The Mongrel...the Last Hooray of the "original Thinstroms"

ThinStroms aye??:huh

Happy to have coined the term... what seems, a century ago.
Punching it into Google nowadays, the hits are all over the place.... the pics show up in dozens of forums and websites around the globe.

Use the "search" here and there are references everywhere...
There's also a little pride in seeing what the ThinStroms seem to have spawned....there's an endless string of custombuilts out there nowadays, folks are not afraid to get into it and mod their bikes, sometimes quite radically.

Stroms/ KLREs/ Guzzis/ SV's/ Airheads-Oilheads/ K-series/Hogs.....whatever, it doesn't matter a bit.

Not the Ebay-parts bolt-on-artists, but the more serious and incredibly talented "backyard-engineers/fiddlers" whose stories and pics are spellbinding and make you lean back from the monitor long after midnight with a smile and a headshake....and proud to "have been there at the beginning" (whatever that means).
Then read their ride-reports lateron...seeing the bikes pop up here and there, getting used for what they were built.
AWESOME!!!!!!



The "ThinStroms".

The 2 thous at the ends...650 in the center.









Or rather....there WERE three of them...the first and original red 1000 with the diamond-shaped KTM headlight is no more....we sold it after the green 650 ("Shrek") was completed.

It fell victim to a roadrage accident and got trashed....once again!! :eek1:eek1
It's the 3. time that that bike has been written off, a tribute to how tough those DL's are.
As before, it's a repairable write-off and once again, it's perfectly rideable as is...but being a custom-built once-off, there are no parts off the shelf to fix it.


Constantly trying to wrestle the "Shrek" from eachother (yo, the better half is somewhat "possessive") for those weekend rides and longer tours, building another 650 based ThinStrom was inevitable.

While the coffee-coloured 1000 is a hell of a lot of fun, our riding has drifted more and more towards the dirt+ gravel and a trimmed-down 650 is just that much easier to ride and handle.

The thou is more work and requires more "sharpness" and "being on the ball" as well as physical strength, especially when loaded up with camping gear for a week or three.

There's still the 20kg+ weight difference between the 1000 and 650 and while paddling the 650 through a long, muddy boghole.... the 1000 just roostertails and dives like the Titanic.

There it goes....the last ThinStrom to be built after 4 years of one sitting in the garage in some stage of "production"... this will be the last of the line.

We'll be departing the Strom-scene at some stage and move into the Thumpers....after riding a stock '09 KLR for 3 weeks in Oregon last year, I'm sure something can be done to cut a lot of fat out of one of those and make things more dirt-worthy. There's already a bagfull of ideas..

Somehow things have changed over the last few years...it's impossible to look at a bike the way I used to.
Nowadays it's rather: What could make out of that?

If that front-end would be...how about a set of '99 Pegaso USD's on that?...enough clearance for a 19"/21"....wouldn't a VFR single-sided swingarm look hot on THAT?? I wonder if the pivot would be wide enough...

Life has definitely changed when one starts to check motel-beds for ground clearance !!


Alas....onto the last ThinStrom first!!

The hammer comes down at A$2300.



Add 200bux in fees (there are all sorts of fees and charges, incl. the online bidding fee for chucking in blind bids on something you haven’t even seen in the flesh) and another $200 for the transport down to Melbourne.

At $2700 in-the-garage, we’ve got a Jan ’09 plated non-ABS WEE with a slightly bent rear subframe, everything missing around the front end and a pair of forklegs full of "rusteo-arthritis". :lol:


Oh yeah…there’s a bundle of busted and cracked plastics and bits floating around the floor of the truck…

And there’s a key…and a flat battery.

Picking up the bike from the transport depot, I scooped the shrapnel into a washing basket and chucked it into the back for the way home….there’s a sort of good?? instrument cluster amongst that lot ...

Unload and hook up the charger, battery is taking charge, yeeha!.... there’s even a little fuel in the tank, coolant is full, oil looks good enough with still a yellow sheen to it…the OEM Bridgestones are about 60% ....lenty of meat for a few 1000k’s and a hint that the bike is still a baby with pretty low mileage.

An hour later and some fiddling to jerry-rig part of the electrics to hook up the instrument cluster and the dials spark up…we’ve got lights, all electrics, horn, indicators (what’s left of ‘em)…and there’s a lousy 4752k’s on the clock !!!!!!

Bounce, bounce! Got a good one, yayyy!!:chug:



Turn the key, pull the clutch….and look away, baring your teeth while pressing that starter button, expecting ….ANYTHING, really.

