New Paint!

An opportunity to show your bikes in all their glory

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POB
Posts: 303
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 5:25 pm

New Paint!

Postby POB » Sat May 24, 2008 9:53 am

As promised, here is the Marrakech Red R1100SS with the white GT stripe, black wheels and reflective red wheel stripes. While I was at it I fitted an Ilmberger front fender and cleaned up my Ilm hugger.

Before this I fitted a Y-piece, chipped the bike with a Lazer Racing EPROM, fitted a K&N and some Lazer race cans. It's burbly but not too loud and I still get 45mpg+ if I try hard. To sharpen the handling I fitted a Moto-Technic CNC torque arm, which is short. The bike already has steering damper, wide rear wheel and tall shocks from the SS kit. Not to everyone's taste, but this bike has the EVO2 servo brakes w/ ABS. I have some lovely clean Brembo calipers from a later bike, which I may fit in the fullness of time. For road work the servo brakes are awesome.

I also had BCR decals (plus a cheeky Apple one) under the lacquer on the bellypan, which is from a 1st gen BCR, sourced through a boxer racer in Germany. It looks exactly like the fibreglass pans, but is very light.

Bike also got a pair of Pilot Road 2s, a hi/lo 50W HID setup, and an air horn (Stebel Nautilus), LED brake light and LED stop lights in the indicators (as well as the blue LED sidelight, naturally).

The annoying things are that 1) the finish on my mirror stalks is very poor 2) the engine finish is beyond saving and 3) I couldn't get the starter-motor cover back on.

I need a new shock, so a Wilbers (sadly without remote preload) is going on soon. I am also considering a tail-tidy, although not a ridiculously stealthy one. The bike has more or less 40k miles of all-weather commuting miles on it, and will be coming with me to Istanbul this summer.

PS > I finally got rid of the cheesy chrome dial surrounds too. :-)

Image

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Tim H
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:08 pm

Postby Tim H » Sat May 24, 2008 11:57 am

Looks good :)

Going to give mine black wheels when the tyres get changed.

Fearless Paul
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 10:51 am
Location: Worcester

Postby Fearless Paul » Sat May 24, 2008 12:15 pm

Looks good, I know what you mean about engine finish though, mines the same
Must have cost a bit?

Oh to have big wallet

Paul

POB
Posts: 303
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 5:25 pm

Postby POB » Sat May 24, 2008 2:11 pm

Paul - wasn't too expensive (I'm on civil service wages!)

I got the "hard parts" of pipes, torque arm, screen, head protectors etc 2nd hand, either on eBay or here. Except big-deal stuff I fit things myself.

The paint was a little one-man shop near where I live, he does sign-writing too, so he applied my eBay decals and lacquered everything.

To save cash I bought a broken headlight surround for £15 and DIY repaired it prior to paint. I bought the bellypan a few months ago, so I kind of spread the cost a bit.

Ilmberger bits were both 2nd hand from a Trixter.

The commuting had taken a real toll on my wheels (many tyre changes and bad weather) so they needed doing, and I think they were £60 each for stripping and refinishing. That stung a bit. I applied the stripes myself, using reflective tape again from eBay.

Because of my trip and a demanding commute, the most important mods (the lights and the horn) were pretty easy to justify.

It's a shame that just as I've cleaned myself out making the old girl look beautiful the shock should p1ss all it's oil out. I've been looking for a 2nd hand replacement for a few weeks, but Lars beat me to one the other week and they're rare!

One thing is important - I wouldn't make cosmetic changes for the sake of it - my tank centre panel was worn through the paint, and I had horrible stone-chipping to my hadlight surround that was really lowering the bike's value. Same for my scabby wheels.

Hopefully this TLC will set her up for another 40k miles. :-)

User avatar
Man-of-Mystery
Posts: 781
Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:28 am
Location: The lost moon of Poosh

Postby Man-of-Mystery » Tue May 27, 2008 11:18 am

Looks very nice indeed.

(I have a cheeky apple decal too :) )

M-o-M
07 R1200S

Love your enemies - it'll drive the bastards crazy!


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