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Blizzo's '86 BMW R80 G/S Dakar project


BLIZZO

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So the last thing i need right now is another project, but this came up for far to good of a deal to pass up on so i jumped on it. Its just parked in my parents shed and will stay like this for a while until i save up some money to throw at it / get other projects out of the way / have spare time. But keen to start hoarding some parts soon anyway.

So as it is, its a 1986 BMW R80 G/S. Shes pretty rough, but runs mint. It was stolen and recovered and has a broken ignition and rattle can paint and has sat outside for a year or two and is pretty tatty. I went to the cop shop and verified the last registered owner and have a letter from him and the cops so hopefully revin shouldn't be too much drama. Does anyone have any experience revinning a modified bike? I love how its a GS as it has spoked wheels which i think is lush, im unsure if this is a genuine Paris Dakar model as they usually had a dirt bike type front guard and a single man seat with extra rack, this does however have a genuine Paris Dakar model 32l tank, under the paint it sill has the original decals which can be seen on the shitty facebook photo from the ad.

anyway here is bike-

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At this stage i am totes unsure about which direction to go, at first a thought maybe restore to original adventure spec and do lush rides like this -

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but then i thought nahhhhh cos its missing a few original things like the pack racks, ignition, hi rise exhaust and that just does't look so coooool.

At the moment im pretty sold on doing a scrambler build, but still road legal and comfy and complete enough so some awesome touring rides. Id like to keep stock airbox. At the moment im just unsure if ill keep the Paris Dakar tank (which is very large and may be hard to get the whole bike matching it when scrambler spec and actually look lush) or go down to a normal sized R80 tank. Id be pretty keen to keep the dakar colours with the white tank and orange seat.

here is some inspiration anyway, also, please tell me all of the things, i am new to these airhead thingys / never built a bike before

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  • 5 weeks later...

so direction changed so this a bit, i have been pining an ADV bike for a while, and after talking to a few barry's about how rare a genuine R80 G/S Paris Dakar is im going to bring this thing back up to its adventure orientated globe trotting glory, with a few modern twists. The Frame will get some HPN spec bracing, the front end will be swapped for a DRZ400 front end, i may go to a repro PD single seat and probably lower the stock footpegs a bit to make it a bit more comfortable to ride standing up, and i plan to take this thing where coffee shop dwelling ADV fag barry's wouldn't usually go.

I have already picked up a nice stainless high exhaust for the bike, it goes up and then sits horizontal and goes back a bit further than what i think would look nice, so its gunna get chopped a bit so the muffler section is on about a 20 degree angle similar to the HPN rallye mufflers.

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This is the DRZ parts bike i picked up, the forks are still conventional so have the "classic" look but are 49mm as opposed to the measley 32mm BMW forks, they also have much better springs and valving. They will be shortened by using a 75mm spacer inside, i will use a DRZ / RM wheel with the suzuki brake and caliper, just with an aftermarket bigger 320mm disc. The only problem with this swap is the triple trees have 15mm offset, compared to the massive 32mm of the BMW triples. I am looking out for some RM250/125 triples which have 24.5mm which is about perfect, because they are USD triples they will just need spacers in the fork hole to pack them out so they clamp down on the 49mm stanchions. Apparently it makes them handle soooooo much better, so looking forward to that.

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At this stage im still just hoarding parts before i pull it down, need to get escort out of the shed which is going as i have realized its way too fucked an i CBF250 doing anything with it, then ill have some space to rip into this thing. looks like its going to be a fun winter project! cant wait to have it done and then smash out some awesome adventures with Action Waggy!!!!!!

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  • 3 years later...
  • 11 months later...

So the africa twin got finished, XR250 finished, Z50 finished and its now just about 12 months since I last posted an update on this. 

It has been up hogging the bike stand for that time, which i'm getting sick of, so it's time for some action. Just dropped a couple of grand on parts on sibenrock in germany to get it to a restored rolling frame. some bigger ticket items like new fork stanchions and repro front brake rotor made a smallish purchase seem like a big one. Have already got some stainless spokes on hand and a big box of alloy bits ready to drop at the vapor blasters.

Over the next month i should get the wheels restored and continue to strip, tag and box all the bits down to a bare frame.

