible and eventually decided on a set of Pirelli Scorpion Trails. These are certainly not hard core dual sport being rated as 90/10 road/dirt but they were the only one that I could find with 100/90 x 18 (original size) front tyres. I chose a 140/80 x 17 for the rear as there is no 130/90 x 17 in that range. Interestingly Pirelli make them as a conventional front and radial rear. I found them to be very good for me particularly in the wet on sealed roads and probably a bit better than street tyres on gravel roads.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0914
My K75 Xcountry Img_0924

It was about this stage I was deciding about the handlebars. The bike came with chrome C bars which I found too narrow after having only ridden with the wide bars on my G/S and LT for the last 16 years. Referring again to the picture in my head I was leaning towards G/S bars but thought I best compare all three types (G/S, C, RT).
My K75 Xcountry Handle10
Eventually decided on the G/S bars and also ordered a set of BMW hand shields to go with them. I have used a MRA Vario screen on my G/S for many years and like it so I ordered another for this bike. Needed the longer control cables as well. Here are some photos of the initial fit up and screen mount etc.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0911
My K75 Xcountry Img_0912
My K75 Xcountry Img_0913
My K75 Xcountry Img_0914

The switch blocks had been very stiff to operate and I was concerned that I would break something in there so I set up a little operating table on each side of the bike and very carefully dismantled each of them inside a plastic bag so as to catch any little springs etc. that might try to escape. Once apart I cleaned up with plain soap and water and polished the contacts then sprayed some silicon over all the bits and reassembled when they were dry. It was pretty straightforward so long as you take your time and the result was well worth it as the switches now operated as smooth as silk.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0910

The stands were fairly stiff to operate and did not readily spring back into their raised position so I removed them for a clean up and lube and found that the sidestand bolt was bent quite a bit. Time to call in a little favour from one of my friends who has a lathe to turn a bolt down to suit the position.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0915
Once cleaned, lubed and reassembled they were refitted and operate as they should. I will need to get them off again in the future to refurbish the bottom of the centre stand as the tubes have been worn flat, but they are OK for now.

With the style I was creating I thought it would be nice to have GS type foot pegs fitted so I looked all over the internet for a set that would bolt onto the K bike but obviously there is not a  market for them. So one weekend when it took my fancy I made a set of my own using the alloy section of the standard pegs and spending some quality time with my files and aluminium strip. Helicoils were installed into the peg shaft to mount the worked aluminium strip and there you have a custom set of footpegs.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0612

As there were a couple of forum trips coming up in the near future and I wanted to give the beast a decent run to see how I liked travelling on it I thought it had best join the GAZ family officially - the standard issue plates were exchanged for these (some scoundrel had already grabbed the GAZ75 set),
My K75 Xcountry Img_0913


to keep company with [Gaz11, a 1995 K1100LT]
My K75 Xcountry Img_1536


and [Gaz80, a 1987 R80G/S Paris Dakar]
My K75 Xcountry Img_1211

To be continued ..........



Last edited by Gaz80 on Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:36 am; edited 1 time in total


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

2Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Tue Jul 21, 2015 12:11 pm

charlie99

charlie99
VIP
VIP
great thread gaz ....

lots of good details

keep on going mate, watching from up here

cheers

My K75 Xcountry 112350


__________________________________________________
cheezy grin whilst riding, kinda bloke ....oh the joy !!!! ...... ( brick aviator )

'86 K100 RT..#0090401 ..."Gerty" ( Gertrude Von Clickandshift ) --------O%O
'86 k100 rs.. #######..  "Fred " (f(rame) red ) ( Fredrick leichtundschnell ) - -
bits and pieces from many kind friends across the k100 world ...with many thanks ..
1987 k100rs ########   "Red"  - (red sports rs TWB style )
1989 K100rt #009637   "Black Betty"  (naked rt ala Nigel , now sporting an rs main fairing )
    

3Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty My K75 Xcountry Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:34 pm

RT

RT
Life time member
Life time member
Great reading Gaz, that bike looks great.
Now I know where your time is going.


__________________________________________________
2011 R1200RT
    

4Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:24 pm

blaKey

avatar
Life time member
Life time member
Yes indeed, great reading and great work you have done so far.

