The XSTROM Project

I'll just add on to the last post here:
And now, a few more weeks of rain have gone by and the front end swap project is mostly done.
It only required machining a couple of "shim collars" in order to use the standard Suzuki head bearings with the standard KTM tripple-clamps. We had to do away with the Suzuki's two stage bearing tightening method (seperate adjustments for the upper and lower bearings) and use the single tension nut of the KTM system. That was because the KTM head shaft was about 15mm shorter than the Suzuki one and it would have been more unnecessary work to extend the KTM head shaft.  There was a bit of work to get the "turn limit stop" set up right to maximise the limited turn radius, but other than that it was pretty much bolt-on... And the Suzuki ignition switch even screws right in to the KTK top tripple clamp (I guess its a standard format for most bikes).
And so now the bike has been largely reassembled again and can now be riden around to see what I think of the changes...First impressions are that it works really nicely....The single disk brake works fine with the old suzuki brake lever/master cylinder though unsurprisingly, it does have significantly less stopping power, and also unsurprisingly, the new forks "dive" quite a lot when brakes are suddenly applied.... Shouldnt be a problem though at the speeds I generally ride. I have not yet tried to hook up the speedo cable and that may or may not "talk" happily with the Suzuki speedo... Ill see about that soon enough.

Here are a couple of pictures to show what the bike lookes like now:

Im quite pleased with how it looks but the point is rather how it handles... and Ill have to ride it for a while to figure that out.

 The bigest issue at the moment that I can see , is the more limited turning radius that the bike now has... Its a product of the larger diameter "upside-down" fork tubes and the shorter trailing distance from the fork centres  to the headset pivot point (because the wheel is mounted on the front of the forks rather directly on the bottom like the old set-up)...

As it currently stands, I think the bike is very useable and I can do a U-turn in any small street, but Id like the tighter turns that it used to have, so Im figuring out what to do about that... The likely solution is to get "tripple-clamps" from the KTM950 (big brother to the KTM640 parts that I used for the mod')... I know the forks are the same size, but I think they are wider set to accomodate twin front discs and a wider front tire... If so, that should make for a "drop-in" replacement (as well as the longer front axle) and improved turn radius as hoped... I shall have to get some measurements and then I'll know.
After that, I think the next thing to think about changing will be to try to swap out the head-light assembly for something smaller and lighter (get rid of the weight and visual obstruction of those lights and the top fairing)...

But that will wait till the spring Im pretty sure, cos its about to get frosty here in the mornings and therefore dangerous and slippery. thats not gonna stop me riding of course, but Id hate to drop and damage my nice new black sport bike. So, in a week or two Ill put the sport bike "to bed" for the winter and transfer the registration/insurance back to this old touring bike, and Ill ride it through the winter :))

But the project is going pretty well so far :))

Like I said, Im "projecting" my beaten up old DL650 and am putting a more "off-road" friendly front end on it.

Here are a couple of pictures from the bike at present... The old front forks have been removed and Mark (My machinist/mechanic friend) has put the new "tripple clamps" in the head tube (from an old KTM640 Adventurer)... Looks like it will work without too much machining and turning, and hopefully the turning radius is not too diminished...

The New Girl

It seems there is a new girl in my life :)

She's German, and perhaps a little surprisingly (though I cant justify why it would be surprising in these "enlightened" times), she's Black!...

... and dare I say it, Shes also "A good ride!"  :)))

 Well of course she's a motorbike... The chances of me getting any girlfriend at all, let alone a German of African descent seem remote to me, and bordering on rediculous! :)))

So, Whats the story with me getting "yet another" motorbike?

Well, I have decided that the beaten-up grey touring bike (Suzuki DL650 VSTROM) that has served me well for 200,000Km is pretty much "worn out"... Not to the point where its ready to be "scrapped" (I truely believe that the bike still has at least another 100,000Km in it ), but to the point where there is virtually no resale value in it at all (Id guess less than $1000) and where it also needs another thousand dollars and several days of work put into it to get it back to good riding condition...
And Im not averse to doing that... But Im more inclined to try something a bit more radical... :)
I am finally going to do the modification to the front-end that Ive been threatening to do for about three years, and Im going to put the "big trail-bike" front wheel and suspension on it and hopefully redo the rear suspension somewhat too. And to do that, I need to take the bike off the road for a few months while the changes are being made (Its not something I want to try to rush)... (There will be a seperate post on that project in the near future)
And so, with winter comming up quickly here (first snow on the tops of the local mountains here last night), I was looking through the local "for sale" web-site when I noticed this bike for sale at what seemed like a very good price... and well, one thing led to another and pretty quickly, I had bought my-self another bike... That makes it four at the moment!!!

