Hello All and Tarka
I've held off replying to this thread until I had done a few miles on the 'Special K' outfit to see what worked, broke, etc and now with just over 1,000 miles done in the last few weeks it seems well up to and above the job I wanted it for.
The old K had belonged to my father since the early 90's and when he stopped riding he passed it on to me as a winter hack, it had only covered 35,000 miles and when the Nivomat gave up the ghost he replaced it with a new Ohlins and the front end got fitted with progressive fork springs and a fork brace. I have used it for the last few years as a winter rally bike and general commuter through the dark months but just didn't gel with the bike as a whole. Being used in winter the roads were usually wet, greasy or icy and at the end of the run the K was usually confronted with a muddy rally field.
As Tarka and some of you know I also ran a Dnepr Outfit but it was just too slow for modern traffic on A roads and I felt unreliable for distance work hence came the idea originally to fit a Ural or Dnepr chassis to the Special K. It was a chance meeting with Gert at the Icy Ale Rally in December 2013 that changed all this when he offered to construct me an outfit on similar lines to his GS but fitted to the K. Well why not ???
I delivered the bike down to Gert in Essex around May of 2014 and followed the work closely with photo updates. I have no engineering knowledge and just said build me something for winter rallies well that is the result and I'm well chuffed
. On picking the outfit up I rode 180 miles back up the A1 with one stop, sitting her at around 65mph to 70mph to get used to the machine and check everything out. Two weeks of commute and town work followed before I loaded her up and went to the Thistle Rally last weekend, 580 mile round trip including motorways and boarder back roads all two up and loaded with camping gear, beer etc. WoW !!!!!, Pulls like a train, sits rock steady up to 90mph ( fastest I've been yet obviously on a closed circuit with professional guidance ). The down side at present is a head shake between 10mph and 20 mph which can get violent if you take your hand off the bars, eg to close your visor !!!!! but it settles down with a small opening of the throttle. It is still running the standard solo tyres which I will change when they wear out and I will look to fitting a hydraulic damper in the summer months. The only thing to break so far is the small rack above the mudguard, designed for waterproofs and other light items it broke at the corner weld, I think owing to that famous K vibration at 60 mph.
I will keep and eye on other stuff over the coming months and let you know how it gets on but Gert has transformed an underused old K into a mile munching winter outfit and I'm pleased. Changes I would make or will make over the next few month include extending the front wind deflector and running the front top sidecar tube around the side infront of the spare fuel can. And if it keeps Tarka happy I may change the indicator repeater light round
Here is a link to some photos from the Thistle Rally and I'll keep you informed how she goes. Thanks Gert for the work.
http://jonsharrocks.smugmug.com/MotorcycleRally/Thistle-Rally-Feb-2015#!/i-FnfsznG