Your written "progress report" will help a lot of people.

My K75 Xcountry 112350


__________________________________________________
Neil
K100RS 1986 RED!

Dress for the ride and the potential slide.
    

5Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:44 pm

Gaz

Gaz
Life time member
Life time member
OK, onto Chapter 2.

We’re now up to May 2014 and I accompanied the Grabau brothers on an enjoyable couple of days run down to RT’s place in the southern highlands. I enjoyed the bike out on the road and it was a different experience to riding the K1100LT.
The very next weekend I loaded it up again for the forum run to Nindigully in Queensland and headed north with a rather large bag strapped on the back containing the low seat and matching bits that were headed for a new home with another of the forum members.
My K75 Xcountry Img_0917

Another great trip which included a drenching on the last leg home. The Pirelli tyres were very good in the heavy rain on sealed roads.

Even though I still had a lot that I wanted to do on this bike, I was really enjoying it on long runs so I put my hand up to go to the Alpine rally in June in company with some fellows from the forum. This would give me a chance to test the feel of it on dirt roads as there was about 150kms of unsealed road getting into and out of the rally site. Once again I was very happy with the performance.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1010

(must remember to put my stuff away in the tent when it is going to be frosty)

Earlier on in the build I had purchased an ex-police single seat off another inmate (naturally I had thrown away the one that was on my K1100 when I bought it many years before) and as I had had some fun on the bike lately it was time to settle down and do a bit more on the project. I had managed to purchase a second hand front single seat hinge but did not have a rear hinge so I made one up to do a trial fit of the seat.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1116

My K75 Xcountry Img_1117
My K75 Xcountry Img_1011

I wanted to take it out for a test run like this so I made up a temporary bracket to mount a tail light and rear indicators and set off to visit Waz. It certainly looked a bit strange when I parked at a famous lookout south of Sydney beside some “tough” bikes. The ride convinced me that the seat would need surgery as it was not very comfortable. The lack of comfort might have been due to the age of this particular seat as I had known others who rode ex-police bikes who felt the single seats were good.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1012

I had always intended to remove the ABS system so now seemed to be the right time to attack that if I was going to proceed in removing the ducktail and building the rear rack. I started at the rear light and unwrapped the entire harness to separate the ABS wiring from the rest of the loom, re-wrapping both the wiring that was staying and the ABS wiring into separate looms as I went. I ended up with the whole electrical box out hoping that I could start it again when I finished.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1111
My K75 Xcountry Img_1128
My K75 Xcountry Img_1130
The good news was that it started up first try.

New stainless braided brake lines were the next item to be added. I have used HEL brake lines on both of my other bikes and they have a very good custom ordering tool on their website if you are not going with a standard kit. I had decided to run separate lines to each side at the front direct from the master cylinder so a couple of little brackets were required to route the lines securely down the side of the fork tubes.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1113
My K75 Xcountry Img_1114
My K75 Xcountry Img_1116
I secured a small grommet on the rear line to protect it from rubbing on the swingarm.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1112


Now the real fun was about to start with the fabrication of the rear rack as this would visually make quite a change to the bike’s appearance.
As the opening line of a famous song says, “A long, long, time ago ………..”, I had purchased a Ventura bag system to use on my K1100 (I’m not a fan of hard top boxes) and that system came with a high loop for use with the bag and a low loop that could be used when the bag was not in use. I had come to leave the high loop installed on the K1100 all the time and the low loop had lived in the cupboard waiting for a time when it would be useful; well now is the time!

