Pulled the bearings from both wheels, swingarm and the headstock, you can buy genuine ones or go to a bearing shop and get identical or better ones for less money. I usually go for Koyo bearings.
RG – Bearings
RG – Rolling Chassis
With everything stripped I started blasting and painting the rolling chassis parts. Everything that was anodised or paint aluminium is being repainted silver, as much of it had surface corrosion and everything else satin black.
This isn’t going to be a back to original build, as it wasn’t that great first time round so anything that can be upgraded will be.
I sent the forks for re-chroming and straightening at Brook Suspension and have started rebuilding them with new seals and bushes from K-Tech suspension. I even dismantled the anti-dive modules as I wanted to see how they worked, historically everyone has said they’re shit and often blank them off. I’m putting them back so replaced all the old o-rings and I’d say from looking inside they’re a part that should be maintained as mine were seized due to the seals perishing.
I made a tool to hold the damper rod whilst tightening the bottom bolt out of a couple of nuts and a bolt. Had a grind a taper on the bottom nut for it to fit inside the damper rod.
New taper roller bearings have been fitted using the old bearing race as a drift to tap them in place.
Its also a good idea to have an o-ring set when doing any rebuilds.
RG – Engine Strip
Due to water filling the lower expansion chamber the left barrel had corroded sticking the piston in place. With considerable patience and the application of gentle heat I managed to get the barrels off, not sure if they’ll be useable but that can wait for another day. Gear selector shaft was bent and had to be cut off so that I could split the crankcases. generally the rest of the engine is in fairly good condition.
The crank was stuck in the crankcase and required lots of soaking with oil to release it, had to tap a seal with a drift to get it the breakaway from the case. Complete rebuild of the crank will be done.
RG – Frame Strip
The RG was in way worse condition than I expected. Bodywork had been broken in transit from, I guess, ratchet straps and it had clearly been sitting outside for some time judging by the bits of plant growing through the frame.
So the only option was to completely dismantle it and begin to build it back up again. Lots of photos in the first gallery for reference when reassembling.
This won’t be a original nut and bolt resto, as I think that’s bullshit. I grew up with two-strokes and even then they were all modified, I can’t get my head round people doing total restorations back to as it left the factory.
Old bikes, and cars, are only good in that moment in time. Nearly forty years later they’re not, don’t get me wrong I love two-strokes and have had many from crazily tuned RD250s to a KX500 converted for enduro use, but compared to a modern bike the brakes, suspension, lighting, performance are all crap, so why rebuild it the same and then ask 10k for it. Utter piss take!
So I’ll be modding as I go and if you don’t like it I don’t care. I’m thinking ultralight mini race bike theme.
RG – Let the Games Begin!
This took a long time to arrive from Japan and sadly was in worse condition than the photos showed when I bought it. Its one of the Japan only HB racing models.
Looks like it had been stored outside on the side stand so water had filled one exhaust, causing the barrel and crank to rust and the fuel tank had rusted through as well. Fairing was also broken in transport which is a real pain as you can’t get panels.
Bizarrely the entire bike has stripped down without a single bolt snapping and all the suspension linkages were still in the original factory grease. Weird that by the time I bought my GSXR Suzuki had decided not to grease suspension.
Going to be in this one for the long haul.
The End and Lessons Learnt!
Moved the bike to Haines Motorcycles to be finally prepped for selling. There’s a few jobs left to finish that I’ll do at Anthony’s, whilst there we agreed that the bike could do with something to support the rear mudguard as I’d removed the hideous stock CCM carrier. After a quick check in the parts room Anthony came up with a 404 mudguard support which as has the added benefit of a grab handle.
Drilled a couple of holes in the rear mudguard and bolted it on.
Am I sad to see it go? Not sure I thought it was a quick gearbox fix but as you’ll see from all the posts everything required doing and two years have passed.
A big thank to Anthony at Haines Motorcycles for all his help.
Lessons Learnt
You can find most parts with a bit of effort or just look through my posts. The main bits that let the bike down are the parts actually made by CCM as the quality is from my experience of this bike was questionable, there seemed to be a that will do attitude, but its nothing that a bit of work won’t overcome.
Sandblasting cabinet is a major asset if you’re doing a full rebuild, I used glass bead which gives a great key for painting or a satin finish for bare aluminium.
Any bits you can swap for KTM parts is a win such as lighting switch, the front brake hose guide and footpeg pins.
Suspension is all White Power so highly adjustable with parts easily available.
Plastics are easy to obtain and cheap plus Haines have stacks of different colour fuel tanks if you fancy a change.
Brakes are Brembo just don’t buy bike caliper pistons, as I found the same piston but for a car is vastly cheaper.
Wiring can be a nightmare if the previous owner butchered it and be aware of the hidden resistor which can cause starting issues. I found every connector except the starter solenoid, which you can reuse if its undamaged.
If I had the space I probably would have kept it and done a 720 big bore, matched ported head and kent cam for some extra power. But the next project awaits and its a beast – KTM 990 Adventure S.
Rear Suspension Setup
Realised I hadn’t setup the rear shock, so set about setting the static sag. I put the bike on a stand and measured from the rear indicator to the corner of the end of the swingarm, this gave me a dimension of 650mm. Lowering the bike onto the ground, bounc on the rear a few times to get the suspoension to settle, reduced that number to 560mm.
Taking the second number from the first 650 – 560 gives 90mm of static sag, way too much. KTM dirt bikes use 35-40mm so I was aiming for that area.
Removing the shock is easy with it on a mx stand, place something under the rear wheel to support then undo and remove the bottom shock bolt then, carefully, remove whatever you’ve used to hold the wheel up. This provides enough space to get the shock out. Undo the top mount, see previous post about cut-down spanner, and you can pull the shock out through the gap.
Measuring the shock spring length gave 198mm. I marked some reference points on the shock with a sharpie then wound on preload until it measured 190mm. Refitting the shock, don’t bother with the nuts as you’ll removing it a few times, and lowering the bike gave me a new measurement of 600mm or 50mm sag. My target was 35mm.
Basically winding on 8mm of preload reduced the sag by 40mm, so each turn adds about 2mm of preload which equates to 5mm increase in ride height. Another 2 and a bit turns of preload and I’m in the ball park for static sag.
I then sat on the bike and got a measurement of 500mm, indicating rider sag of about 110mm which is fine.
I’ve set rebound and compression to the middle and will adjust following test rides.
Slow Progress
Moving house soon so updates have slowed as I’m clearing stuff to make the move easier. Gas Gas has been sold to make space.
Swapped out some bolts to flanged button head allen bolts, these can be tricky as the head is shallow but as long as the threads are clean and you use some anti-seize then there usually aren’t any issues, but they look so much better.
Also sorted the plastic bung that covers one of the breather outlets on the airbox, I used XF650 parts.
Engine Paint – Take 2
Re-blasted the front pipe, then coated it with flameproof primer and top coat curing each coat with a hot air gun.
Still not convienced about the VHT paint. When the bike was running it started to produce tiny bubbles and smoked like crazy, but did stay on the pipe. I checked the temp of the pipe with a thermometer and when running it only hit 320c way below the 1000c the paint can cope with.
Still have to repaint the mid pipe, as that discoloured and will look for an alternative paint in the future.
Tidying Earth Cables
After doing some rerouting of cables found that battery earth cable was way too long. So cut and recrimped it to sort it out.
Also forgot to tighten the top shock bolt and once the subframe is attached you can’t get a socket or spanner on it. So purchased some ‘s’ spanners and cut the end down to fit, had to shorten an allen key as well using my dremel cut off wheel.
