My build thread - a winter's tale

Hey everyone,

My name is Thomas, I’m from Germany and this is my build thread. First I’d like to give you a little bit of background on myself and the bike: I started riding end of 2010 after a friend and me decided that previous New Year’s Eve that we would ride through South America on a motorbike. Really not knowing anything about bikes and long distance travelling, we got our licenses, bought the bikes, spent a fortune on Touratech-bits we thought were necessary after reading a couple of magazines & blogs and set off early 2011. The bikes we decided to get was two F800GS, at the time available as the 30th anniversary edition. They looked great, had all the power we needed (and could handle being completely new to riding) and handled everything we threw at them well. We rode about 28.000 kilometers through Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador before returning to Chile after six months. We did face some of the common issues with the bikes: Rims too soft for real offroad riding. My rear bearings went at around 20.000 kilometers, luckily without any damage to the bike. Suspension. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every second on that bike and still do. The bike’s been through a couple of other countries since, mainly onroad though unfortunately (very limited possibilities in Germany to do legal offroad-riding with a big bike). Every time I throw my leg over it I feel right at home. Even with the stock seat.



It was during our trip that I came across ADVrider and started reading many great ride reports and build threads (mainly lurking since). Lately I was looking for a winter’s project. I was contemplating buying a new bike and was looking at the Husqvarna Nuda by Zupin:



Great looking bike, great engine (I had ridden the Nuda before)… But I wanted my bike to be a bit more versatile, to be able to do the occasional two up and to have good luggage carrying capacity. Also, since the two bikes would have been quite similar it would have meant to get rid of the F8GS. Which I am not ready to do. So that got me thinking… I always liked the high fender mod for the F8GS, mostly when the whole headlight assembly was replaced as well, as for example by LostRider & Motorfiets who I believe were some of the first here to go that route. When Touratech built their Racing version I decided that I would do something similar, it also looks quite similar to the Zupin Nuda, mainly due to the Husqvarna front-end (well, that and sharing the same genes, frame, engine and all).



So with that the basic design for the build was set. For the paint scheme I wanted to sort of stay with the 30th anniversary theme and at the same time reference some of the BMW rally history. I came across Gaston Rahier’s 1985 GS for Paris-Dakar and decided those colors should work nicely.

I like to picture things before, to see it, so I contacted Ian Galvin to help me out (visit him at http://iamiangalvin.blogspot.de/). He did a great job and is very cool to work with! So starting in November I will transform my beloved F8GS from this:



To this:





As I am no mechanic by any means I will have my trusted mechanic help me out here (well basically building it). The goal is to have the bike ready by end of March 2015. Updates to this thread may be sporadic as a consequence. Not in a hurry, she won’t go anywhere.

Main design cues:

• Husqvarna front-end
• BMW “race colors”
• Frame powder-coated white
• Swingarm powder-coated red

Parts already on the bike (and staying):

• Excel rims front & back, standard size
• Touratech rear brake reservoir guard
• Touratech chain guard
• Touratech adjustable shift lever
• Tractive Suspension Level 2
• Pivot Pegz
• Wunderlich kick stand support
• LeoVince exhaust
• Parts to go off the bike:
• Touratech engine guard with toolbox
• HyperPro Fork Springs
• BMW main stand

Parts to go on the bike:

• Husqvarna TE449/511 headlight assembly & front fender
• Ralle-Moto RM2 steering damper
• Ralle-Moto Shock Bolt Support
• Engine Cover Carbon (left/right)
• Touratech Radiator Guard
• Touratech adjustable break lever
• Touratech folding break & clutch lever
• Touratech cartridges
• Scheffelmeier engine guard
• Scheffelmeier front sprocket cover
• MST Tail Tidy
• Accelerator Module
• Renthal handlebars
• Supersprox
• SW Motech main stand
• Possibly try to build custom detachable passenger footpeg hangers

I am super excited to get this build started, I have a lot of parts ordered and probably will have a bunch of questions going forward (as ZeTrailOut may be able to confirm)! It’s going to take some time, but if it turns out anything like the mock-up I’m gonna be super happy!