Much to my surprise the initial measurements showed the section was 60mm too wide for the K75, so the first up task was to cut it down the middle and remove the 60mm and weld it back together. I’m old school so I do this sort of work with oxy acetylene using nickel bronze rods. I then started off with sticks and tape with bits of plastic electrical conduit painted black to get something similar to my vision.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1117
My K75 Xcountry Img_1119
Then mount the dual seat for alignment with the rack.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1120
My K75 Xcountry Img_1121

With the ducktail removed the rear guard has a lip exposed that used to mate up with the bottom of the tail light assembly. I didn’t like that look so in order to soften the appearance I needed to run the base line tube of my fabrication around the outside of the rear frame section in the same horizontal plane to mostly cover the lip. As I don’t have a pipe bender I resorted to the old sand in the tube method and made the loop in two hockey stick sections which I then welded together. Once that base loop was made I could work out where I could support it using existing holes/mounting points and made individual brackets for each side to locate the forward ends and welded them on. The rear end of the base tube was supported by a flat strip that sat on spacers and secured with new extended bolts at the rear guard mounting points. I added a strengthening gusset on the forward side of the vertical loop tubes where they are welded to the base loop.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1133
My K75 Xcountry Img_1122
The last task was to fabricate and weld on a small section to mount the tail light and rear indicators and a coat of paint. If anyone does a close inspection of the bike and notices any minor imperfections in the fabrication of these sections please note that I have left them there on purpose to illustrate that it has been lovingly hand made.  Wink
My K75 Xcountry Img_1137

The indicators that I had chosen were small 21 watt halogen type which gave me the small size I was wanting without the issues of the flasher relay caused by LEDs. Up front I removed the original indicators and made temporary adapter plates to mount the small indicators.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1325

Here we have the rack mounted and ready for its first public outing and packed up prior to heading off on the Scrapheap Adventure in September 2014.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1123

My K75 Xcountry Img_1124

No progress was made in October 2014 as I had to make my annual pilgrimage to the Australian round of the MotoGP world championship at Phillip Island in Victoria, a 3,000km round trip. The K75 was packed and I headed off but punctured my rear tyre out in central west New South Wales. A plug in the tyre allowed me to limp into Griffith but the only tyre I could get in town was a Michelin T66 dual sport that had been on the shelf for many years. Quite a good tyre but I was wary of the age.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1210
The rest of the trip was completed without incident.

After the earlier test of the single seat I had contacted a guy in Dubbo who was a seat builder about reshaping and covering it. This guy had done some really good work for some of my friends and as I found out later had done work for Stan from this forum. My request was for him to build the single seat exactly the same as the front portion of the BMW comfort seat from my K1100 which I had always been happy with. So both seats were taken over to Dubbo, a four hour drive, and left with him.

With the Karuah Rally coming up in February 2015 I had a bit of a dilemma. Both K bike seats were away but the R80G/S needed front wheel bearings so without some innovation I did not have a bike to ride. The obvious answer was to somehow fit the R80G/S seat onto the K75. It proved to be an interesting exercise and gave an insight into what the K75 might look like in single seat mode. After a couple of adapter brackets were made this was the outcome - ready to hit the road to the Karuah Rally.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1411

Well folks, it’s March 2015 and the single seat has arrived back after surgery - feast your eyes on this! The choice of colour will become apparent later.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1410
Cast your mind back to the police seat that I had tested earlier and it is hard to imagine that it could become this. Now the pieces are really starting to come together and if I get busy I may be able to have the intermediate rack section finished for the trip to Eden coming up in a couple of weeks.

As usual I start with sticks and tape etc. to get an idea of lines and angles, like so ……
My K75 Xcountry Img_1411
then continue to add bits where required. The choice of tube and bar sizes to use was dictated by the rear rack section so that it all matched.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1412
My K75 Xcountry Img_1413
My K75 Xcountry Img_1414
My K75 Xcountry Img_1415
My K75 Xcountry Img_1416
My K75 Xcountry Img_1418
Painted and ready to be mounted the day before leaving for Eden with the Grabau brothers.

And this is how it looked on the trip. After 2,250 km on the round trip I can happily report that the seat is as comfortable as it looks - definitely an all day sitter.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1419