So, what are the details?
Well its a 2007 BMW R1200S... And that I expect sounds like a bunch of pretty meaningless letters and numbers to most non-motorbike people... Fair enough, Ill procede to explain:

First and obviously its made in 2007 (so its far from new but also far from "old"), and its a BMW (they make motorbikes as well as cars).
The R1200 is the name of the engine which is a 1200cc (though its actualy only 1170cc or so)... Thats a pretty big motorbike engine... not the biggest but certainly big, and certainly bigger than Ive ever owned before (750cc was my biggest I think). And the "R" is the BMW designation for their classic "Boxer" format two cylinder engines... In fact BMW have been making them for so long in their motorbikes that the name "boxer" is virtually synonimous with BMW in the motorbike world.
For the others, it means its a "horazontally opposed" twin cylinder engine. These engines also have a well earned reputation of being very reliable, long lasting, simple, and easy to repair... Again, these BMW "R series" motorbikes have been being used for "adventure touring" from long before that phrase was even invented... In short, great engines.
And finally, the "S" is simply for "sport" (well thats an acceptable english translation).  Now, most people would probably think I would choose an "adventure touring" or at least a "touring" model... And BMW certainly make them, and there are plenty of them in the for-sale lists (Notably the GSA, RT, and K series bikes).
But it seems that Im a very "visually stimulated" person, and I have to say that I really didnt find that I liked the sizes and shapes of any of BMWs bikes (and Ive test ridden a few at various times in the past)... Until this one. Most BMW bikes I would characterize as being overly large and too heavy for me to enjoy... certainly for adventure touring but also for around town and comuting use.
But the "1200S" is a bit different... Its the penultimate development of the classic boxer engine (there is one more recent model that is more sophisticated with over-head camms and lots of expensive engineering tweaks to get the most out of it ), so its output power is significantly higher than past models while the weight is lower; and the bike was aimed at the "sporting" market, so its considerably "slimmer" and lighter than most BMW bikes too. So, power size and weight are all in the "OK" category for me, but the most critical aspect is that I actually like the look of the bike... and I do... quite a lot :))

In fact, in many regards, its very much in-line with the look of the little yellow sport bike that I "built" over the last few years (and jut got damaged in an accident a month or so back)...
Its nice and curvy without many harsh corners in body shape ... I definitely like curves :)
Its a twin cylinder ... I much prefer the tourque and sound of a twin over the higher pitched fernetic fours.
Its fairings are only on the top half of the bike, leaving the engine and drive-train exposed to view (again, I like to be able to "see" the "mechanics"  :)
And its got a nice single-sided rear swing-arm and an "undertail" exhaust system that leaves the rear wheel visually clear and "uncluttered"... Although my little bike is a chain drive and this one is a shaft drive... Ive always wanted to try a shaft drive bike... So much cleaner and less maintenance :)

