just stunning chris

Cheers Charlie, much appreciated.

I think it's okay to ride, based on a few short runs before it was stripped and finished. I originally set about building it because I like messing about with bikes in the shed (it's more like a workshop, really) and it was supposed to be a runaround bike to keep me away from the four-wheeled option as much as possible. 
I got a bit carried away when I realised it was possible to polish the ally bits I was making - I saw the quality of work that you had been doing and it made me realise what I ought to be aiming for. Mainly because of the positive responses on this forum, I've arranged to put it in a bike show in Manchester in a couple of weeks time. The main reason is that, if I do that, they give me three free tickets!
Hopefully, when the weather improves, it'll start getting plenty of use as the knockabout it was intended to be!
Glad you enjoyed the thread. I've certainly enjoyed building it and posting about it.

I think I'm going to sort out my neglected K100 next and maybe treat it to some of the indulgence that the K75 MadAss has had. I'm also pretty keen about this 'K75k' thing...

Whatever is next, it'll be a K!

G.day Chris,
First time I've put finger to keyboard on this thread but have been following with great interest. The result is amazing, fantastic as well as stunning. Congratulations and enjoy the Madass. Hope the weather improves a bit soon.
Cheers Tom

So what's next? 

I've gone and bought that K1100 frame on ebay...

...and a K75 engine.

woohoo  !!

yes you have the "kpox"

welcome aboard ... giggle snort

Do you think you could fit a Peugeot engine in the K1100 frame? . . . . . . . .

Good, very good..

Dang, I forgot to make something:

Here's a clue for starters:


A little bit more....



Can you tell what it is yet?

No, it's not a left handed wan*ing spanner.

Although, I am left handed, hmmm.

Now there's a thing...

Anyway, where was I?
Oh yes, it's a hugger.

Pride..

comes..

before a..

fall..

Ooops!

It crashes well in typical BMW style - this was the only damage after a fair slide. Decided to lean it well over round a well known slow bend, thought that it felt like it was falling into the bend, so I opened the throttle, which is when I discovered that both tyres were in fact happily sliding away owing to them still being coated in workshop crap - that and a slippery road surface.

Always wondered why these things only have two wheels...?

You basterd, how could you?!! Brand new bike and all...  I'm hoping your ability to post the gore means that only the cover got hurt and not you in anyway.  Other than the crash how was the ride?  She looks like a party girl through and through so I hope you can keep posting about what it is like to ride

chris,

I hope you are OK!

It is good to see that you own the bike and not the other way around. Hope you keep having fun with it but before you fix it up do mind if I take it for a spin?

bugga !!

hope you are ok chris

machinery can be rebuilt

Shoe polish works.

On a more serious note really happy to see you are ok.

On a lighter note those covers are readily available and I reckon if you are being a perfectionist get another and coat it and then swap them out.

Years ago, when schooldays were spent sitting attentively for endless hours whilst life and the universe were explained to us, my comrades and I would spend the intervals in much more base pursuits, as befitted the working-class oiks that we really were.

One typical pursuit involved sidling innocently up to an unsuspecting and foolishly trusting friend, and striking a hard blow with your knee on the outside of his thigh. No reason needed. In fact, lack of any justifiable reason was essential to the high comedy that we considered this activity to be.

If struck properly, some important nerve was, I guess, subjected to an overload of white noise and the victim temporarily lost the use of his leg. An amount of pain was also guaranteed, along with the shock of (yet another) unprovoked attack from one of his friends.

What made this even more attractive to us playground psychopaths, was the fact that the victim was deprived of the favourite means of retaliatory assault: the kick. Any attempt would have left the victim falling over. This meant that the 'safe distance' to which you had to speedily retreat was no more than the arc of a stringy arm and a bony fist, usually swung by someone who was falling backwards anyway.

A sophisticated (yes really) development of this involved an accomplice who would make a simultaneous approach from the victim's other side. A hand signal (given behind the victim's back and hence hugely visible to everyone else – all part of the comedy) ensured a perfectly timed double strike. The victim was immediately deprived of two very useful supports – his legs – and he would plunge to the ground like a dynamited block of flats.

I don't think any of us understood the physiology behind this entertainment, so it was known amongst us oiks by the massively unsophisticated name: 'Dead-Leg' and we learned it from older boys who would catch us and use us for practice. In turn, we became the 'older boys' and so it was perpetuated. I think the teachers must have considered it almost as much a sport as we did: along with most forms of minor playground brutality it was okay so long as you didn't attack girls.

I guess in those days most adults were happy enough to get through another week without a three minute warning. Moderate violence and bullying amongst children was seen as part of normal development and, possibly, welcome affirmation that this generation of rampaging little darlings weren't blighted by rickets and polio. As for us, well, years later when someone explained to me that laughter in its basest form is an expression of release from fear, I found it easy to agree: laughing at your crumpled block of flats pal was simply relief that the gang had decided to annihilate someone other than you.

