New guy intro

[tenni128]

Hey all,
My name's Brian, and this is my '74 R90/6. It was in great stock shape, with low (~10K) miles that was sort of a garage queen and needed only fresh fluids, grease, and tires to be a nice rider. I also added Works rear shocks and front springs sprung for my weight (~220lbs in full gear) But, the gauges disintegrated on the first long ride, it had a 32/9 rear end that was really too steep for my liking, and the stock front brake wasn't good enough for me, even after new pads, fluid, SS line, and proper allignment. I swapped in a 32/10 (much better) and found a /5 speedo that had a ratio to match luckily, which I liked the look of better. For the brakes, I'm swapping the front end for a complete K100RS setup I found fairly cheap on fleabay. I wanted to keep the spokes, so after talking with Woody's Wheels about it I tracked down a hub for an R100R that they're going to lace to a standard tube-type rim. The only problem is caliper clearance, but I'm hoping that between the slightly narrower spoke placement on the R100R hub (than the stock /6's) and using a standard style rim I might be okay. If it comes down to it, I figure can shave the mount tabs and calipers and pick up an 1/8th inch or so overall, but I'll have to wait till the wheel comes back to see what I need to do. If anyone's done this, I'd welcome any input! Sorry for the crappy pics, these are a shortly after I got it and it's totally torn apart at the moment with the front end work.
Thanks, looks like a great forum!
-Brian

[SteveD]

Good lookin' bike there Brian.

Your front end sounds interesting, and I'm sure there's a few that will enjoy watching you do it all.

Welcome aboard.

[She'llbe]

Welcome Brian, whereyaat? That's coonass for where are you?

[tenni128]

Yeah, I'm sure there's easier ways to do all this, but I liked the look of the Brembo calipers and discs the K100RS had, and the whole front end (bars, wheel, everything) was a lot cheaper than even just the parts I was finding to add a second disc with the stock setup. Course, that cost benefit is diminishing quickly with the spoked wheel desire, but hey. If nothing else, the more conventional brembos, bigger axle and forks, and sealed wheel bearings will be nice. The K100RS is considerably taller up front, so I'll be looking at issues there, too, but one thing at a time. I really want it to look as basically stock as I can. Oh yeah, I'm in Coronado, California.

[Ross]

Be welcome here fellow airheader. Love the R90. She looks so cool in white.

[Ross]

Love the speedo/tacho. Where did you get that from???

[tenni128]

I got lucky on a unit that had just been restored. It was dumb luck that the ratios worked with the 32/10 rear gearing. I liked the clean look of the speedo/tach setup better, but it's hard to do it cleanly on a /6 unless you want to cough up the huge amount they want for the matching headlight bucket. So I used a set of risers that came with the bike and made a little housing for it. I'll post the pics when I get it back together. Nothing fancy, though. I'm planning on running a little 3/4 style fairing anyway. I ran the cables through the headlight bucket, using grommets to keep out birds and squirrels. There's just barely enough room to run the speedo cable in front of the connector board and still clear the headlight lens. Not as clean as using a /5 bucket, but then I didn't have to mess around with the wiring either. I'm kinda making it up as I go along with what I have. Certainly won't be contending for fabricator of the year from what I've seen from this board and others like it!

[Hunsta]

Love the speedo. Wouldnt mind something like that on my R65. As for adding a 3/4 fairing. My thoughts are NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. it will clutter up the front of the bike. But dont take my word for it as Im bias.

[hal]

Welcome aboard Brian!
Great lookin bike you have there, I think it looks better as it does without any fairing, but practicality is another thing. And who am I to talk, my /6 has a big ugly fairing attached. Can't get myself to part with it as it's my only bike and I'm using it for communiting in the summer..
Waiting with big interest to hear more about your brake job. I'm on stock sinlge ATE and the brakes realy sucks.

Cheers

[tenni128]

Thanks all, I agree about the clean look of the bike, but need a little protection from the wind for camping trips, which is mostly what I do with this thing. It will be done with a quick release setup, so I could pop it off for short rides. I could definitely ride right now with the mag wheel from the K100, but I'm trying hard to wait for the proper spokes. I tend to settle at 80% on things like this sometimes, and don't want to do that here. The hub for the R100R came in, and fits the axle as it should. So that part will work. Now I need to get it out to the wheel guys to see what they can do with it. There's lots of other stuff to do yet. Right now I'm trying to find someone local or even just stateside that can machine the master cylinder for the second brake line. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also, I have to cut down the headlight mounts, and figure out the wiring to the lights on the /5 speedo. It also looks like I'll have to shorten the fork tubes a bit to get the nose of the bike down, though I'll probably ride with the tubes set high in the triple trees for awhile. Geesh. All this for decent brakes!