I like it!

What are you thinking regarding the forks protection, are you gonna adapt one an aftermarket protector, gonna go for the HP2 one or are you gonna cut your original low fender? I'm struggling a bit with what to do on that...

I checked with BMW and those HP2 ones are fookin expensive. They charge 57 Euros - each! :huh And at the same time they cannot guarantee the fit. Also, they are just attached at the bottom of the fork, so if you want to fasten them at the top as well you're going to be tinkering anyway. Same goes for the breakline fasteners, as the HP2 is single disc only and I believe you want to stay with the double discs of the F800GS as well.

As for cutting the original ones, I don't like the looks. So that leaves aftermarket. On some other thread about high fender conversions I read that the Kawasaki KX125-500 ones seem to be a good fit.

Some questions regarding gearing: Is a 16/45 much easier on the chain than a 15/42, is there a noticable difference regarding load changes? Do I have to use a longer chain with the 16/45, how many links in total?

In theory, given a set gear ratio, larger sprokets would be better. In practice I doubt you'll see much difference. Chain life will depend more on the enviroment and maintenance it gets. I for one, have never understood the desire to get large number of miles on a chain and sprocket set. They are wear items, replace them when they are worn out.

Thanks. Most people seem to go for the 15/42, just read somewhere that the 16/45 would be little smoother to ride (going on and off the throttle) in comparison. Not sure if there really would be a noticeable difference as the ratio is very close...

42/15 = 2.80
45/16 = 2.81

Yeah, I'd call that pretty close.

Hey Zé, based on this thread: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=580958 I have now ordered two different sets of fork guards, both by Racetech for different year models of tke Kawasaki KX/F. Will let you know how that goes, bikes goes to the shop next week!

Which Lithium battery are you running on yours?

Very interesting projects thanks for sharing

Brilliant project, but why don't you change to 18" in the rear? 21/18 is the classic Enduro combination. The larger rear wheel is better in offroad-section, and it looks a lot better too (imho). 17" is a supermoto-streetbike-size.

Thanks Zave!

I'm afraid I drive too much street unfortunately for it to make sense... (being from DE you must know that problem) Probably would make more sense to change to a 19" or even full supermoto set-up for me. For the occasional gravel roads and even the Alps the 17" on the rear with a TKC80 does just fine for the moment I believe.

That looks really cool and am looking forward to seeing you build this.

If you going with a black seat now did you think about adding some read maybe on the painted sections of the gas tank? On Gaston Rahier’s 1985 GS the read fender is red and it would look sharp to have some red back there too.

Either way the design is really cool. Good luck!

Thanks gspirate! I had been thinking about that and of course may make some updates to the design in the process. However on Gaston's bike he had a way to "connect" the red color of the rear and the swingarm via the subframe which doesn't really work that well on the F8GS. Trying to pay "tribute" with the red swingarm though! We'll see how it goes! :) The seat is going to be a two-tone like on his bike as well!

Thanks, that would be super helpful!! I'm trying my luck with a ktm set, but I haven't had time to properly set my head around it as it

I went with an SPS by Haijiu, but I might have over done it We have been playing around and using the JMT ones now, and they are working brilliantly

Thanks, and vice versa, let me know how they work!

I'll look into those come time, makes no sense to have them sit on the shelf over winter.

Bike went to the shop today! Lots of shiny new things have arrived in the meantime!









Disassembly of the bike will start shortly to get the frame & swingarm powdercoated before the end of this year and to send the forks in to get them anodized.

There's a motorbike in these pictures somewhere, I think...



















Frame, swingarm and some bits and pieces go off to the powdercoater next week. Fork legs will be sent in to be anodized.

As you have the frame out like that, you should consider welding the structural reinforcement of the shock absorber to the frame. It will give a little extra to it, and since we are talking frame deformation, no care will be to much