Tales of my BMW G650X (tinkering since 2013).

Nope. I will never trust these triples enough to fully explore the potential of new forks....
But! I never really liked the stock triple so it gives a nice excuse to look down the route of custom machined clamps in some future.

The casting is awful, a few threaded holes are off-centered from the "lugs" and make ugly holes through the thin metal... :huh When they were off the bike, the bores did not measure 57 exactly - looks like they distorted after the slit has been cut after the bore machining at the factory, so both top and bottom would need quite agressive prying just to move the forks! Of course, they work no problem, but are just a cheap part made on a tight budget.

As I mentioned before, the forks have never ever even () saw a bike in their life...To strip them completely would be very counterproductive and would immediately mean new oil, seals.
Swapping the axle clamps would require further disturbance of the stock fork, which insteadI should be able to keep to sell as an entire assembly.
Using the stock fork uppers - same reasoning. Besides, black legs...mmm....

Finally, machining the new legs would simply be a crime...
(not to mention a full strip down needed to get to them properly.)

Wow. seriously, I really dig your build. Gives me lots of ideas.

One question though, how much anal stimulating coffee do you really drink?

My dear Russian godchild ,

I haven't had the time to follow all the forums for some months, so missed out on all this, but I'm surely flabbergasted of all the time and energy you've put into this project and the enormous steps you make finding out about techniques and materials (and the practical side of all that).

I can say I beat you to the first Zircotec coating of an XC primary (2008, when I had one done for Max Kool), but you're right. It's the way to go.

You shouldn't worry toomuch about the machining out of the triples. We had some machined out to 58 mm (also for Marzocchi Shivers) for people who really use their bike and I haven't heard of any disaster (yet). Disclaimer............

I do agree with Cruz though. We now mostly also follow the route of reshimmed Shiver internals in stock legs. Together with low-friction seals they really are a major step and all the customising required is some machining at the bottom of the axle clamps. All other parts then fit as usual.

I love your eye for detail and dedication and perseverance. Also you're not afraid to show your fuckups and mistakes

Keep up the good work and reports.
Great job, mate.

Oh man, this is about as high an honour as it gets!!

I'll show the pics of machined triples later on - I sure am glad to have heard reassurance from your side on this matter, as there were no other reports of boring them out I could find on the web. Mainly as you said - stock legs with new internals, and/or turning down forks' OD to 57.0 mm.

Interesting that you only came across 58.0 OD shivers...
Mine, for sure, are 58.4

As for "fuckups and mistakes"....well...big one nearly happened. Wil show soon.

-------------------------------------
-------------------------------------

dakardad, anal coffee??

Is all about the tea, dude...

Hi mate just finished reading your thread. Thanks for sharing

Great write up and about to read up on your Icelandic ventures. One of the weakest links on the X bikes as a true adventure travel mule. Would be those vulnerable cast alloy lower frame members and swing arm. I personally snapped the left hand frame lower during a very low speed get off. Admittedly cobbled forest road, rocks the size of babies heads. Just way too vulnerable for my liking. Otherwise a great and capable donk!

Time has passed...Events happened. Projects done and dusted.

This last summer, my bike project has covered some new ground, quite literally.

--------------

Fork transplant went like so:




Tight fit...


...which needed dremeling of the flat.


Here's how machining of the clamp turned out!

Before.


After.


Before.


After.


New sealed steering head bearings.
I went through quite a research and posted on neighbouring topics to install this, let me know if you need details. Basically, you want the type on the right and will need 2 thin spacer (shim).



Assembly went in the freezer before the bearing was driven on with a soft plastic pipe. (Note under the bearing is a new spacer then the OEM washer.)




Here's how this shim sits to compensate for extra thickness of the rubber seal and transfer the load properly. One on each bearing.



Forks went in extremely painfully. I had to use lubrication, had to spread open the clamps and force the legs in, because the hole was distorting and would simply open to be more and more oval...



Results:



More to come...

This is GREAT stuff!!

I will own an X Challenge one day, and this will be one of the threads I mine thru to get an idea about known issues & needed upgrades.

Bike is looking good!

But... bike will look totally different when I catch up to its present state!! :huh
Thanks East Coast Rider!

I wouldn't try half of what you're doing!! I'd break something

I am not a particularly hardcore rider, although I have taken my ever faithful KLR650 plenty of places that everybody says it has no right going and came thru unscathed.

I would probably ditch the rear shock for a HyperPro or a custom bit from Cogent (if Rick would be willing to make one for me), and armor things up a bit.

I love the Rotax mill...

Love all the ingenuity and willingness to do stuff yourself.

I gave my idea a shot...



It looked neat...


But soon failed and told me to f**k off and not dick about when it comes to brakes. :huh

Some shopping later I found an unused caliper hanger for a third of the price. It took me a week to realise it ain't coming and search for a different one. Oh well at least I'm back to +- zero.

The next one came again at a third of the price, even with a brembo box of goodies.



Too bad it had the wrong caliper pin-to-pin distance (80 mm, whereas the OEM caliper's is 75 mm)
Brembo 22.7766.00 is NOT the one you want.

What I needed was this, forgot what model it came off, but p/n's are: KTM 60113049100 (Brembo 2240.05).



A bit ratty, but a scrub and a swap of comsumables sorted it right out! One of the bolts needed a cheater bar though...






"Temporary" spacer made of stainless washers. I put some loctite between them, we shall see if they bind together and make it easier to reinstall in the future.



--------------------------

Then it was time, at last, to finish mount my "composite" front fender.
And get rid of small niggles and imperfections.
Such as this, rubbing corner on the fork.




Did I not mention how much I loved clean black legs???
The left side is still before grinding. This worked and provided ample clearance on both sides - no rubbing is now seen.




