1100R Scrambler Project

I posted asking questions about this earlier but I thought I would post project updates in a new thread, in case anyone is interested. I'm definitely interested in hearing feedback / suggestions as I'm new to the scene here, so please feel free to chime in. My starting point is a stock 1999 R1100R I picked up last summer. The goal is to add some off road chops and at the same time do any upgrades to make it run better / more reliable or fix any known trouble spots, regarding which I've already picked up a lot of useful info here.

Here are a couple of photos of the bike in stock form, taken a couple weeks ago:




Planning on swapping over the following items I've ordered from the 1100GS:
Front end and front/rear suspension (forks & brackets, handle bars, shocks)
19" front wheel, GS front fender
Center stand and side stand
Lower skid plates
Single oil cooler / lines
Foot pegs/brackets

As far as repairs/upgrades, I have the hall effect sensor sent out for repair/rewiring, I ordered the left cam chain tensioner kit, Galfer stainless brake lines (GS kit), I have an injector upgrade kit with matched 12 series injectors ordered from tills.de, a Nightrider AF-XIED controller which is going to replace the Techlusion unit that's on it now. And I need to repair a bunch of shredded wire insulation.

A couple of current photos:






I got the rear suspension done - so far have been unable to find the GS paralever link, so I ordered a spare stock one and shortened it by 20mm (re-drilled, cut off and plated the rear dog-bone end) as can be seen in the photo. I still would like to find the proper part (p/n 33172314179 - if anyone knows where I can find one, let me know), just not sure of the forces involved when the suspension compresses and since the plates (.120) I welded on are stiffer than the original member I'm concerned about the potential to crack forward of the plate. But should be fine for testing out the suspension geometry - I'm actually surprised how much it raises the rear end.

I found that the rear brake line (hard line) is too short to allow mounting the rear master cylinder to the new foot peg bracket, so I have some new PVF coated line on order to make a new line. I'm going to have to make some brackets to hang the oil cooler from the front cover, and I would like to try to adapt the R instrument cluster to fit the new front end setup, but I won't have that for a couple weeks (coming via eBay from a salvage place in Germany). I need to figure out where to mount the adjuster for the rear shock. Also making a new luggage shelf that mounts to the rear subframe where the rear seat would go using the existing mounting holes.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and as I said any feedback or suggestions are appreciated!

mzeitz said:

I still would like to find the proper part (p/n 33172314179 - if anyone knows where I can find one, let me know)......

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Your dealer can order one for you.

BC1100S said:

Your dealer can order one for you.

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Yeah, I'm just being cheap - I think it's about a $250 part versus the one I bought used for $30 - if I can't find one by the time I'm done with it I probably will.

mzeitz said:

Yeah, I'm just being cheap - I think it's about a $250 part versus the one I bought used for $30 - if I can't find one by the time I'm done with it I probably will.

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Yikes, you're right! I bought one about 10 years ago to fit to my R1100S and it cost about 50 bucks from the dealer. Considering its made out of stamped sheet metal, I have to question the validity of charging only slightly less than what one would pay for a new FD housing.

BC1100S said:

Yikes, you're right! I bought one about 10 years ago to fit to my R1100S and it cost about 50 bucks from the dealer. Considering its made out of stamped sheet metal, I have to question the validity of charging only slightly less than what one would pay for a new FD housing.

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I've seen a couple of fancy adjustable ones too, but they go for $600 and up, so that ain't happening...

Today's update:
Got the side stand and center stand swapped over, got the skid plates cleaned, painted and installed and extended the rear brake line to the master so I could mount to its new location inboard of the foot peg bracket. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the brake light switch that came with the new bracket - it's different from the original.




My "new" front wheel came today and I'm pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be in better condition than my existing wheels - my spokes are a getting a little corroded. And as a bonus it came with a brand new Shinko 705 dual sport tire on it. I've been looking into tires recently and this was one of the ones I was considering - they are dirt cheap and have fairly positive reviews overall, so I guess I'll try them out. Just need to order a rear.



Tomorrow I will probably start tidying up the wiring - I have a lot of harness wrap that's coming apart and there was wiring zip tied to the frame all over the place. Going to be a tedious task but needs to be done...

I like where you're going with this.

I got the feeling this is going to be a good thread.

Oil cooler location?

Thanks, I hoped it would least be interesting to a few folks; I also figured it would help keep me on task - this is my only two wheeler and we are getting into prime riding season here in the Pacific Northwest (although I ride all year), so I'm hoping to have her back on the road by around the second week in July (mostly just due to parts I'm waiting on).

Can anybody tell me where the oil cooler goes on a GS? I was thinking it was mounted behind the telelever A-arm but I was mocking up the oil cooler and lines I got and it looks like it must have originally been mounted to the forks or up in the "beak" section somewhere.