A couple of short coughs, then she fires up on the stale, old fuel, settling into a nice and steady fast idle right away….as any good Strom does!



Crooked “knees”, fairing frame bent to the shitter, the radiator panel-thread in the header tank is just barely tilted...easy fix by screwing in a bolt halfway, then gently bending it straight. VERY gently that is.

Got a good, straight set of forklegs on the shelf, and a spare set of Intiminator fork-inserts.

Mod, fix, replace…check the triples and get new head-bearings… While at it, replace the master-cylinder with an earlier or DL1000 one for better feel and feedback, some braided lines, new springs and that’ll make the front-end.





Weld up the cracks and chop that front-guard....



All sweet underneath, no dings in the pipe or anywhere else.



The tail copped a whack…looks like there was a pillion involved, too…hmmm.
The one-piece exhaust system pushes the subframe across , the hanger brackets are bent slightly.

I got rid of the packrack and tail plastics/ lights and rear footpeg-brackets to remove stresses on the subframe and things come about 40% better immediately.

The seat latched perfectly and smoothly before, so things are pretty minor. The rest will come out easily with the judicious use of an old piece of 2x4 flooring joist….exactly the same way the professionals do it (behind closed doors, of course).







Time to start some reading…there were a few things about those post ’07 bikes…
…and time to start a shopping list for all those parts needed to bring this thing back to a reasonable state….a set of LED indicators and matching relay, some sort of skidplate, a set of Gixxer brake calipers and adapter plates, a forkbrace…some more aftermarket mirrors, the fiddly bits for the vacuum port extensions to make the TBS easier, a set of .85 linear Sonic fork-springs…a set of Quicklock pannier rack off ANY bike, as they’ll be re-modelled anyway….crashbars? Better not yet, let’s build the body-panels first.

Twin or single seat?

Re-routing the front header alongside the engine rather than underneath, freeing up an extra 40-50mm of ground clearance?

That’ll mean a once-off skidplate….and all sorts of fun with the CO2 sensor.

Hmmm, need some raising links for the rear, too, go up another 1”-1.5”
And a pair of K60s, which are in such short supply…at least one for the front.
Guess I’ll better straighten out the base first, re-built the front and fix the rear, make it all line up. Stringline the sucker and get that front-wheel spun to check if it’s out of round.

.... it'll be FUN!!


AGAIN!!! :chug::chug:

Nothing's going to happen quickly here. Noit on this one...

Rides first, builts later.

Makes sense to get the Intiminators setup and prepped ready pop into the forklegs (once they're checked asnd possibly straightened).

Arghhh....SHIAAAT!!!
Tore the top-quarter off the bloody thing!



Brian at Ricor in the US to the rescue....had a couple of new ones within a week !!

Plenty to do...strapped to the rafters and waiting for headbearings (stock 32006 Timken's tapered rollers from the bearing shop).



She don't look pretty



Chaos on the workbench...there are 2 sets of disassembled forklegs in that mess.:huh



One of the dinky-toy OEM head-bearings



Innards of a 650 forkleg

More front end bits...



New headbearings in, I use the straight sections of some old tubes to align the triples.



Marking out the damper rod....and drilling new bypass-holes.





What was the assembly sequence again?



Stock Intiminator on the right, modded on the left.
(there are more mods than what's visible in this pic)



As of tonight, the front end is back together. Ashley Martin (Bob Martin's brother....soon to be living and operating from Tassie ) did a great job getting the tiny 0.8mm bend out of the slider leg...::
Also checked the triples, which turned out to be on-the-money !

We've got a rolling "nekkid"....still gotta fix that slightly bent subframe next

Before:






Pissacake, mate Not even the paint cracked :huh

Nothing much had happened over the last 2.5 months...time to pull the finger out!!
And with the crappy weather for the whole w/e, what better way than to spent a day in the garage.

Some of the stuff we brought home from the US with us...





So far the changes to the front end have been:

Replacing the OEM headstem bearings with tapered rollers
Intiminators, heavily modded,
0.85 Whelan linear wound fork springs and 5W oil
Forkbrace
GSXR750 calipers on SV-Racing adaptors
Braided lines
DL1000 Master cylinder (bigger bore than the stocker, better feel)
Seal Savers
30mm risers
Pro Taper ATV High handlebar
Oxford heated grips
Emgo mirrors
Custom lower wheel guard made from OEM guard, mounted to forkbrace
Touratech Oil cooler relocation kit
K60 front hoop
KLR footpegs

...ordered and on their way/ in the pipeline:

Home-made raising links ~30mm, getting zinc plated atm
Fuel pump bypass/ inline filter with a 2. hand K3 DLK fuel-pump
Clear LED tail light in the mail
Replacement relay for LED flasher function in the mail




There's hope to route the front header/ connector pipe in between the brake lever and the OEM exhaust-bracket/ lug....the one with the rubber in the back of the brake lever.





