I will be starting my R80 custom adventure bike soon. I will be posting pictures of my progress and ideas that I have. I hoping to get some tips and feedback along the way. Here is a picture of my frame. It is a monolever frame. It was made in August of 1986 . It has a title. Hopefully it is straight!?! $210 Shipped.

I have rented a 10,000 square foot warehouse. It might be a bit overkill for this project but here is where I will be building it.

Warehouse

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Alex,
I'll definitely pitch in to help you with this in Philly...maybe we can stick a classic K-bike motor on there!

edde

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edde
93 BMW K75s
www.motoedde.com

That's an interesting start you've made and quite a novel idea by attaching a large fan to the bottom of the frame . Will you get enough lift from that to get it to hover and what are you thinking about for forward propulsion ?

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...on the road to nowhere...

Biking roads by bikers for bikers www.bestbikingroads.com

That's a air conditioner for riding in hot climates. It keeps the chocolates from melting.

Here's a few sugestions. Start by tossing the rear sub-frame and build one out of Chro-mo, be sure to gusset and triangulate properly to the main frame. Look closely at how BMW welds attachment points to the tubing and copy it. Re-enforce the frame Ala HPN.Good time to start thinking about a new tripple clamp and some real forks. KTM stuff is a good option. WP 4860 forks are an excellent fork, found on E-Bay sometimes for cheap and easy to customise. Marazzocci 50mm Extreme is also a good bet, but not as plentiful. Make sure you use parts that are common and easy to find. Wish i were there!

Don't screw around, if you plan on spending good money send the damn frame to HPN and have it reinforced. They will provide mounting points for the 43L tank, larger fairings etc. and the sub frame will be redone with new gussets and extra reinforcing. While you do this let them also add the pannier frame kit. I will also consider the option of fitting the long travel forks with lengthened swing arm. All and all you would need about $9500 for this lot that should include the frame mods, WP 48mm forks to fit your G/S front wheel, rear shock and the longer drive shaft. This will also include a new crash bar set modified with longer side stand and the small carrier frame for single seat use.
The only downside to this is that you will have to find something else to do for the next one and a half years as this is how long you will have to wait for them to get your job done.
But time flies and before you know it you will be ready to start assembly of one of the greatest machines ever built

Getting it done by HPN would be awesome but I dont really want to pay the euro. I love working on my bike at every level too. The hardest thing hpn does is change the angle of the headtube. Sending a frame across the seas and to get powercoated and welded and for it to take a long time isnt practical. I think the US has a lot fabricators that can do what I need done. I am still debating whether or not to get all of these upgrades. I need to decide soon so I can continue with my project.

I agree. As awesome as HPN is, what they do is not rocket science. Any good fabricator who is skilled with motorcycles can do the same job for much less. Alex, are you a fabricator, or will you be farming most of the work out?

Do you happen to know what HPN does with the frame? The reinforcement is just a small part of the work.
I seriously doubt that any good fabricator could do the same work for around 1000 Euro, but they can probably make copies of the reinforcement.
Up here all I can get for 1000 euro is that I can rent a welder for less then two days, will he manage to get me a frame with the same quality? I don’t think so; he will probably need at least a week just to build the jigs, after he has figured out how they should be.


Most fabricators will also have problems with tasks like:
-Extend monolever and driveshaft
-Produce extended paralevers
-Hub-production
-How to fit a 140” tire on a monolever and paralever
-Increase power with 50 percent and still have a durable engine
-Design titanium conrods
-Design cranks
-Design camshafts
-Make the smoothest boxer-engines ever produced
….. the list goes on and on.

BTW: it is all tüv-approved.


Most good fabricators will know how to make parts if you give them a drawing or a part they can copy but only a few are able to design something from scratch.
IMHO HPNs advantage is that they have a lot of experience and they have good designers. They have build aprox 700 bikes and sold a lot of parts.
Most companies (even Gletter) that builds airhead-adventure bikes use some HPN-parts


I’m not saying that HPN is the only ones who can modify bikes, and modifying a bike can be really funny (this also goes for a HPN-project).
I have spent a lot of time modifying my own bikes for many years and it has given me much pleasure and I have learned a lot. It’s a nice hobby!

