I know I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, but I really fancy using the KBS ClearCoat that HALO put on his engine and metal components. There is a KBS agent in the UK, but they don't do the aerosol cans and I don't have any spraying equipment.

Is there a UK equivalent for the KBS ClearCoat or do I have do ask my daughter to bring a few cans with her when she comes over from WA for Xmas?

Sooooo...after 18 months of inactivity, I find myself in another continent with my trusty (but heavily stripped!) K100RT sitting in my other garage some 2000km away.

It's good to be back - and I still intend to renovate my bike, but my plan is now to get it roadworthy and MOTd and then ride it over to Europe where I can start the strip-down afresh and get the job done properly at my leisure.

Nice to see that the forum is still going strong and that there's still loads of good banter and knowledge swopped daily.

The minimum I need to do is make sure that the bike is serviced and any moving parts still move as BMW intended - the bike failed in 2007 on brakes and steering head bearings - then get the fairing etc. back on and get it through an MOT.

That won't happen overnight, and it'll need a few trips back home to get things sorted, but with all the good info on the forum, I'm pretty confident that everything will be OK.

Funnily enough (given that loads of members come from Down Under), I'm in Oz WA right now. Nice to see that everyone is so active and keeping in touch!

More to come - probably in dribs and drabs to begin with - but I'm really inspired with the enthusiasm shown here, and for sure, my K100RT will hit the roads again soon!

good onya tintock

sad to hear of the distance issue

keep at it ol mate

Thanks, Charlie!

At least the bike has been kept indoors, so its in much the same state as I left it.

Looking forward to getting started once I return from Oz.

Be aware that if you're fitting the cheaper stainless bolts only use them in non stressed areas, low grade stainless is fairly brittle in the general scheme of things and may fail under load.
The £200 bolt kits from motobins/motorworks are a higher grade than the ebay stuff and are designed for the loads expected.

I bought a load of cheap ones from ebay a while ago and they've been really handy for general stuff,  but the Motobins full kit I bought  is of far higher quality.

Thanks for taking the time to read through my thread, SAB. All advice is gratefully received, I can assure you!

TBH, I have no idea of the quality of the S/S bolts I bought from www.boltmeup.com -  they look OK, but that's the full extent of my knowledge on the subject of S/S bolts. Worryingly, I visited the website after reading your warning and, of course, it doesn't exist any more. Hmmmm!

At a cost of £9.85 for 280 bolts, nuts and washers, I think your probably right to be concerned about the quality issue - me too, now lol!

I paid a similar amount for the heap I got and they've been really handy.
Just don't use them for high stress areas like the frame or brakes!

Hey TT, how long are you in WA for?

PM me if you want a K ride whilst you are "down under".

Rawdon

Thanks for the very kind offer, Rawdon - much appreciated! I must pass, however, as I think I'm going to have my hands full!

I'm only here for another 3 weeks - my daughter is due to give birth any time and then we'll be heading back up to her place way up north, so she gets to hang out with her folks for a little longer and we get to chauffeur her around, cook her some decent grub and meet our new grand-daughter!

I must say, though, you guys live in a very nice part of the world - perfect biking weather for sure!

tintock wrote:...my daughter is due to give birth...and we get to...meet our new grand-daughter!...

Surprise, surprise! Although the health professionals confidently and consistently predicted a girl, my new grand-daughter turned out to be a hale and hearty, bouncing baby BOY! Oh well, I'm sure all those pink clothes will come in handy for someone somewhere!

On the downside, some scumbag broke into our rented house in Perth and stole my daughter's luggage with all her personal effects, baby gifts, engagement ring and jewellery. And the police were worse than useless - no investigation, no effort and no interest in the case. Absolutely hopeless!

Back to the real topic - the Beemer! My brother-in-law has kindly offered to take the bike over to his place, get it roadworthy and MOT'd, and then (maybe!) ride it over to me so I can get the renovation under way. No certainty of timescale to it, unfortunately, as he's a busy guy, but he's a terrific mechanic so the bike will be in good hands until it reaches me - and then it will be in a bodger's hands!

So time for me to start reviewing the renovation threads again - particularly those involving a conversion from faired bike to unfaired. Its frustrating that the project is taking longer than an elephant's pregnancy, but at least there's some light at the end of the tunnel!

Congrats on the grandchild.

Sorry about the Perth Bogans. We have a Perth grand kid due in
December so I might have to put them onto your daughter if it turns out to be one of those that one puts in "pink".

I have a K100 naked that used to be an RS and was converted by Previous owner. Let me know if you need a photo or two. The PO did the conversion because he found a brand new BMW kit in an unopened box!

R

rawdonball wrote:...I have a K100 naked that used to be an RS and was converted by Previous owner. Let me know if you need a photo or two...

Photos would be much appreciated! I've been looking around Google images and stuff to remind myself what naked Ks close to the factory standard look like. I'm definitely more "tourer" than "streetfighter" or "cafe racer" lol!

What do you want pictures off?

ReneZ wrote:What do you want pictures off?

rawdonball kindly offered to post some photos of his naked K100 following my interest in converting my RT.

I'd find that useful as, although there are loads of photos of naked Ks on the net, many of those I've came across so far are "pose" photos and don't illustrate a high level of detail.

Reason I asked is that I have a naked here and could get you detailed pictures, but you still haven't told us what you want pictures of. At least I assume you don't need detailed pictures of each andf every bit of the bike? Anyway, you have somebody helping you, hat's the most important.