If that works, the pipe can be routed around the frame-protrusion which is the footpeg mount...the pipe can then sweep up, pick up the rear cylinder header in a Y-piece and flare straight to 50mm diameter to run into a "double barrel shorty"...some mini-exhaust I've seen on an R6 a while ago...can't remember the brand at the moment.



If it all works out, there'll be 45mm extra clearance under that belly.

The oilcooler relocation kit....tried to get the hoses made locally, could've made the bracket myself. Pirtech and another mob wanted $200 for the hoses using the OEM fittings/ ends....got a display set from Germany for $260, which includes a complete bashplate and bracketry to suit, as well as postage
Can't use the bashplate as is, as it's made to go over the stock-exhaust, which I intend to modify.....perhaps I can mod the bashplate to suit.:eek1



Chopped the front guard in half to make a rear-portion mounted to the forkbrace...the front is still to come, as is a duckbill type of high guard.





The flasher can is part of the multifunction relay, the rectangular one next to the squar-ish fuse box.



There's a replacement available through Ebay.de which is set up for LED indicators and their low current draw.
Remove OEM, replace with modded aftermarket. Plug'n play.



A rainy afternoon's delight







Learned from someone else...
Always bend aluminium sheeting slightly rounded, don't bend in a sharp 90deg angle as vibration will crack the stressed material over time.
A small screwdriver shaft behind the material should do the trick with the thin 1.8mm sheeting used here.
(handlebar-bracket to hold the heated grips controller when finished, the "factory" one didn't fit and weighs a ton in comparisson)

Knocking up some raising links.....hole-spacing of 125mm ctr results in 36mm lift at centre-seat.







Swapping over the links....best with a jack between the wheel and chassis, as otherwise the whole rear-end collapses.










The stock rear pack rack....over 2.5kg.
The last one I modded is still on the WTF_2 and seen tens of thousands of touring k's with a 50l Hepco topbox bolted to it....no worries shaving some meat out of the rack.







A bit more to go....made it to just on 1kg (2lbs and a bit) difference.






Modifying the slightly busted/ cracked front guard....after chopping it in half.



Slowly getting somewhere... front half of the stock-guard re-worked and fitted to fork-brace.

Short 'n pointy






The Eastern Beaver PC-8



Modded stock guard, front half





Back to the old tricks, fabbing the tank-pods

Stock panel













Hmmm....shorten the inlet side by 5", pack up the guts a little to compensate or reduce the inlet to a 45mm plate to get the back-pressure...getting ideas.

Being oval, it all tucks neatly underneath the rear footpeg bracket with clearance to the swingarm... plenty of mounting options there, the weight stays low and I could use the lower of the 2 original hanger brackets as well.

The footpeg bracket protects the can in case of a drop...but it needs a noise-reduction bung and this old thing was never meant to have one, the oval spout making things tricky/ time-consuming.
Still, we could be on a winner here....I like the general idea.







And NO, the bike's NOT registered, the plate is an old one and just used for fabbing dimensions.

With most of the tail done (a new Ricor shock's in the mail....sometimes it pays to hang around the forums :chug:, thanks Bill!) and quite a few bits for the top-end on their way (KTM-Front guard-duckbill...Suzuki Gladius headlight off a virtually new 2010 bike snared on local Ebay and some other bits) it's time to tackle the dreaded exhaust re-route.
Dreaded, 'cause it'll be a lot of work and quite some $$....which ultimately might all finish up at Simms Metals.



OK...I cut the exhaust just after the 2into1 joiner....the ONLY place where there's some sort of "round" piece of pipe in the whole rear half of the system.

No probs to work backwards from here by spending a little time to make a piece of standard, round pipe and creating a neat butt joint for a clean TIG weld.
That first piece of standard 45mm will also have a hole in the top with an M18 nut welded to it for the CO2 sensor.
With that taken care off, it's onto the mid-section of the pipe-works...



Working backwards from the 2into1 joiner, the front pipe dips underneath the sump.
It has to be cut about the brake-lever pushrod and re-routed higher, running parallel to the sump rather than underneath.
There's a recess....but it's damn tight.
As is, the least clearance is at the bottom edge of that clamp-bracket of the polished guard...the lowest point of the whole bike.
That continues on forwards



About an inch (25mm) more under the rear shock linkage.