So, I like the look of the bike, and Id possibly have bought one years ago but for a couple of significant obstacles...
First challenge is that the "Sport" line of bikes from BMW has only "come into being" in the last few years (Well, actually they started the S line in the late 90s but the bikes were in reality much more "tourers" than sport bikes). In the past, BMW have mostly focussed on the touring type bikes and have only recently decided to try competing with the Japanese marques for the attention of the plentifull but younger and less "financially well heeled" sporting riders. And indeed, I can recall that a few years ago, while randomly checking out the new bikes at a bike dealer (I think when I was picking up some parts for my VSTROM back before I set off on my first big tour) I first saw the BMW "S"... And I said to my-self  "mmmm I like the look of that one!".
But that was pretty much the end of that thought because it was brand new and far too expensive, and I was focussed on something else at the time. But I have not had the "trigger" to review the bike since then for the simple reason that the bikes are incredibly rare!
That may sound unlikely but it is in fact true (though Ive only found this out after Ive bought this one!). It seems that BMW "missed their mak" as it were, and the "S" model of the "R" series was quite a "marketing disaster!" Sales of the bike were so bad that they only produced them in North America for two or three years (2007 - 2009ish) before discontinuing them. And in that time they only managed to sell a total of less than 500... For a market (USA and Canada) with well over 330 million people that is a "staggeringly" bad sales performance! Im serious; there were less than 500 sold in total ( They did a bit better in Europe but are still very uncommon bikes there) making this bike one of only about a hundred (just over 90 in the USA) that were made in Black (there were only five colours made).
... So that no doubt prompts you to ask "If they were such a "flop" then surely its a bad idea to buy one... Lack of spare parts and poor performance or reliability etc". And my answer to that is actually "No, thats not the case"... The problem with the bikes was not that they were bad bikes. It was that they really just plain failed on the marketing!... The engine and drive train have a great deal of shared mechanical parts with many of the other BMW bikes so spares are not really that much of a problem (though they are still BMW expensive!), and as Ive already said, the engines and drive-trains of the bikes have a well deserved reputation of being reliable, long lasting, and easily maintained. The problem with the bikes was that they just did not "compete" in the "value for money" stakes with their competition... They were quite a bit more expensive and were not as powerfull as the ubiquitous "oriental multis". As an example, when the BMW was new it cost about $18,000 in the US, and the bike produced about 120 horsepower and weighed about 195Kg. In comparison, I think the figures for a Yamaha R1 were: cost about $12000 produced about 170hp and weighed about 180Kg... So like I said, BMW were just not in the game as far as the "young bucks" who buy sport bikes and just want more power and more speed and as cheap as they can get it.
... and that brings me to the other major barrier to me buying one of these bikes before now...

The second challenge is that its a BMW... which is not really a "bad" thing but rather just an "expensive" thing.
Back when I lived in Australia, bikes like this where simply way out of my financial reach... Even today in Australia, European bikes are significantly more expensive than their Japanese cousins, and while the European marques are certainly much cheaper here in North America, they are still more expensive both to buy and to maintain... The saying goes "Love that German engineering,... But hate those German maintenance costs"!   :)

So, whats changed to make me buy one now???

Well I certainly didnt win the lottery, thats for sure.
But the fact is that this bike cost me less than my DL650 VSTROM did when I bought it five years ago!
That initially seems unlikely too, but there are a couple of  things that make the difference. First off, while neither bike was new when I bought them, this one is five years old and the VSTROM was just less than two years old. Second is the mileage: the VSTROM only had 15,000Km on the clock, and this one has 48,000. Now both those numbers are in the right ballpark for anual usage of about 10,000Km which is what happens up hear in the Pacific North West... Bikes only get ridden for about half of the year so mileages are "low".
But the other BIG diference is that this bike is a "Rebuild" which means that at some point it was in an accident and the insurance company decided it was cheaper to just buy a new bike for the owner rather than pay for the repairs of the damaged bike... And so it could be a really bad thing to buy a "pre-broken" bike you might say... But, in this case, I dont think so.
And thats because the accident was very recently, and the former owner is an active participant in a internet "forum" that I have located and read... He has posted lots of description and pictures and details of what he did to/with the bike since he bought it a few years back, so I truely believe I have a very good idea of the bikes history

The accident was a "non-impact" one where he simply slid it down the road on its side... It did mostly cosmetic damage and also ground the valve cover off one side of the engine. So, I know there are no significant structural issues with the frame. I also know that the former owner liked to ride fast and "used" the bike engine quite heavily... This would normally be a bad thing too, but the bike was not raced on a track (which lots of "fast" focussed riders like to do with their bikes on the weekends and which really thrashes the engines) and the former owner happens also to be a very meticulous (his own word was "anal") fellow... Ive seen his house and his car and his other bike and the maintenance log book for this bike, and I am absolutely sure that he has done very carefull maintenance on the bike at about 1/2 to 1/3 of the specified time intervals... On the service front, the bike has been "babied" even if on the riding front it has been well used (though I dont think abused).