Now that the single seat was done I spent a few hours dismantling, cleaning and re-keying the seat lock that I had purchased second hand so that it could be locked with the bike ignition key. I had already done this with both sets of K bike panniers that I have so that I can use the panniers on either K bike and open them with that bike’s ignition key. I then had a brainwave about adding a helmet hook so that I could lock the helmet to the bike if I felt the need. The standard hook that is integral to the lock was rusted off on my secondhand one and the position would not have worked with the rack system that I had added. The K75’s came standard with a couple of little straps under the seat that can flipped out to hang a helmet on but I had decided many months before that I would never use them and given them to my good friend Rosskko. So I spent some time staring at the bike and then came up with the idea of making a hook that mounted on the pins that carry the rubbers where the electrical box mounts. I had to take the electrical box almost out and remove the rubbers to slip the hook onto the pin then put everything back. The length of the hook is such that the helmet can’t be taken off with the seat locked down.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1420
My K75 Xcountry Img_1421

As you have seen earlier, I have dispensed with the standard radiator shroud which has left the lower front section of the tank exposed like many of the Cafe Racer renovations. I felt that it needed something in there so I set about making an aluminium infill piece and taped it to the tank for a trial view.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1422

I was happy with the roughed out piece but had no idea as to how I could mount it and clear the hoses etc. around that area. I also could see that this was going to be a bit of a pain to make due to the curves I wanted. Anyhow ……….. must have a go!
After many hours, probably days in truth, the mounting solution was to slightly shorten the two “horns” at the front where the radiator shroud locating rubbers normally sit so that a rubber grommet could slide over and fit a non-standard grommet with flat surfaces in the larger hole on the side where the shroud pushes on and make a bracket to pick up those two locations ……….like so
My K75 Xcountry Img_1532
The infill piece can now be bolted to the bracket.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1533
And we have clearance!!
My K75 Xcountry Img_1534

The picture in my head always had a more retro mounting of the headlight rather than the black plastic moulding that was standard on the bike. My K75 had the black metal headlight shell with chrome ring which was perfect for fitting up plain mounting brackets off the forks. After scouring the internet looking at what was available I couldn’t find anything that took my fancy so I decided to make my own. The end product of most of the components I make myself is often driven by whatever raw materials I have lying about and this was no exception. I had in the shed a mounting bracket for car driving lights that came off one of my vehicles before I sold it and it was basically a section of 4 mm aluminium angle with a piece of 20mm tube across the front, like this
My K75 Xcountry Spotli10
So the design changed from mounting on the fork tubes to making two angle sections that bolted to the front of the triple clamps and then making two side plates that would support the headlight and bolt up to these angle sections. The trick was going to be locating the instruments and headlight in such a position that I could get the handlebar mounted screen to clear the instruments on the inside and align with the headlight rim.
My instruments mounted in the plastic cowling which was going so I had earlier purchased the cast alloy mounting setup that the K100RS bikes used. Careful measuring suggested that I needed to raise the instruments 30mm and set them forward 5mm from where they were originally. I made up wooden adapter mock ups to get the offsets that I wanted and fitted the instruments. Then I started with some thin plywood to test out my ideas.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1615
Which morphed into these after some carving of the aluminium with a jigsaw and some quality time with my file collection.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1616
Interesting trivia for anyone planning to mount stuff off the four 6mm holes (2 top and 2 bottom) in the triple clamps is that the plane across the flats in the top clamp is offset by 5 mm from the plane of the bottom clamp.

Next add plywood sides and try the headlight.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1618
Check clearances to the instruments and screen.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1619

Work out a final shape, cut it out and test it on the bike.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1620
My K75 Xcountry Img_1621
Work out the location for the indicators to mount and test on the plywood.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1622


It was now time to turn those little wooden blocks for the instruments into aluminium - more quality time with the files and belt sander for this result.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1623


And this is when I found out how tough that dark brown powder coating was to remove from the angle sections ……….. many hours later they look like this.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1624


A small flat aluminium strip covered by clear heat shrink tubing was added under the instruments to prevent the cables from rubbing on them.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1625


Then turn the plywood side sections into aluminium. I used the rubber sections out of the original headlight moulding and bonded them to the inside of the side sections to clamp against the serrated disk on the side of the headlight to provide positive clamping. The small hole adjacent to the main headlight mounting bolt is to allow for a raised section of the rubber washer to positively locate and help prevent the rubber washer from turning.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1626

And there you have it - a new headlight mounting.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1627

and front on with screen.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1628


Almost done with this bit. Just need to wire up the indicators,
My K75 Xcountry Img_1629

and make up some sort of a clamp to hold the main wiring harness that comes through under the lower triple clamp which has a large rubber locating block attached to it.

