Ok, so as usual my progress has been glacial. I blame work, people keep ringing me wanting me to do work, this is a good thing because I have a major BMW habit to support.
To sum up progress to date.
The K100 forks are fitted, the Tarozzi brace is fitted (and the less said about that the better). I have some decisions and measuring, and some testing to do before going further.
The good news is that the K100 front end, as advertised is a "bolt up". The testing i have to do is to fit the bars and the tank and see if the bars hit the tank at full lock. If they do I am extremely fortunate in that the stock stop welded to the front of the steering tube is drilled, if I need to reduce lock I shall simply fit a bolt to that hole.
The second problem is a little more vexing. Onc eI fit the K100 front wheel the front is going to be about 1.5 inches taller than an R65, fork legs are actually pretty much the same length, but the K100 sliders are longer. This means that the stock R65 side and centre stands are going to be problematical. My choices are: (1) shorten the springs by an inch or so, (2) raise the fork legs about an inch in the triple clamps after making certain that will not result in the brace pounding into the bottom yoke, or (3) weld 1" square section onto the centre and side stands. The last would be the roughest looking, but I suspect that is the way i am going to go as it does not affect steering geometry or suspension action.
And now, the photos.
Well almost. I was not able to buy a 40mm blind bearing puller for a price I was prepared to pay, so I decided to use the old tried and true method I've used int he past and run a thin bead of weld from a stick welder around the inside of the outer race to shrink it (or at least provide purchase of a slide hammer).
Problem, I could not strike an arc, even after 150 attempts. I was really quite annoyed with myself because although I do very little welding now, I was once pretty good at it and in fact worked as a welder on the then new Australian patrol boats during University holidays. I was annoyed and embarrassed and eventually I was able to sustain an arc, but only at a much higher amperage than I should have been using on 2mm rods.I was only when I finished (and as you will see in the photos, my welds looked like the great steel pigeon with diarrhoea had come calling) that I realized that the problem was not all me or some weird fault in my old welder. I have forgotten the solar system now installed at out place. My poor batteries were copping the load of the welder and whilst they were able to service the load, the ramping up period was the cause of my problems. Looking later at the logs from the inverters as soon as I struck an arc (or tried to) they both went to grid supply in preference t inverter supply, followed a split second later by the hybrid inverter using the battery bank to ramp up its output. in the period of that rapid switching the amperage fluctuated wildly which would have quenched the arc I was trying to maintain.
Memo to self. Next time I do some welding, shut the inverters down first.
So not the pictures. First the rectally incontinent steel pigeon's calling card .
Still it all worked out, the bottom race fell out and the top race required only the most gentle touch from the slide hammer.
And today, the new bearings are fitted and the forks as well.
And then, after verifying the forks were parallel, came that bloody awful brace. What a bastard of a thing to fit that was. Still its there and hopefully will make a positive contribution to the handling.