Fender brakcet replaces the thickness of some washers.



The lower rear mount opposite side is simply a bent strip of 2mm stainless.




Together and ready to ride (almost):



Tomorrow's installment - let there be light!!!

PS. One thing I learned when taking measurements of triple clamp and whatnot:
A man must have a whiteboard in the garage: it is perfect. Write them on for now, photo them for archive.


:eek1

Lighting ver.2

Projector's mouting tab broke.



New projector was ordered. Opted for the 3 (over 2.5 inch) version for a smarter look. AFAIK, the output between the FX-R's is identical. It wasn't in my case, most noticeably because I got one for LHD by mistake!

Luckily, I had the correct shield in my current projector so they were stripped and swapped:







Re-cut a better version of the solenoid shield.
Side by side:



In place:




-------

Of course, to do only this simple operation was not enough!

So disassembly was continued....






And hi-temp matte black was sprayed on the visible innards as well as the outer casing.



Some superglue, a little sealant...



...and the lens was ready to be pressed in.



Before and after.















This projector is now sporting one of OSRAM's Xenarc 66420 bulbs (4300K), supposedly one of the best, and certainly pricey!



Then the usual black polyurethane sealant (Wurth) went on in 2 or 3 stages...







Teaser shot!



Do you guess already where's this headed???

Haven't got a clue

The work that went in there from the scratch till now - I have no words but utter respect. Truly amazed by your work, determination and patience .

Way too impressive - Add me to your fan list, please.

-Mani

Your feedback is appreciated greatly - glad to have made YOUR list!

---

Quick and probably a boring update, but the devil is in details...so I feel it is necessary to include them. Kinda shows more realistically the feel and progress and the build. I my case these are what makes everything so long...Sweating the small stuff.

1) Oil return line. Check. Once again the bashplate was off for some other work so I filed off a corner of that bolthead. Notice how strong a magnet that drain plug is!! :eek1





2) Header pipe - radiator hose clearance. Check.

This whole ordeal with SR Racing exhaust slowly took shape, but still ain't great. Well at least now the night terrors in which the hose is burned and antifreeze spews out onto a red hot collector, are gone.

Look at it! Barely a few mm between happy riding and...happy pushing. Would YOU not be left sleepless if this were on your bike!??



I had an idea to pull the hose out of harm's way by shortening it's straight section.



Trimming and a zip tie horizontally to finish off.



Before and after.






3) Exhaust.

Think I promised to give some more details on the pipe situation. When warmed up, the clearances are like this:

Between frame bolts and header pipe (looking from above). Check.



Between subframe and silencer (looking from below). Hmmmm...



4) Waterproofing the bashplate.

Old gasket peeled off (by memory, 4mm thick neoprene).



Tried also hard nitrile rubber sheet of different thicknesses but to no avail.
New gasket from 5mm neoprene



To trim and chamfer it, nothing came to mind better than a hot knife.
I took the name of the tool quite literally...

Not a boring update at all. The devil's in the details. It's thinking about things like this that makes the difference in riding and pushing as you say...

I always do a short shakedown trip and reassessment before any big adventure.

Enjoying the writeup!


Tahoe

Back to July 2014.



The front end of my bike was really battered by now.



It was taken off.



What I hadn't mentioned is bad luck (and incompetence) on my side whilst changing coolant resulted in various nav tower brackets getting tweaked and bent. :huh












Everything was cleaned and dried in the sun.



Stainless steel rules!!



1st stage of straightening the clamp-on bracket. It took me forever to tweak it back to the correct shape - over many trial fittings - otherwise the new nav tower would point off center quite noticeably.



--------------

Electricals preparation.

USB and AUX sockets now share the same fuse, freeing a slot for an additional lighting source.



3rd relay found its home.



-----

Meanwhile, a big box has arrived from Hot-Rod Welding Headquarters, Netherlands.



Inside of which.......... :eek1

fantastic stuff. loved the iceland shakedown, and the bike will look great with the hotrod ktm front, but i think i will miss the johnny 5 look

As the title says...
We shall drool over some metal goodness.

As you’d expect from Erik, the workmanship is top notch, look at these coins of molten alloy…. :eek1



Naturally, first thing to do is hack it a little bit! This I did to replicate my previous tower mounting which allows the clamp-on bracket to be bolted on independently of the nav tower.



Comparing the two side by side!










Now, normally I photograph whenever something’s on the scales and just post the numbers, but THIS! This has to be seen to believe.






i.e. something which is larger, stronger, offers huge space inside for wiring and even more so for the lights, made from metal TWICE as thick weighs…. 3.6% less!!

-----------

Fairing...nothing hard, just dremelling both vent channels…



…drilling holes and a mock up installation…



----------

Lights.

On the top position is a well-proven and tested solution, once again an FX-R 3.0 bixenon projector. Adjustment is made by 4 outboard nuts balancing against 4 pieces of springy hose.



The second position is a new entry.
I decided, after a prolonged search and extensive research, to occupy it with a Hella 60mm lowbeam-only projector – 65W HB3 halogen bulb, lightweight, perfect size for the fairing opening, good price/quality ratio, compact in both size and weight. Oh and it is also black. Both in and out.
IMHO the pair look great together (and more importantly, complement another perfectly in function).



Slight trimming was required.



So that a socket fits for aim adjustement.



Lights in place. A pair of black demons ready to burst into life and burn the night away at a flick of a switch.



PS. 2 lights + mounting plate + springs, screws etc = 1130 g, vs. single (smaller) FX-R projector at 550 g, or a 105% increase.

AWESOME!!! I'd love to build one of those!!



Tahoe