I found a scrap piece of 40 x 40 x 4 mm aluminium angle that might do the job and set about measuring, cutting and filing to come up with this bracket which will pick up the two lower mounting bolts for the headlight brackets.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1630

and mounted it like so ……..
My K75 Xcountry Img_1631

My K75 Xcountry Img_1632

Since I was messing about in the headlight area I might as well fit headlight relays to maybe improve the headlight output but mainly to take the load off the handlebar switches. I used two 20A sealed micro relays from Eastern Beaver and added diodes across the coils (for anyone interested the coil current for these relays is 120mA). These small relays were easily able to fit inside the headlight shell bound together with self fusing tape.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1633


We are now at July 2015 and after my recent trip to the Alpine Rally on the June long weekend in good company, Rosskko and Rick G, all on our K1100s I was reminded of how nice it was to have heated grips. So I tracked down a used pair of BMW heated grips and fitted them to the K75. This was fairly straight forward as the dash pad switch and the small 3 plug harness that goes between the supply plug in the standard harness and the wires coming from the grips was included; I just had to source and fit a connecting male/female plug for the wires from the grips and remove the G/S bars to drill them for the wiring in the centre and also drill and tap two 5mm holes to locate the left side grip. A nice little touch is that the grips are grey which will suit the scheme.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1634


The tank is away getting painted at the moment so I will update further when I get it back.


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

6Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:02 am

blaKey

avatar
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Are you serious?!?  Shocked

I can't glue two pieces of wood together, let alone do anything like you're doing! Fingers yes, wood no.

10 out of 10!


__________________________________________________
Neil
K100RS 1986 RED!

Dress for the ride and the potential slide.
    

7Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:55 am

TacKler

TacKler
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Life time member
Thanks for the write up Gaz. 

Easy to read, informative and your love of fabricating from scratch shows out. 

Just how I like it.

Cheers, Dave.


__________________________________________________
Red 1991 K75S
    

8Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Wed Jul 22, 2015 7:11 am

Gaz

Gaz
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Life time member
Thanks for the positive comments guys. The great thing about this forum is the collective knowledge and the vast range of ideas and skills that the members share. Creating individual machines is really as much a part of the joy of motorcycling as the riding isn't it? Whether it's just the choosing of a colour, the accessories we fit or messing about with the styling or mechanicals, we all derive a lot of joy from that journey.

Tackler you're dead right about my love of the challenge of turning a vision or as I call it "the picture in my head" into reality messing about with tools in the shed. The main ingredient is to be prepared to put in the time and you don't need sophisticated tooling.

Cheers


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

9Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:15 am

Stan

Stan
Life time member
Life time member
Bloody hell...you have certainly provided us with inspiration....your vision has been realised...thank you very much.


__________________________________________________
1983 K100 basic vin 0003960 colour red  GONE
1987 K100RT vin 0094685 colour, orange peel, sorry, pearl..GONE
F800R black
    

10Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:43 pm

sidecar paul

sidecar paul
Life time member
Life time member
Great work Gaz,
Love your metalwork.  My K75 Xcountry 502531

Paul.


__________________________________________________
'84 K100RS (0014643) (owned since '85), 86 K100RS (0018891) with Martello sidecar (built as an outfit in '88),
'51 Vincent (since '67),'72 Montesa Cota (from new), '87 Honda RS125R NF4 (bought 2015) 
....No CARS never ever!
    

11Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:52 am

Gaz

Gaz
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Thanks Paul.

This little touch that I recently added is probably in the same category as your blue starter button and Charlie's colour matching.
My fuse cover had the description of the fuses in German which is not my strong point so fellow K75 pilot, Tommy Grabau showed me his K75 (sold in Oz) riders manual which has the fuse labels in English. I got out the cutting polish and rubbed off the German lettering then made up a label to go inside the cover which looked like this.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1636

However this bike is not having side covers and I didn't like the look of the white patch on the predominately black side area, so ............

 My K75 Xcountry Img_1635

Ah!  That's better, or have I got too much time on my hands?