Forget the actual clearance values shown, the bike sits on a racestand at the moment.



I've got to mull over a few things before I'll take the hacksaw to it....


The Givi Crash Bars showed up today (yet another huge thanks to the BikeMart Crew and Max in particular!!!....a 24hr turnaround from order to pickup, awesome!:)
...and things are starting to get pretty crowded up front, particularly on the right.



The crashbars are making life hard for the oil-cooler in its new location, there's barely room to breathe. The radiator hose is now winding its way around the crashbars....
On the left side I'll have to fabricate yet another bracket for that Holden car horn, the crashbar downtube's occupying that space now.



Slowly but surely there's too much black around, though...
Tank pods are done and fitting well...another surprise there was that the factory side- panels were different to the pre-K7 again...why doesn't Suzuki quit farting around with those insubstantial fiddly bits and rather fix up a few more essential items?





Cop ya later

Another spurt of action....

A lucky Ebay find...AUS version of an '09 Suzuki Gladius headlight, all ADR compliant and H4 to boot.
Just couldn't let it go



Turned out, it even came with the plastic-surround :



Bill Eakins in the US had a spare, new, Ricor shock.
Moving to Mexico and selling his Strom, he never got around to fitting it.
I will!



The stocker



...and the "newy"



Virtually no weight difference, but the Ricor is beefier in the key components.

Cutting down an old top triple clamp to make hanger brackets for the headlight/ mask etc ...





In the end, I finished up wasting a few hours and only using the actual clamp-parts of the whole unit. The way custom-building goes...

One of the key jobs in this built: Re-designing the exhaust system to gain the biggest possible clearance.....and shave as much weight as possible while at it.

As of now, only the final joiner section of the mid-part remains....a re-routed front pipe and balancer pipe will have to be fabbed to fit the final joiner.
Lots of fun and games here....





Plans are to re-route the 2 pipes, 1 each side of the original hanger bracket.
Problem: the space needed by the rear brake pedal when actuated.





The removed/ cut and cleaned-up stock parts....the balancer-joiner is too nice a piece to not use again...

The anxiously awaited Laser "Shorty"



It's EU road-legal with E13 stamp and baffles (removable)
Looks bloody horn!!

Gotta make a new S/S hanger bracket to tie it into the Strom-structure, but that's a doozey.








I used that red bit to line up the 2 items...it's a piece of thick-wall PE-tubing.
That's the piece I'll have to make up to join the stock-system with the Lazer pipes....and that link-piece will also be used to incorporate the stock-sensor-mount.

Some base-work around the front



Nice!!! Note: rubber mounting on the outer brackets, then again on the hanger-pins that the headlight shell rests on!!



Waiting for dark tonight to "rough the top-bracket" to position the headlight properly



Next: finishing the top-brackets for the headlight, getting started on the instrument-cluster mounts and the "beak" poking out from underneath the headlight.

wow really great work man

Agreed! Awesome build.

Another great glitch build!

As a owner of 3 '92 KLR's I'll be watching for that re-do also.

Very cool.



A KLR.............. Hmmmm..........

Hi folks

Great to see you here...and "nice to see you back" to others

... finally found some material for the sidestand-foot extension + elevation, due to the use of raising links.
That should do it, aye!!




More serious stuff in the garage...parts of a Fatboy exhaust, to cut out the threaded plug for the o2-sensor. Same thread...and all S/S...that'll do nicely!

The sensor needs to be in the system, feeding into the ECU....our new pipework has to account for that.

The sensor looks like a spark-plug, too....and surprise, surprise, NTK proves to be a sub-brand of NGK plugs, being the biggest supplier of o2 sensors on the globe.

http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/products/oxygen_sensors/index.asp





A few bits of exhaust pipe are prepped, some of the butchered OEM-pipe re-arranged to fit front-to-back to make the bends around the hanger bracket near the footpeg.

Weekends are ALWAYS too short....but here's a little time spent on some metalwork.
Instead of making brackets for this or that, then fabbing the covers to go over the top lateron, why not wrap the 2-into-1 and fab some structural parts that save me making the covers/ cladding?

There's some 1.6mm (1/16th) checkerplate-alum around the dark depth of the garage....the profiled thickness is 3mm (1/8th).
Strong enough once belted into some rounded shapes.