Hi ReneZ,

Thanks for coming back to me. The truth is, since I started the bike stripdown, I've been fairly clear in my own mind that I would renovate the machine in its entirety back to "as new" condition.

For a variety of reasons, the project has stalled, but I continued to think along the lines of an "as new" renovation.

I now realise that a fully faired bike is probably not ideal for the local hot and breezy climate, so I've been considering ditching the fairing, retaining the panniers and top-box, and (probably) putting up a screen to keep the bugs off me and my pillion.

So I suppose that's a long-winded way of saying that I'm looking for the discrete differences between the stock K100RT and a sort of hybridised tourer minus the fairing.

One thing I'd definitely like to do is fit a modern, powerful headlamp to replace the original stock item, but other than that I don't foresee any radical alterations. I've seen a few photos of bikes with a belly-pan fitted and I like the look of that, but there will be other things that I'm either missing or haven't considered. I'm no mechanic, so there's bound to be technical aspects to a changeover that I'm unaware of.

There's no great rush on as I don't physically have the bike with me right now, but hopefully that little problem will be sorted out in the months to come.

So I'd be grateful for any relevant photos, suggestions or links to similar projects. I'm still trawling the net for ideas and I know there'll be loads of info on here but I suffer from a lack of browsing discipline as I find myself flitting from one topic to another like a demented butterfly!

Interestingly enough I used to have a K100RT in Scotland (close to Glasgow) before I moved to Florida. I now have a naked because of the weather here. As I drove year-around (for fun, not commuting) I was happy with my RT fairing and you are in one of the most beautiful areas for bike riding in the world! They should just switch on the sun a bit more often :-)

Aye, I agree about the bike-riding country in my homeland. But its currently 35C where I am at the moment (not near Glasgow lol!) and I'd simply melt sitting behind a fairing. In fact, I wish they'd turn the sun down a bit every once in a while!

Lots of the parts you will need for a naked conversion are on THIS page at motorworks. Second hand.

Then mirrors, screws etc, indicators.

If you want the naked K radiator surround prepare to pay through the nose for it. ALL THE PARTS

Many thanks for that useful info, rossko. Food for thought.

Sadly, a leg injury has put paid paid to my planned restoration. There's no way I could manage up and down and around the bike to get it properly restored.

Even swinging my leg over the bike would be a major issue, so I've reluctantly put it up in the 'For Sale' section.

My thanks to everyone here who freely offered valuable advice and assistance - it was greatly appreciated! I'm only sorry I couldn't put it into practice.

Tintock

Sorry to hear that, its always nice to see someone getting out and about on the K.

Does the leg injury mean you wont be on 2 wheels at all? Any chance of being back at any stage?

Thanks for your kind words, Olaf. It's entirely possible that I might get back on 2 wheels at some stage, but my current range of strength and movement makes it impracticable for the near future.

tintock wrote:Thanks for your kind words, Olaf. It's entirely possible that I might get back on 2 wheels at some stage, but my current range of strength and movement makes it impracticable for the near future.

A tough blow Tintock....good look with the recovery!

tintock wrote:Thanks for your kind words, Olaf. It's entirely possible that I might get back on 2 wheels at some stage, but my current range of strength and movement makes it impracticable for the near future.

I sold a bike a long time ago because due to an injury I wasn't going to ride it for some time and it finished up being about half the time and then I had to go out and buy another for more than I got for the original so I bought that then ordered a brandnew z1300 Kawasaki which I still own. I really regretted selling that bike it was a bad move.
The moral of the story is don't sell if you can possibly avoid it.

I went through a bad accident many years back, broke 14 bones. It took time to get strength back and I still feel some effects. The hardest part was the physio afterwards and I needed a target. Maybe not something as big as a Z1300 but something to get those muscles doing what they need to do. Sadly when the body is broke the muscles not being used waste away and have to be brought back with what can be painful exercise. I took me 6 months before I could drive a car after it but I did everything that involved moving around. Some of the joints and bone angles are not the best but the human body is fairly creative at finding alternatives. Admittedly I was young but we would like to see you back on 2 wheels at some point, or 3 wheels if it has to be. I go on bike runs some times and meet a guy with a really nice CBX that he had to convert to a trike due to an injury. Another friend I know going back over 40 years can't get on a bike any more and converted his Gold Wing to 3 wheels. We have to help him off it when out............it just goes with the territory.

I really appreciate your comments and suggestions, Olaf, 88 and Rick G. What a great community this is!

The bike is currently with my brother-in-law who is far more talented in the mechanicals department than me (apparently, according to a mechanic friend, I couldn't put a nut in a monkey's mouth!). Anyway, he emailed me a short video (I'm on holiday at the mo) of his first attempt at firing the old girl up after taking care of the fluids and filters etc.

What happened next? It burst into life immediately and the burbling 4-stoke sound of the old engine nearly brought a tear to my eye! OK, there was 1 tear, but that's all I'm admitting to!

It sounded beautiful - and just as I remembered! Not bad for a bike that hasn't turned a wheel in 8 years!

I was going to put the video up on the forum as its only a short clip, but it seems that even a tiny video can't be posted. I thought it would be nice, but I suppose everyone knows what the K sounds like by now!

I have to say that I changed my mind about selling immediately I heard the bike burst into life, but, having slept on it, realise that my first instincts were the right ones. There's no possibility of me getting around the bike to renovate it and I doubt if I could support it if it over-balanced.

There's always another day - and another bike!