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

12Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:42 am

K75cster

K75cster
Life time member
Life time member
So, um what? Brisans didn't have any????


__________________________________________________
Keith - 1987 K75c with r100rt replica fairing and half of a 1984 K100rt 1992 K1100LT a blue one

The Clever are adept at extricating themselves from situations that the wise would have avoided from the outset - QUOTE from david Hillel in Out of the Earth.
    

13Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Thu Aug 06, 2015 1:47 am

Gaz

Gaz
Life time member
Life time member
So, what does a bloke do while he is waiting for his tank to get painted?

Start thinking about some conveniences for while travelling on this beast. These days most of us use a variety of modern gadgets that run on batteries and need recharging while we're out and about. This bike came with the standard single Merritt power socket on the right hand side of the dash pad, so I added another on the left side to give me a socket for the GPS and another for charging said gadgets in the tank bag while I'm on the move.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1713
I have also found on the other bikes that it is handy if you can get power to a rack pack or seat bag (or top box for others) at the rear end of the bike so I set about making a funny little box,
My K75 Xcountry Img_1637
then put some paint on the outside, wires on the inside and a Merritt power socket on one end and a dual USB socket the other end.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1715
My K75 Xcountry Img_1714
Some wiring on the frame to supply the box off the same fuse as the other power sockets.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1639
and mounted it up just forward of the tail light bracket using the same two bolts that secure the rear end of the rack.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1716

When I'm finally finished adding bits all of this homemade stuff will have to come off again to get powder coated to give me a durable coating.

Cheers


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

14Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Mon Aug 10, 2015 4:08 am

Gaz

Gaz
Life time member
Life time member
Well, the time has finally arrived to see the beast in it's new clothes. The colour I chose was Graphite Metallic code 342 which was used on a 1995 K75. When it went on I must admit that it was a couple of shades darker than I expected but I'm not the first to find that a colour turns out a little different than you envisaged.

Also I might have a bit of an engineering bent but I am no artist so keen followers of the BMW range of bikes might notice that I have drawn inspiration for the tank logo from a 2007 G650Xcountry. I am a keen admirer of the GS/crossover genre of bikes of all makes and when I saw one of those back in 2007 I filed it away in the memory bank for future reference.

Here it is in dual seat mode (bad time of the day to get a photo and I'm not talented in that regard either),
My K75 Xcountry Img_1717
and a bit closer to get a better look at the tank detail.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1718
Now in single seat mode out in the sun to try to show the dark grey metallic.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1719
Back inside now to see the whole bike in single seat mode. The reference earlier in the thread about the choice of seat colour was that I always wanted the "K" in the tank logo to match the colour of the seat and it is easier to colour match paint to a vinyl colour than the other way around so the tank couldn't be painted until after the seat was built.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1720

I'm almost there with this project. The remaining challenge is to add a functional but not ugly sump guard/bash plate to protect the front of the engine on gravel roads (Charlie has been on my case each time he has seen the bike to fit a fender extender for that very purpose - and I know they work Charlie as I've got one on my K1100 but I have something different in mind).

Cheers


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

15Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Mon Aug 10, 2015 4:15 am

Rick G

Rick G
admin
admin
"The remaining challenge is to add a functional but not ugly sump guard/bash plate to protect the front of the engine on gravel roads"

Now this I will be watching, don't ask for ideas as I have none for that.


__________________________________________________
"Man sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."   Dalai Lama


Bikes 1999 K1100 LT with a Big Block 1200
    

16Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Mon Aug 10, 2015 4:15 am

charlie99

charlie99
VIP
VIP
looks fantastic gaz

woohoo !!


__________________________________________________
cheezy grin whilst riding, kinda bloke ....oh the joy !!!! ...... ( brick aviator )

'86 K100 RT..#0090401 ..."Gerty" ( Gertrude Von Clickandshift ) --------O%O
'86 k100 rs.. #######..  "Fred " (f(rame) red ) ( Fredrick leichtundschnell ) - -
bits and pieces from many kind friends across the k100 world ...with many thanks ..
1987 k100rs ########   "Red"  - (red sports rs TWB style )
1989 K100rt #009637   "Black Betty"  (naked rt ala Nigel , now sporting an rs main fairing )
    

17Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Mon Aug 10, 2015 4:24 am

Stan

Stan
Life time member
Life time member
What a knock out bike you have there...well done.



