Hanging at Chris' shop - Boxer Metal

[KhaoSanMan]

Over the past month I have been spending a lot of time with Chris from Eurotech Motorsports. If you haven't seen his website yet, give it a look here. The site is full of aftermarket products, spare parts, and accessories for airheads and more.

Chris and I have found a common interest in BMW Airheads and are becoming good friends as we turn wrenches and down Sierra Nevada after work at his warehouse. This thread is here to document the goings on at the shop, and will eventually turn into a build thread once we get our first project started.

It's a tight fit when all the bikes and his bug are in there



But when the weather is nice we move everything outside for some room to work




Chris has been really helpful finding me some new parts for my bike. His website sell all kinds of upgrades for airheads, and up first were some bar risers and a new LED tail light for my 95 GS

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[KhaoSanMan]

Now here is the meat of the story. Before I met him, Chris was big into sidecars. He had an awesome GS rig with more extras than I could list. One project Chris never got to before selling the hack was a plan to insert an 1150 GS engine into the Airhead frame.

Now that I have shared a few beers and revealed my desire to create a custom bike, I have inherited this project. I have never done anything like this, and I am excited for the challenges and lessons ahead.

Together Chris and I plan to take this:


And put it into this:




A similar bike has been spotted in the scramblers thread, and we plan to do something very similar to that, I'll find a pic of it and post it here for reference.

[jdiaz]

Chris is the man! You won't get better support from anyone else.

[KhaoSanMan]

Before we can start the fun, we need to make some more room in the shop and help out a few fellow airheads. Daniel here is leaving a week from now to ride his /7 to the East coast. He has owned this bike for about 3 weeks, and we grabed some spare electrics off of some of the other engines in Chris' shop:




There was a spider nest in the rotor... but it still tested out OK.


This is one of my favorite parts of hanging at the shop, all sorts of cool folks are coming and going, picking up purchases from Chris, and getting advice on how to maintain or upgrade their bikes. Even Ozzie has been know to show up now and then to chat about his many years of racing experience and the current evenets at his shop. All of us will soon get to spend some time in beautiful Mariposa, CA at the 49'er rally next weekdn. Hopefully some of the local guys can make it and hang out. Chris is planning on sponsoring a keg of Sierra Nevada at the rally to celebrate his 20 years in the BMW motorcycle biz.. is this guy cool or what!

[bmweuro]

SO when my buddy Daniel pulled up on his R100 it was running on one cylinder and the valves where very noisy. I tinkered a bit, replaced his dead battery with a good used one I had laying around and then there was beer. The next day Daniel came back and the pictures tell quite a story.









With enough Sierra Nevada Summerfest Daniel should be ready for his trip Monday night.

[crazydrummerdude]

Originally Posted by KhaoSanMan

A similar bike has been spotted in the scramblers thread, and we plan to do something very similar to that, I'll find a pic of it and post it here for reference.

Man, this feels like a photoshop..

[bgoodsoil]

more like mspaint

[KhaoSanMan]

Originally Posted by bgoodsoil

more like mspaint

That's what I thought at first too. There are some other photos as well, but they all have that same feeling, it could be cause they were scanned form a magazine or book:







Either way, the one we will build will not be photoshopped, and will probably take a few tries to get it mounted correctly. One piece of the puzzle, the drive shaft, has a solution we will consider. Chris, in preparation for his own project, had an airhead shaft customized with a spline to fit the oilhead trans. This may or may not be the route we go, as it may be simpler, and more rational to use a 1150 or 1200 swingarm and create a custom subframe to accept the centered shock as Krautmotors has done in the photos above.

[bgoodsoil]

I saw that on the scramblers thread. What a cool build. They must have shifted over the alternator for a reason. It might be something you need to look in to when fitting it in to a frame.

Cool bug. I gotta get one of those roof racks.

btw, great photography. I wouldn't have expected any less from ya!

[KhaoSanMan]

Yeah, the alternator wont fit in the frame, that much we know for sure. Luckily on the oilhead engine that just means cutting off that "loop" on the top of the case, and creating a custom mount to place it off to the side. An appropriate belt, and we should be good to go.

What I am most concerned with is the power to weight to frame strength. I want to make sure this is a safe bike to ride, but I'm not planning to do any long trips or serious jumping with it. So as we create our mounts I plan to look into other areas to strengthen the frame against the brute strength of the engine. At 93hp, its a big upgrade, and we plan to sqeeze even more out of it.

Already have a set of 40mm Bings that will be rebuilt and tuned for this bike.

[thevulture]

Looking forward to this build!

[bmweuro]

Originally Posted by thevulture

Looking forward to this build!

Me to

[Hiatt]

Me three. Leaving for the west coast June 1. Riding my "other" bike though. Handshifting and sleeping on the ground.

JH

[Rapid Dog]

..subscribed...

[bmweuro]

Originally Posted by Hiatt

Me three. Leaving for the west coast June 1. Riding my "other" bike though. Handshifting and sleeping on the ground.

JH

Are you coming to visit me?