Currently having an internal fight in my head as to whether i powdercoat the frame or paint it. would prefer paint from an originality perspective and for touch ups, but nothing i've sprayed or had sprayed before seems to be as good as factory paint finishes. Any recommendations here?

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I won't use powder on my frames. BUT I do have a very good outfit in ChCh who can do traditional baked enamel to a high standard.

Ring around the painters and industrial finishers in your area to see if anyone offers baked enamel.

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44 minutes ago, peteretep said:

What’s the objection to powder coating? It’s really robust and looks great IMO

A few things, I’ve done it a few times before I wouldn’t want it on this frame 

- it’s only well protective if there is zinc powder primer underneath, this makes it even more thick 

- it hides frame numbers

- on a bike I that’s not as special it would be fine, this thing is very rare and quite valuable now, so for originality paint is best. 

- powder is difficult to remove and any chips can get moisture under them and can’t be touched up as easily 

- powder doesn’t flex well, and these featherbed style frames are notorious for flexing 

- becuase powder is so thick it cracks when you torque nuts against it like cheap spray can paint can. 
 

they are the main points anyway. It’s also

just a bit of a bitch to blank off all the threads and any bits with a tight fit wind up with issues

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  • 9 months later...
On 26/01/2022 at 15:38, GregT said:

I won't use powder on my frames. BUT I do have a very good outfit in ChCh who can do traditional baked enamel to a high standard.

Ring around the painters and industrial finishers in your area to see if anyone offers baked enamel.

Hey mate, so ive not had much luck up here finding anyone that does baked enamel, what is the name of the outfit you use in chch? 

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  • 8 months later...

Well she's been a few years between haircuts with this old jigger. Finally decided a few months ago to get stuck into it so rolled the bike out of storage and up on to my motorcycle hoist. I figured the easiest thing to do would be break the restoration down into stages for a few reasons, first being getting the costs past the minister of war and finance but also to not burden myself with too much at once. I figured if i can work on "stage 1" which is get the bike back to a restored rolling frame wont take too much money and wont wind up with the thing in a million bits for ages and losing bits and pieces. 

 

I started stripping the bike down and making a list of things to order which quickly started adding up. Had a shopping spree on Siebenrock and got new fork stanchions, brake rotor, brake pads, spokes, headings, rubber driveshaft boot, fork seals and a few other bits and bobs, pretty much everything to get it back to a rolling frame. I'm currently tidying up the rims and have a big ole box of bits to drop to the vapor blasters.

Im pretty glad to be sorting this thing now as the frame is certainly pretty crusty, its all surface rust but wouldn't take much more to turn to a pitted mess. I'm still pretty sure that I wont powder coat the frame and will do a bit of research to see if i can find an outfit that does baked enamel, if not just a normal enamel out of a gun will probably be the go.

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Engine out and on the bench, spot the missing bits here, i havn't removed anything other than the front cover. Bike ran fine but certainly wasn't going to have any working lights!

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Wee bonus I found when pulling it apart, a cool old metal tyre pump inside the frame tube. Does anyone know if this is a genuine BMW pump or just some old bump someone has poked in there back in the day?

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next task is to keep stripping the frame down, make any repairs needed, then blast and paint.

 

Engine will sit on the bench until the frame is back together then that will get pulled apart, blasted, some minor engine work and go back together. thanks stage 2 i guess.

 

Stage 3 will be the spendy part, paint, decals, seat recover, instrument repair, new rear shock, find a new ignition switch (didn't have one as it was stolen and recovered) and probably put a wedgetail electronic ignition kit in it. At least i have started now!

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Only just seen your request for a baked enameller sorry. I use Industrial Painters 80 Buchan St Sydenham ChCh. Can reccommend. Powdercoaters have the ovens for baked enamel. Ask around the powdercoaters local to you to see if any will do it on the side.

My main reason for not using powder is that even with ISO9000 standard prep and prime, if you get water uderneath as can happen from a stone bruise etc, the steel will rust under the powder. Several times I've had a frame for repair and found a lot of powder flaking off rusted parts. Also as most of my frames are race bikes, ease of repair is a factor. If welding is required on a damaged powdercoated frame it's a case of strip it all off as you can't do spot repairs. Paint is easy powder ain't.

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