But again, why is the bike sooo cheap if its as good as I say it is?...
Well, fundamentally, because it didnt cost the previous owner so much to start with and he got good money from insurance so he is not being too greedy on the sale...
In a little more detail, I know the price that he paid for the bike new (I have a copy of the salse receipt), and it was well below the original sales floor price because like I said they just didnt sell, and he bought this one after it had been sitting on the sales floor for about three years. Then when he got paid out by the insurance (They do seem to have been rather cavalier about writing-off a very repairable bike, but that is explainable by the surprisingly high and seemingly constantly rising auto-insurance prices we pay here in BC!) after the "slide", he effectively ended up having spent very little for all the fun he had on the bike over the two years he owned it.
But then he also bought the "wreck" from the insurance company (which they allow you to do here in BC) for only about $1000!!, and I know more or less what he spent putting the bike back together because he wrote all about it in several posts on the forum that I mentioned.
But still the price advertised was too expensive for me to buy, and when I saw the advertisement for the bike, I sent an email to him saying I couldnt afford his price but that if it wasnt selling and he needed to "move" it, I was really interested and I could offer him just so much. Now I didnt really expect to hear back from him but it is the start of winter here and the riding season is now over and with that, the prices of moor bikes in the second-hand market take a sudden dive!, So I think the combination of that and my apparent enthusiasm for this particular bike (Which is real, and it seems the seller is very infatuated with this bike too) prompted the seller to respond to me saying that my offer was good enough if I was willing to take it with its original exhaust system  rather than the fancy, expensive after-market one that he had put on (which by the way I would have loved to keep)... He could then sell the other exhaust seperately to make up a good amount of the price difference. (which he promptly did after I committed). So, that was an offer too tempting to not look into further and I went over and had a look at the bike and we chatted and we got on well etc. etc.
Oh, and while I was over there I found out why it is that he was selling this bike that he seemed so infatuated with... Two main reasons. First one is that he has "moved on" from this bike and has also bought a bike with that "final generation" of the R1200 engine called the HP2/S and the new bike now gets all his attention while the "S" mostly just sits there. But thats how it would likely have stayed had he not got himself a new girlfriend who does not drive bikes but is happy to ride on the back... But not on the "S"... You see, the bike is really not built for two... the pillion is perched up high with a very minimalist seat and Id have to say I agree with his girlfriend that its "no fun"... So, the guy has already found a bike that is far more suited to two-up riding and he's bought it.... and there is very little room in the garage (thats a familiar predicament I must say)... So, even though he really like the bike, he needs to get rid of it to make room for another (again I know this is true and not just a "sales" story because of his web postings.).
So, after I saw the bike and met the seller, I still wasnt sure I should buy the bike (its still a lot of money for me, and I already have three other bikes for heavens sake!) so I went home and thought about it for a while. But after a few hours I simply couldnt resist and I called the  guy back and committed to the deal..

And so the bike has now come to me...
Its certainly not perfect, but I really like the look of it and I enjoy working on bikes so I will happily treat it as a project as well as my main two wheeled transportation in the summer months. The biggest job on the bike will be the paint work which I must admit has only been "patched up" (which is contributing to the lower price that I paid too) since the slide... No sleight intended against the former owner, but there is only so much you can do without stripping things down and a good paint job certainly requires a skilled and experienced profesional hand... And the bike deserves to have a nice paint job I think :)
But the consequence of this "impulse purchase" is that I will be "retiring" the old grey VSTROM from regular use for the time being, and I, like the guy Im buying this bike from will also now be selling another of my bikes... The little Blue one that Ive barely ever mentioned and have had in storage for years (which is the same SV650S model as the yellow one) ... Its been more or less my "back-up" bike, and Ive been riding it around recently since the yellow one got damaged. I will now sell it this coming Spring and use the yellow one in that role instead... "back-up", or "bike for the girl-friend to ride" (its light and small and plenty fun to ride) in the extremely unlikely event that I ever get a girlfriend that "rides" :)))

Here are a couple more pictures of   " The new girl "   :)

... Like I said, she's German, and Black... and she's a Great Ride :)))