Last edited by ainsjac on Tue Aug 11, 2015 6:17 am; edited 1 time in total


__________________________________________________
1983 K100 basic vin 0003960 colour red  GONE
1987 K100RT vin 0094685 colour, orange peel, sorry, pearl..GONE
F800R black
    

18Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty My K75 X Country Mon Aug 10, 2015 6:42 pm

Tom G

Tom G
Life time member
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Amazing work Gaz. The whole job is absolutely fantastic!!!!!

    

19Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Tue Aug 11, 2015 5:55 am

K75cster

K75cster
Life time member
Life time member
It looks fantastic Gaz, If you want to lengthen that fender then head to the AG shop and grab a rubber guard (mudflap) off a farm bike, that'll fix Charlie's need for protection


__________________________________________________
Keith - 1987 K75c with r100rt replica fairing and half of a 1984 K100rt 1992 K1100LT a blue one

The Clever are adept at extricating themselves from situations that the wise would have avoided from the outset - QUOTE from david Hillel in Out of the Earth.
    

20Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:42 am

Holister

Holister
Life time member
Life time member
Nice tank bling. And the satin finish on the front mud guard is a nice touch. Well done. Cool


__________________________________________________

1989 K100RT     VIN  0097367 (naked)  
1996 K1100RS   VIN  0451808
 My K75 Xcountry Austra12    Fuel:  95 Octane
Engine Oil: Nulon Full Synthetic 15W50
Gear Box Oil:  Nulon Synthetic 75W90
    

21Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sat Aug 22, 2015 7:24 am

smithy

smithy
Life time member
Life time member
Great job Gaz, I've enjoyed watching the evolution of your bike and now I'm looking forward to seeing it in the flesh. Great write up mate. BTW the tank looks fantastic!


__________________________________________________
87 K100rs : Vin 9462 
86 K100rt : Vin 9901
Naked
98 K1100lt: Vin 8044
    

22Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sat Aug 22, 2015 10:48 am

Point-Seven-five

Point-Seven-five
Life time member
Life time member
Normally, I abhor cafe and scrambler hack jobs, but this one really looks good and even makes me think about doing one myself.

Beautiful job!  Especially the seat, looks really comfy.


__________________________________________________
Present: 1991 K100RS "Moby Brick Too"
 
Past:
1994 K75RT "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS"
1988 K100RS SE "Special Ed"
1994 K75S "Cheetos"
1992 K100RS "Moby Brick" R.I.P.
1982 Honda FT500
1979 Honda XR185
1977 Honda XL125
1974 Honda XL125
1972 OSSA Pioneer 250
1968 Kawasaki 175
    

23Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sun Aug 23, 2015 5:58 am

Waz

Waz
Life time member
Life time member
Very nicely done :BW:


__________________________________________________
K100 RS
K100RS with 1100 motor Premier sidecar
K100 RT KRAUSER FAIRING
R1200GS
650 Vstrom
    

24Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sun Aug 23, 2015 7:24 am

BIG D

BIG D
Life time member
Life time member
Cool

Great write up and what an outcome, a very smart and inspirational looking bike "top marks"



BIG D

    

25Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sun Aug 23, 2015 8:20 pm

Gaz

Gaz
Life time member
Life time member
While I mull over how I might fit a bash plate I thought I'd post a bit of trivia.

Have any of you ever wished you had black hose clamps to better blend in with a particular look on your bike?

Well while I was working on the tank infill pieces I noticed that the radiator hose clamp on the left side would be immediately below the infill piece and I thought it would detract from the look once those pieces were polished (see first photo)
My K75 Xcountry Img_1537
So, how can I get over this other than try to find anodised black hose clamps which none of the suppliers around my area had in stock. Well you can cover the smooth section with black heat shrink and rotate the clamp so the screw is out of sight like below.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1722
So that with the infill piece in place it looks like this.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1723

As I've admitted before - maybe I have too much time on my hands. Thanks again for the positive comments.
Cheers


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

26Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sun Aug 23, 2015 10:38 pm

indian036

indian036
Life time member
Life time member
Good thinking, 99!