I think a simple head tube reinforcement and a reinforced subrame should do the trick. Most driveshaft shops can extend a driveshaft. I dont know how hardcore i need to get with titanium connector rods. I dont want to build a race bike.

I would like to most of my self. I do lack a lot of tools though. If I get my hands on a welder, i would like to do the reinforcements. There are a few things I i might get farmed out elsewhere like the triple clamps that work with bigger forks. There is someone in Virginia that machines them, and they wont mess around with the tank. Its stuff like that, I dont want to dropping money on R&D.

Hi Alex
The only part of the red and white bike that has been assembled or worked on by HPN was the frame. The rest of the work I have done myself. HPN have supplied most of the parts but then a lot of what was done to this bike is great but not necessary for a traveling bike.
GS frames do crack and brake and from the rally experience HPN accumulated a wealth of knowledge to reinforce the frames at the areas where the are most likely to brake. Besides, after welding the frame is all twisted from the heat and need to be straighten again. HPN uses a special jig for this and it can take an experienced operator some time to get the frame true again.
The money spend on the frame including the shipping is peanuts in comparison with what you are going to spend on this bike, so don't be wise about this. Besides you are playing with your own life because a frame collapsing at 120km/h will not be fun and can cost you more than the approx. $ 4000.00 for the basic adventure frame with no crash bars and pannier frame including shipping from the US and back. (no powder coating as they will send you the frame as is after the changes are made.)

Hi guys ,
I did some extensive trip with my old Bemmer and I was curiouos to know if you guys are really sure about spenting that much money on a used bike is wise and well worth it. I always upgraded my bike and easily spent few $1000 dollars doing it but $10000+ on frame work.. is that such a huge diffence?, I am not criticising I am just curious. Regarding using a regular welder to work on transforming your frame ,I will think that may be difficult to find a guys with enough experience and real knowledge to do it right, anyone can weld but I saw pro welder doing HD and I will not trust them on something so different to thier regular work.I once design my own luggage rack and it took me a lot of time and reseach to get the right guy to do the job.

I modified my own ´89 PD for about $7k, plus $4k for the bike. I stripped and re-enforced the frame. Built a Chrome-moly sub-frame and designed a simple but solit pannier system. I also built a custom tripple-clamp for WP 4860 forks, which i had shortened and re-sprung by a pro. I have a 215-21 front whel with oversize spokes built for Ralley laced onto a billet Eagle hub. The bike uses a KTM Hardparts 310mm rotor and a Berringer 4-piston caliper. With a 12mm master cylinder, only 2 fingers will lock up the front wheel! Motor has re-built heads with dual plugs, 32mm carbs. The bike is rock solid and has been tested two-up, easily burns any fuel you put into it and is super re-liable. Compared to my recently purchased, over complicated 12oo gs, this is a better travel bike hands down, which is why i´ve decided to keep it
You can see it here: web.mac.com/adventman .
I won´t argue with the quality of HPN, their stuff makes me drool! But i also feel that it may not be necesary for just a travel bike. Depends on your expectations, really.
Just a note: I work as a Special Effects Fabricator in the Vancouver film industry. The stuff i build usually puts the well being of everyone involved into my hands. Failure is never an option! I´m fortunate to have both the tools and the skills to build my own bikes. I don´t mean to say in my previous post that these mods can be done by just anyone. I apolagise for any mis-understanding.
HPN is without a doubt the master in building off-road airheads and should be considered if someone plans on going to the extreme that these bikes are built for. That being said, i read about a guy who recently rode around the world on some kind of scooter thing...to each their own.

You can use a KTM tripple clamp from a 950, you only need a new pin machined to fit the bearings in your headstock. This also makes life much easier, all front-end components become plug and play KTM parts, which are very good IMHO.
...But! I just remembered, you MAY have clearence issues with the fuel tank. This is the problem with the ´89 PD, requiring a custom clamp.. Maybe GS Workshop knows?? Maybe placement of the tank ot the tank itself can be adjusted?