GS oil cooler is mount

The GS and GSA oil cooler is mounted to the framework for the instrument cluster and front beak. I started to go that direction with my "Scrambled 850 R" and got distracted with other less troublesome projects. I left the 850 R oil coolers on as well as the gas tank and seat, I kinda like it like that. I still have the GS seats and frame work along with a spare gas tank I plan on getting ready to use as spares for my '04 GSA. Solo seat and a smaller tank for around town/state riding.

69zeff65 said:

The GS and GSA oil cooler is mounted to the framework for the instrument cluster and front beak. I started to go that direction with my "Scrambled 850 R" and got distracted with other less troublesome projects. I left the 850 R oil coolers on as well as the gas tank and seat, I kinda like it like that. I still have the GS seats and frame work along with a spare gas tank I plan on getting ready to use as spares for my '04 GSA. Solo seat and a smaller tank for around town/state riding.

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Ok, that makes sense. I plan to keep the instrument cluster, headlight and tank the same as much as I can, I like the look of it. I looked at the GS parts and there’s a group of brackets and fairings up there that I won’t have. Also looks like they must have had two different coolers, one with hose barbs and one with threaded o-ring fittings. If I get the other one with the fittings I can get some hoses made up that should work in the location that I want.

Oil Cooler

I made up a bracket and mounted the oil cooler where I think I want it. Still not sure whether I'm going to use this cooler or get the one with the fittings; I was thinking I might be able to find some hoses with molded 90's to put at the cooler end. Also want to make some braces for the bracket to attach to the next lower pair of bolts on the front cover, and maybe see if I can find some perforated steel sheet to make a guard for the cooler, provided it's not going to restrict the air flow too much. Those are the original 1100R forks in the photo, but the larger wheel. If anything the new forks will be a little longer so shouldn't be any clearance issues with the wheel/fender I don't think... I ended up cutting the bracket for the steering stabilizer off of the telelever A-arm (if that's what it's called), from what I understand it wasn't used on the GS anyway.

You might rethink the cooler location

I'm not sure of your geographic location but down here in S.W. Floridah you need good air flow over the cylinders and oil cooler at all times. The spot you have your oil cooler in is not an ideal one for air flow, you may also give serious thought to what kind of crud might build up from the front wheel stuff. I would suggest sticking it up above the A-arm and just below the headlight. Making and attaching brackets would be a challenge and the cooler lines would be a realatively easy issue if you can find a local hydraulic hose shop.

69zeff65 said:

I'm not sure of your geographic location but down here in S.W. Floridah you need good air flow over the cylinders and oil cooler at all times. The spot you have your oil cooler in is not an ideal one for air flow, you may also give serious thought to what kind of crud might build up from the front wheel stuff. I would suggest sticking it up above the A-arm and just below the headlight. Making and attaching brackets would be a challenge and the cooler lines would be a realatively easy issue if you can find a local hydraulic hose shop.

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Yeah, I’m a little concerned about it, I thought about putting it above but just eyeballing it, it would have to be pretty low to clear the light and then that’s where the steering and suspension travel is too. I’ll probably leave it for now and take another look at it once I have the new front end installed. Either way I was planning on putting an oil temp gauge where the clock is in the gauge cluster so I can see how it’s working once I get it on the road. I can always just run with the two side coolers if needed but I just never really cared for the way it looks. I’m sure there’s a reason they did it that way though. I’m out in Seattle and our climate is pretty mild but it can get into triple digits east of the mountains.

Oil temperature

Speaking of which, what is the high end of oil temps these run at? I never thought of checking it and wouldn’t worry about it if I was running the stock setup, but if I change it I sure would like to be paying attention until I see what it’s doing.

mzeitz said:

Speaking of which, what is the high end of oil temps these run at? I never thought of checking it and wouldn’t worry about it if I was running the stock setup, but if I change it I sure would like to be paying attention until I see what it’s doing.

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Above 212F, less than the ash rating of the oil. I like 250F

PGlaves said:

Above 212F, less than the ash rating of the oil. I like 250F

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Roger that, I think regardless of the mounting location I will go ahead and put a gauge in. When I have noticed it gets hot (using my shin temp sensor) is sitting in city traffic and after a hard highway run. With the traffic scenario air flow is not going to be an issue because there isn't any, so I'll pick a hot day and go try it out with a few hard fast pulls I guess. As was pointed out above if I do mount it down low I need to watch for crud getting kicked up into the cooler, but I think I could easily make a deflector to mitigate that issue. Also, FWIW I've been running Mobil 1 synthetic, 15/50 I believe it is.