First trial-fit





Crossbrace and upper instrument-mount



The shot also shows the mounting braces for what started off as a KTM front guard









Then came the stuff up....picked up the first lot of tacked-together exhaust bits and started to mount the o2 sensor to check it's angle/ space and cable-routing...it went into the thread fairly easily and square, if a little firm.

And that was the end of it, couldn't get it out without totally destroying the thread on BOTH sides!!
And it HAD to come out, as the made-up piece still had to be welded to the collector, which would've melted the unit anyway.

FARK!!

One expensive arse-up! (a new sensor is a cool rrp $336 at the local dealer).
It's also just about impossible to find the bloody thing on any net parts-fiche!!
(Ron Ayers etc)???:

As a consolation, the tank came back with the dent neatly pulled out and metal finished, then undercoated.

The Highs and Lows of backyard-wrenching...

Stuffing around with 3mm S/S and only handtools, is a bitch.

It's rockhard and brittle, way too thick for a hacksaw/ jigsaw etc.

Anyway....it just means a few extra hours to make a bracket
The original that came with the R6-exhaust on the left, first version (proved too short in the end) and the final version bolted into place, using the original Strom hanger loop and rubber.




Oh yeah!!





Some of the other exhaust bits are also coming together...the O2 sensor had 3 good threads left after a carefull clean-up , juuuust enough for a solid bite into the 2. version of the the connector piece.



Looking at it....why not use a cut-down version of the exhaust shield?
It'd only take a small second bracket as there's already one at the collector.


Something like that?





Prevents sizzling the soles off the boots....done, I'll go with that.

Tricky, but not impossible...the front exhaust pipe is now routed in front of the hanger bracket and at least 30mm higher than before. The rear brake lever has at least 13mm clearance, before the return spring hits the exhaust, which equates to at least 50-60 mm at the lever tip.

Any more freeplay and the rear anchor's not worth having anyway.

By now, whatever is visible in those pics is welded up properly.
Fits llike made to measure....ahhhh, hang on...

Still lots of fiddling in this....

Bugger stuffing around in the garage...



....where's the beer?

The o2 sensor-eliminator (Lambda-sensor eliminator), fresh from Greece!
If this works well (and none of the K4-K6 models had an o2 sensor!!) there's another possible troublemaker out of the game. Nothing worse than having non-essential electronic garbage fouling a ride.
I'll leave the sensor in place for the time being, just unplugged.
It's a 10sec change over if needed.







Retro-60s look?
Took the jigsaw to the cracked, old screen...just for a looksee.
YUCK!



Minimalist ?? :bs:so



With the exhaust collector nearing it's final shape, it's time to get onto that Touratech bashplate, which came as part of the Touratech oilcooler-relocation kit.

Hmmm....while the oilcooler bit was sort of ok, the bashplate is one item I'd NEVER buy as a standalone. Way too narrow, folded edges pointing straight up towards the engine cases....one good whack and the plate will be pushed up hard, possibly cracking the cases.
Being too narrow, it also leaves vital bits hanging out in the breeze, like the cable to the sidestand switch.
As neat as what it looks, those cutouts and multiple corners are also "stick-catchers"....all up then, this one just doesn't cut the mustard, piece of junk!

The only positive is the, albeit heavy but sturdy, front-mount bracketry.
Give me a Hyde Racing plastic item anyday....those guys got all the above points covered.....and it weighs a fraction of the alloy constructions.

Still, as I've got it now, I'll use it....improve as much as I can, too!

With the plate being a lot closer to the engine cases due to the re-routed exhaust, the sides have to be trimmed down and widened somewhat....the rear hanger-bracket has to be modded....or rather: re-fabbed.

The original narrow and tall item...the roughcut new one in front before bending, shaping and drilling.



Getting there....this is one hell of a tight fit down there!!



Drilled a hole into that Touratech plate to get a 14mm socket onto the oil drain plug.



Different angle....the open pipe is the yet unfinished balancer pipe.



Shows the highly exposed sidestand switch cable...




Those switches are potential trouble...best to fix it for good.
Took some 2"x2" angle alum, shaped a bracket with the contact pin permanently depressed (like with the side-stand), the 2 mounting bolts hold it firmly in place....then the whole thing gets cabletied under the left rear side panel.
Cable out of the way.... out of the water, grit and dirt and sticks...all good.
It'll do for the start, lateron I'll junk the whole thing and shorten out the wires..



All shaped, tacked, prepped for the welder tomorrow...once welded up, it'll get it's final shape and a good cleanup...re-paint what needs painting, then bolt it all up for good.