You're right, you have too much time on your hands, but you don't have to take any notice of anyone who criticises. Very Happy

Love your work, Gary. Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh sometime. 

Bill


__________________________________________________
1985 K100RT  VIN 0028991  My original Very Happy ROB the Red Old Bike   (Historic rego)
1985 K100RT  VIN 0029036  BOB the Blue Old Bike  (Historic rego)
1990 K100LT  VIN 0190452  Work in progress
1984 K100RT  VIN 0023022  Work needing lots of progress

1986 K100RT  VIN 0090542  Work needing lots and lots of progress
1993 K1100LT  VIN 0183046  Work in progress
1993 K75S  VIN 0213045  Tom the Triple (now on Historic rego too.)
    

27Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sat Oct 10, 2015 11:00 pm

floyd

floyd
Life time member
Life time member
The bike is looking fantastic gaz! Very classy and clean. Like it a lot.

Excellent write up too. Great contribution to the collective knowledge on here 😉


__________________________________________________
K100 with lots of K1100 bits - mongrel of a thing...
    

28Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Sun Oct 11, 2015 9:16 am

Gaz

Gaz
Life time member
Life time member
Thanks Floyd. Good to see you active on here again.

I've been too busy lately to get to the bash plate with having gone to the Far Cairn Rally, the Scrapheap Adventure Ride and today down to Sydney for the BMW car and bike show then off to the UK next weekend. So the bash plate will have to wait until 2016.

The little beast has done 20,000 kms in the 20 months that I have had it registered while the build has been going on. I just changed the front tyre after having got 19,500 km out of that Pirelli Scorpion Trail.

Cheers


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

29Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Fitting a single seat Wed Jun 06, 2018 8:03 pm

Packo

Packo
Silver member
Silver member


Earlier on in the build I had purchased an ex-police single seat off another inmate (naturally I had thrown away the one that was on my K1100 when I bought it many years before) and as I had had some fun on the bike lately it was time to settle down and do a bit more on the project. I had managed to purchase a second hand front single seat hinge but did not have a rear hinge so I made one up to do a trial fit of the seat.
My K75 Xcountry Img_1116

My K75 Xcountry Img_1117
To Gaz, or anybody else who has done this,
I have inherited a single seat and am trying to fit it
I have the rear hinge complete both the part on the seat and bracket in the second photo
I also have the hinge in the first photo, but am missing the bit that bolts onto the seat at the front to take this hinge
Is it the same as the rear one or is it something different
A photo would be good if someone can manage it


__________________________________________________
______________
 
83 K100 HRD Outfit
1992 K1100 Outfit
2003 R1150 GSA Outfit
1983 K100 Basic
    

30Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Wed Jun 06, 2018 8:37 pm

Gaz

Gaz
Life time member
Life time member
Hi there Packo, nice of you to remember my K75 project. She's still running around - have done over 50,000km on it since I owned it.

Anyway the parts you need are items 2 & 3 in the linked RealOEM page here.

They are handed mirror image which you might be able to see in the photos below that I have just taken (looks like I need to clean under that seat).

Front Hinge
My K75 Xcountry Img_3212
Rear hinge
My K75 Xcountry Img_3210

Both
My K75 Xcountry Img_3211

I'm in between houses at the moment living mainly out of boxes so can't recall whether I've got a spare one or where it would be. I'm sure someone will have one in their boxes of bits. Hope this helps.

Cheers


__________________________________________________
Gaz
1990 K75 6427509; 1987 R80G/S PD 6292136; 2010 G650GS ZW13381; 95 K1100LT 0232224
    

31Back to top Go down   My K75 Xcountry Empty Re: My K75 Xcountry Wed Jun 06, 2018 9:13 pm

Packo

Packo
Silver member
Silver member
Thanks Gaz, much appreciated, now I can see how it all works


__________________________________________________
______________
 
83 K100 HRD Outfit
1992 K1100 Outfit
2003 R1150 GSA Outfit
1983 K100 Basic
    

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