Rapid Resurrection. (ST1100 rebuild)

Just for the record, this will be anything BUT rapid...

I had the great pleasure of meeting a fellow inmate today. Picked up this '01 ST1100 today from rapidoxidationman. Nice guy, glad I drove all the way up there! He had a bit of a face plant on it...



Some of his pics:






The story of his wreck: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=579768

I had originally talked to him about buying his bike a couple of years ago but at the time couldnt' afford it and didnt have a place to put it. Have a place, and recently sold a vehicle () and needed another project. ALMOST as bad as I need another hole in my head. And so it begins- the resurrection of rapidoxidationmans ST.

Drove about 2 hours to get there, looked it over, put a battery in, fired it up, and rode it about 25 feet. Good enough! Got most of the parts (think I may have forgot a bag of nuts and bolts?!) and trundled on home.

Loaded and ready for the ride home:



After I aired up the front tire and took it for a little spin:





Seems to run great. Has a little bit of noise coming from the right rear valve cover where it took a hit when it was wrecked. There appears to be a vacuum ??? line above the exhaust header that is cracked, may be coming from that? Looks like its in fairly decent shape all things considered. Going to have to pick up a new foot peg, brake lever, and that cracked metal line, whatever it is. Planning on getting it road legal as quick as possible- naked sport bike style, then cleaning up all the exposed bits and scratched / bent / broken stuff.

Suggestion?

Nope, no suggestions at all. You're a hopeless case

Was at the Fuel Coffee meet last year in Cincinnati and saw this:



Recognize it? Yours could look just like it if you've got mad fabrication skills. Hope it provides some inspiration...

Progress? Sorta... Got a list put together of priorities. Ordered a poop load of parts, cost me darn near what i spent on the bike. First order of business is to get the tiltle straightened out tomorrow. Next item is to get it "road legal" asap. Probably wont be pretty, but it will be RIDABLE! Once i have a chance to put some time in the saddle, we'll decide where to go from there. A general tuneup is also in the works- filters, oil, plugs, etc, an the fork seals still need replaced. Turns out the broken line is an air feed pipe? Guessing something to do with emissions... Part of the parts order i put in.

This may be a lot faster ressurection than i thought... Talked with the dmv ladies today. They said just do the work and bring in all of the paperwork.at the same time, as opposed to submit the salvage title, then apply for the repaired title when its done. means i will be bolting on a headlight, signals, and mirrors this week to make it street legal even though they dont inspect the bike when i take the paperwork in. Parts on their way too. . In the meantime, it looks like my garage barfed up an ST.

Technically, its "street legal" in Idaho... There are about 4 different definitions of that though. I believe that all a bike needs to be on the road is a headlight and tail light. If you want to get out on the freeway, you need signals, mirrors, horn, etc. No signals or mirrors yet, but like I said, technically street legal. Straightened a few bent bits and cleaned a bit of dust off too, lots of scuffs and scratches but I think its definitely going to be a decent rideable bike!

1) are you going to restore it to stock?
2) oil the chain on that KTM.

1. No. I just want it to qualify as "street legal" so I can submit all the paper work for the salvage title. I will be making it look something like this:



2. The chain is actually orange, it aint rust...

Met with the ladies at the DMV again today and got all the paperwork squared up. Most of the parts showed up over the weekend- got a new footpeg and brake lever installed. Its registered, plated, and insured- just need to take it for a shakedown run to see how it handles, hoping for no signs of a bent frame.

PARTS!

Well there's good news and bad news. Took it for its "maiden"... The good news is it goes down the road just fine- no shimmys, shakes, wobbles, or noises (that I can tell, wind is kinda noisy). The bad news- this bike is pretty darn fast. Does the ton easily and feels like it's plonking along at a low rate of speed while doing it.

Lots to do still, but its rideable and legal! Not sure if theres something wrong with the front brake or they just suck? Could be I'm just used to a much lighter supermoto bike... but it doesnt really like stopping all that quick. That and the whine of the timing belts (?) could get really annoying. Other than that, it may be a keeper. For a while.

Had an idea, so I made a quick mock up.



Kinda ugly, but it covers up the back side of the gauges and the top side of the headlight. Might knock one out of sheet metal real quick tomorrow and just see how it works for now, still waiting on a few more odds and ends to show up before I figure out how to mount the headlight and windshield... Also epoxyed up the broken tab on the instrument cluster today but havent taken any pics of it yet.