I reassembled some of the old front end and the oil cooler is just not going to fit above the trailing arm. In order to clear the forks between full lock of the steering it would basically have to be up against the shock about an inch above the trailing arm (see photo), which would obviously interfere with the front suspension travel. So I think I'm going to run it where I have it and give it a try. I just ordered some -8 AN fittings to make up some oil hoses, and fittings to weld to the cooler and existing hard lines. I'm also going to put a 1/8 pipe bung on the inlet side of the cooler for a temp sensor, and I have a gauge ordered that's going to go where the clock used to be in the instrument cluster. If I have temp issues this summer I'll probably just go back to the dual side coolers.



Digging around online I've found some pictures of some GS scrambler types who are running the oil cooler where I have mine, of course that doesn't mean they work properly, or maybe they are only running above the arctic circle, who knows... Oh, and speaking of the gauge cluster, I've discovered that the 1150R used the same style gauge panel I have except with a straight bar setup like the GS, so it has a gauge bezel that I think will work for my setup, so I have one of those ordered as well. Also got my rear tire mounted over the weekend.





I'm slowly running out of things to work on until my front end arrives, I can't seem to get an update on where it's at - in a shipping container somewhere on the north Atlantic I guess. Fingers crossed...

Oil Cooler Plumbing

Today's update - I finished putting the fittings on and making the hoses for the oil cooler, and I think it's going to work fine for now. I ended up running the inlet hose to the inside of the trailing arm instead of around the outside; it makes the belt cover a little bit more of a pain to remove and install as that hose has to be removed and tucked to the side to slide the cover out, but I think it looks cleaner and I'll have the rewired HE sensor in there and a new belt so I shouldn't have to get in there again for a while. This is going to be kind of an experiment until I see whether the cooling is adequate - you can see the pipe bung I put in for the temp sensor; that and the gauge should be coming this week.









Should have the HE sensor back today from GSAddict (shout out for the quick turnaround!) Also finally got word that the last of my parts - the front end and left peg bracket and shifter - have cleared customs and are in the hands of the USPS so just have to make it here from the east coast. So hoping that I can have this thing back together and on the road in a week or so. About the only thing I have left to figure out is how to adapt the gauge cluster / bracket to the GS front end - I have a couple ideas but I just need to get all the parts in hand so I can see what's going to make the most sense.

Oh, and I happened to find a complete stock exhaust - headers, cat and muffler - on fleabay for about $100 (including shipping) so I think I'm going to cut it up and put a straight pipe between the collector and the muffler and try it out. I don't feel like spending a bunch of dough on an aftermarket exhaust as I like the way the stock muffler looks and want to still be able to mount my side cases, but I want to try losing the cat along with some heat and weight, and while I'm not a huge fan of loud exhaust systems, I wouldn't hate it if it ended up having just a little more rumble than it does now.

Done....sorta

So, I got the rest of my parts on Friday and put the bike back together over this past weekend. Everything went together as expected for the most part - I had to modify the existing bracket which holds the gauge cluster, head light and turn signals, and drill and tap some mounting holes. The bezel from the 1150R didn't fit quite as perfect as I had hoped, but it's on there, it's secure and functional.





I took it out for a ride yesterday afternoon and first impressions are, first of all I'm impressed with how it's running. I put in a matched set of 1200 injectors and replaced the Techlusion box with a Nightrider AF-XIED control, and the power delivery seems smoother particularly at the lower end, and overall just feels "punchier". Now that I think about it, I didn't even check to see what setting the control was on, so I'll need to experiment with that too. But I also like the taller ride height and I like how it handles.






What's left to do:

Oil cooler is still an open question, and that huge front fender isn't helping, so that's got to go - it doesn't really fit the look I was going for either so I may try to make the R fender work or make something. Anyway, it wasn't particularly hot yesterday and I didn't push it too hard, the few times I pulled over to check with a temp gun I was seeing around 230. My temp gun is a POS and I don't trust it, but I should have my AutoMeter kit today actually so I'll be happier when I can see it in real time.

I finally found a GS torsion link (the one on there now is the one I shortened) so I need to spray bomb that and put it on. And finally I'm not sure why but the shifter geometry has been kind of wonky. The link that came with the new foot peg bracket was about 3x as long as the original, causing the shift lever to hang down way too low. I tried putting the original link in and because of where the link on the new lever is it was at too severe of an angle and would hardly shift at all. So I cut about 1/2" off of each end of the link, that's where I have it now and ergonomically it seems like it's in a good spot but still a little too long as it hits the kick loop on the side stand making it difficult to downshift. So I will probably either shorten the link a bit more, or cut off and move the loop on the side stand to the front so it's underneath when in the raised position.

Also a few cosmetic changes I may try but at least she's a runner