I bought this bike is June 2016 after years of having near misses with R100R purchases... The bike looked great with the GS paint and all the extras and when I received it I also got a host of extras, books and an amazing handwritten history by most of its owners for nearly the whole of its 85k miles. It's a US import on 32mm carbs, and the previous owner, being into Airhead racing added 77RS 9.5 compression pistons as the USers came with 8.5's... The intial owner had been a good old school BM owner and had covered 70k+... The bike was seen by me about 5 years ago (unknowingly when I bought it) on the Bay looking a bit of a mess of a scruffy "custom"...
I'm 6'4" and the screen was a bit short so I toyed with the idea of a fairing... I wondered if an RT/RS fairing would fit and sat on the idea for a year or so while a couple of possible donors buggered about and then buggered off... I didn't do a ton of miles as the other bikes were is demand but found it a great handling bike as expected with all the best bits of early 90's BM production for the chassis... They really are a misunderstood bike and are well balanced and a load of Airhead fun...
I still fancied a fairing though especially after owning a couple of RT's... Just a piece of total function in a fairing... After trying to get a fairing kit from further south, one turned up here in sunny Shetland (thanks Gary) and after a fair bit of messing to get things to fit, including some functional mods... It's now re MOT'ed on the road...
You may like it, you may hate it but it's another bit of customising and a bit of reverse hipstering for those who like BM's as they were designed to be... It takes a fair bit of trimming to get the lowers and the centre to fit and the final trim of the pockets is still to be done... the aim was to change as little of the R as possible so it can be reinstated inside a day... It aint and will never be a concours cappachino sipping café culture look at me special but it suits the bikes characteristics spot on... Whereas RT's can be a bit wallowy when pushed, this ones on rails at 70+ through the bends even with the extra weight... Like I said, all the best bits...
Before and after...
I'm 6'4" and the screen was a bit short so I toyed with the idea of a fairing... I wondered if an RT/RS fairing would fit and sat on the idea for a year or so while a couple of possible donors buggered about and then buggered off... I didn't do a ton of miles as the other bikes were is demand but found it a great handling bike as expected with all the best bits of early 90's BM production for the chassis... They really are a misunderstood bike and are well balanced and a load of Airhead fun...
I still fancied a fairing though especially after owning a couple of RT's... Just a piece of total function in a fairing... After trying to get a fairing kit from further south, one turned up here in sunny Shetland (thanks Gary) and after a fair bit of messing to get things to fit, including some functional mods... It's now re MOT'ed on the road...
You may like it, you may hate it but it's another bit of customising and a bit of reverse hipstering for those who like BM's as they were designed to be... It takes a fair bit of trimming to get the lowers and the centre to fit and the final trim of the pockets is still to be done... the aim was to change as little of the R as possible so it can be reinstated inside a day... It aint and will never be a concours cappachino sipping café culture look at me special but it suits the bikes characteristics spot on... Whereas RT's can be a bit wallowy when pushed, this ones on rails at 70+ through the bends even with the extra weight... Like I said, all the best bits...
Before and after...