My '91 is in the process of going naked after my 2/25/12 crash. the front fairing bracket on mine was bent and broken along with the gauges and headlight destroyed. Going to use Koso gauges. Without the fairing bracket I had to relocate the ignition control unit to the tail section, which required lengthening th wiring harness and finding places for the relays.

I could probably finish the bike quicker, but my body hasn't healed enough to be back on a bike.

Do those things have weird linked brakes or anything? Do you need to use the rear brake as well, to get all of the pistons clamping in the front calipers?

Don't forget also, they *do* weigh a ton!

So I made a "windshield" for it out of some scrap, turned out so-so. Rode it the 7 miles to school this morning and took the long way home, for a grand total of 40 miles on the beast. Never missed a beat.

The ugly windshield:




Got home and decided to get busy. Stripped everything off of the front of the bike.



Lots of electrics to try and stash, but I've got a couple of ideas.



Pile of parts:




Monkeyed around with my windshield for a bit, and got it sort of set where I think it needs to go. Not sure I like it- it's WAY to big. I'll use it for now but I think I may end up getting a smaller style like the picture I posted above.



I was hoping I could clamp it on to the upright part of the handlebars, but their way too fat. Not much real estate on the bars, so here's what I came up with. I will get a longer bolt, put a great big fender washer on it with bushing underneath so the bolt will still tighten up on the handlebar clamps, but the washer will hold the windshield mount down.



I *was* planning on putting a trailtech Vapor on it, but this windshield has so much room the stock instrument panel will fit fine! Going to have to make some sort of cover for the back side of it though...





So here's the plan at the moment- subject to change about as fast as a fart in a hurricane. Fab up a bracket that will clamp to the forks, hold the headlight, signals, loose electrics, AND dash.

New Sealed beam replacement showed up so I got it mounted in the headlight frame. Pretty slick, and only cost about $20 including an H4 bulb!






Got busy with some sketchup and came up with a plan based on the metal I have and my drawings of what I needed.




Cut the bits up:



And tacked them all together.





Looks spot on as far as fit goes!











Now to finish weld it up.. Think I've got the TIG figured out enough to give it a try. Also need to measure up and make the instrument mounts- Tonight and tomorrow's project.

Rats. Didn't work out as good as I had hoped.

Made up another bracket based on a few measurements. Looked okay.



Built a jig to hold things in place while I welded everything up so the dash holes would all line up. Pretty simple.



Made a couple of brackets:



Bolted them to the jig:



Welded a couple of supports on (going to have to make them a little stronger):



Removed the jig, and viola.



This is what my bracket is replacing...



With the dash mounted:





So... It looked good, but I'm way off on my measurements. The upper bracket needs to be a LOT closer in to the ignition switch and the whole dash needs to be tilted back a lot more.







Back to the drawing board. :huh

So I gave up on that one, and started over with a slightly different plan. Here's what I ended up with. Lots easier to make, not as many goofy angles, and fits just about perfectly.





Slapped some paint on it:



Some test fitting.









Seems to fit great. Need to get something better than some cut up rubber hose to go between the fork leg and the bracket, and some better hose clamps, then its on to figuring out where to put all the stinkin wires.

Nice custom work

Thanks... I'm not real impressed with my welding skills... Keep meaning to figure out my TIG welder a little better, but I ended up just using my 110 Wire feed. Did okay when I bothered to check the settings before I started... :huh

Little more work tonight on figuring out the rats nest of wiring. Started with this:



Mounted the three relays(?) to my new bracket using zip ties. Bent, twisted, overlapped, etc to get the rest of the wires where I need them-



The bank angle sensor will be bolted to the bracket, I just need to drill and tap a few holes. Should I be worried about having the bank angle sensor on the forks? Will sudden movements of the front wheel set it off? Gonna have to test that...

Still had these three things to deal with. Computer? CDI? Not sure, but the two smaller boxes will fit inside this nice hole behind the headseat, and the bigger one will attach nicely to the little cover (not shown here)



The cover in place.



I need to figure out how to mount the two smaller boxes inside, but the bigger one will probably be mounted right to the plastic cover the way you see it in the last picture.

Getting closer!

Pretty cool. Always thought a nekkid ST would be a neat project.