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DrNeo's F800GS Alaska/LDR bike build

The Camel Tank auxiliary gas tank is installed and ready for action! This gives an additional ~2 gallons, which along with the 1 gallon peg packer, and the ~4.2 gallon stock tank should give me ~320 miles if I keep the bike returning my current average of 45.6 mpg.

I'm still way under the Iron Butt Rally's 11.5 gallon limit...

The whole process was pretty easy. Took longer because I was redoing and planning some wiring at the same time, but I think most people could do it in under 2 hours.


IMG-0248.jpg
IMG-5010.jpg
 
drneo66 said:
Correct! It's a MadStad windshield.
Click to expand...

Good choice for a bike used for touring and at speed.

:thumb

Many dual purpose bikes have shields at a bad angle and also don't allow for relief of negative trailing pressure at speed (which is worse at certain angles).
 
Last edited:
Like many other F800 owners, it was time for new steering head bearings... not a bad job on this bike. Heating up the bearings via a heat gun, and freezing the stem by letting it sit outside in the snow, allowed the new bearings to drop right on!








 
drneo66 said:
Like many other F800 owners, it was time for new steering head bearings... not a bad job on this bike. Heating up the bearings via a heat gun, and freezing the stem by letting it sit outside in the snow, allowed the new bearings to drop right on!








Click to expand...

I’m curious as to the symptoms for the SH bearings?
Thanks.
OM
 
Omega Man said:
I’m curious as to the symptoms for the SH bearings?
Thanks.
OM
Click to expand...

OM - a solid notch in the dead center of the steering range. With the tire off, I could slowly rotate the bars until the center, where the steering would solidly "lock" into the notch. I could just start to feel it while riding the bike on the road, but with the front tire off the ground, it was also noticeable.
 
drneo66 said:
OM - a solid notch in the dead center of the steering range. With the tire off, I could slowly rotate the bars until the center, where the steering would solidly "lock" into the notch. I could just start to feel it while riding the bike on the road, but with the front tire off the ground, it was also noticeable.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I will check my ‘09 F800GS :thumb
OM
 
Steering head bearings can be loose and you still might not feel any movement like in the video. The video is pretty extreme!!

I have tightened the steering head bearings on pretty much every motorcycle I have owned. Like the video i get the front wheel off the ground and tighten the bearings until I slight drag when moving the handle bars left to right, then back the nut off about 1/3rd of a turn, tighten all the hardware down and take another feel. If there is any drag the bearings are still too tight. They can tighten up when the top triple tree nut is tightened, so you might have to back of the adjuster nut farther. It doesn't hurt to give the triple trees a couple taps with a rubber mallet before you tighten up the pinch bolts to "settle" the parts together. Any notchy feeling, replace the bearings.
 
drneo66 said:
A little easier to understand on how to check:
Click to expand...

PoorUB said:
Steering head bearings can be loose and you still might not feel any movement like in the video. The video is pretty extreme!!

I have tightened the steering head bearings on pretty much every motorcycle I have owned. Like the video i get the front wheel off the ground and tighten the bearings until I slight drag when moving the handle bars left to right, then back the nut off about 1/3rd of a turn, tighten all the hardware down and take another feel. If there is any drag the bearings are still too tight. They can tighten up when the top triple tree nut is tightened, so you might have to back of the adjuster nut farther. It doesn't hurt to give the triple trees a couple taps with a rubber mallet before you tighten up the pinch bolts to "settle" the parts together. Any notchy feeling, replace the bearings.
Click to expand...

Nice!
Added to the “Tag Cloud”.
OM
 
Alright - new bearings and seals for the front wheel: check!

The bearings weren't too bad, but the seals had seen better days. The previous owner did use a pressure washer on the bike, so that was my main concern, but I found plenty of grease. The seals came out super easy with the 20mm Motion Pro seal driver.




 
Well, it's been a whirlwind of the last 2 weeks. I now have the MCcruise installed, along with the CanSmart controller, and the Scottoiler.

The last couple days has been spent either answering text messages about the status of spread of Covid-19 or using zip ties to wrangle this amazing amount of wiring. The soldering iron has been getting a workout too as I made modifications to this mess.

I ordered a couple stainless steel wheel spaces from Germany after taking a better look at the ones that were original. (No picture yet). The original were just starting to show wear marks where the seals contact the spaces. The SS spacers are cheaper than the seals, so I thought I'd order them. I also found that I the parts fiche is wrong/misleading when I ordered one side of the front wheel seals, so Max BMW to rescue.

I hope to be posting the bike all put together soon! Then the testing begins!

What an embarrising mess..







 
Well, it's been a couple more weeks of working on the F800GS. I was able to wrangle all of the extra wiring into the appropriate spots and, so far, they haven't electrocuted me.

Here's a shot of the old wheel spacers - the new ones are stainless and perfectly matched up.



Since the bike was on the lift anyway, I flushed the brake fluid. It's so easy with the MityVac that I generally bleed all my bikes one time per year. I did this previously back in the fall, but it came out darker than I expected.



Last year, I got tired of the little plastic container from the MityVac always twisting and falling over, so I took 5 minutes and some scrap wood to make a stand. It's ugly, but it further reduces the time needed to bleed brakes.



With the bike back together, I've now done a couple short trips around town and a couple short trips in the backroads of Minnesota. The long-range cruising and comfort testing will have to wait for a while. All of the systems seem to work out currently!

The MCCruise takes a little fineness (because it's vacuum operated), but has worked out great in my limited testing. I did have to lubricate the throttle cables that it came with it to reduce the extra pull. After a couple of heat cycles they now seem to be sliding much better than before. Overall, I'm very happy with the system!



 
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