Anyway, believe it or not this is relevant to this particular Idiot's Progress. Because Karma (with a 'K') has caught up with me after all this time and delivered me five days and counting of Dead Leg, as a result of landing on my right thigh when I got bored being upright on the Madass. I'm now the playground prat, tottering around wondering whether my leg is going to decide to hinge without warning, walking with a silly limp, mentally swinging a stringy arm and bony fist at everyone who finds it funny to say “Aren't you getting a bit old for that game”. The family at the moment is awash with adults and not one of them has even offered to walk the dogs. Cripes. Karma, it rides a K.

madass, 
You are one strange duck!

caveman wrote:madass, 
You are one strange duck!

Yep.

He's a typical K owner.

I have enjoyed this thread more than any other.

Being from OZ, and being made to move to the US as a teen, first time, I wondered why the Yanks round me referred to 'British humour' as dry. I find it, in all its forms, to be some of the most bawdy, gut folding, direct, unsubtle, cackle til you piss, going.

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:
Yep.
He's a typical K owner.
I have enjoyed this thread more than any other.

I am strongly seconding this statement. Most of it is very informative with a "slight" sense of humour.

Sinky wrote:

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:
Yep.
He's a typical K owner.
I have enjoyed this thread more than any other.

I am strongly seconding this statement. Most of it is very informative with a "slight" sense of humour.

Oscar Wilde would have loved you!

Whilst waiting for the snow to clear, I've been playing with vinyl film. And done something about the awful colour of the frame.




It's brought it down to something like the almost black shade that I had in mind. 'Course you have to squint like mad to make it work.

The vinyl is great fun though, you could easily get carried away.

It looks really good.
Your next challenge is to build a K100 + sidecar.

Looks better and better all the time Chris.  And the road rash is gone too    Ich liebe der adler auch (or something like that)  Get yourself a certain style helmet just for riding this uber bike and you'll be freaking your neighbours out.  In my mind I see you looking somewhat like Lemmie Kilmister and running wild on it.  I apologise in advance if being associated with Lemmie is actually offensive....Keep these bikes comin'!

Crazy Frog wrote:It looks really good.
Your next challenge is to build a K100 + sidecar.

I think his next challenge should be to build a bike that won't throw its rider to the pavement during a turn unless it triggers a klaxon first.

Offended!


Not likely!

Your nephew should be encouraged to quit smoking. Still, it must be nice to have help loading all those frames into the Ute regardless of the second-hand health effects.

I had one of them (the Trumpet, not Lemmy!).

Just asking a technical question Chris, the pics you show of your fine scoot seem to show the swingarm with a greater than 16* (*=Degree) swing from the inline position. I was led to believe that the monolever swingarms were kept below 16* swing away from the centreline or mid point to ensure the universal made the expected longevity. Yours looks to be greater than that. What's it set to? Were you aware of this 16* thing reported to be a design moderation.

Not aware of the 16' thing, so that's something I will check out, cheers.

The bike is set to ride with a lot of rider sag - the rear shock travels about another 25-30mm with the rider aboard, which would reduce the angle from what you can see in the pics.

The WP rear shock that I use tends to have stroke limiter spacers in it (the same model is fitted to all sorts of KTM variants) so I removed these and I also fitted quite a low rate rear spring - 325 lb/in. The idea is for plenty of travel, including plenty of the all-important rider sag.

Not done too much riding on it yet because the last couple of weeks have been blighted with snow and salt. Hoping to get out on it today but I'm still only at the 'is anything going to fall off it' stage - including 'me' naturally.

Good tip, much appreciated.

What an awesome build!! Truly amazing what you did!

Well I've just got back from Manchester (via the pub, naturally) after riding it across and leaving it parked up at the bike show. 
Wow there's some clean and tidy stuff there. In front of my bike there's a 1976 Gold Wing that looks as mint and shiny as a brand new piece of jewellery. There's no way they could ever have been anywhere near that good when they were brand new!
Good news is that nothing fell off on the journey (including me) but I'm still taking it steady because the road surfaces are so slippy. Never really had a 'sit up and beg' bike unfaired before so it was weird to get to seventy mph and have to hang on for dear life. There's no way I can ride it with any sort of control at eighty. Mind you, the bike is just supposed to be just a runaround and the wide bars and seating position are really good for that - I can see loads. It's like being on the top deck of a bus, at the front.
Actually I have previously had a sit up and beg unfaired bike - a BSA Bantam,  but that wouldn't go above an indicated 55mph, downhill. What was interesting was the way that, above 50mph, the speedometer would start to slowly revolve in the headlamp nacelle with the vibration. Kind of took your attention, mesmerising really. Ah, the memories.

Checked the angle of dangle of the swingarm. With no rider it's 12' from horizontal, plus the engine/gearbox is angled 1.5' downwards. That makes 13.5' of deflection, which is close to the 16'. I think it's straighter with a rider aboard.

chris846 wrote:Well I've just got back from Manchester (via the pub, naturally)

I like that... Having the liquid reward before the contest ever started.
I am pretty sure that you got all kind of very nice comments about your build.
I posted few pictures of your bike on a French BMW forum, and surprisingly, a lot of people were following this thread.

Ooof, not sure how the humour translates into different languages. Thanks for the kind words though, and for sharing it. Much appreciated.
Yep, at the show I met a guy who'd built an outfit using a DUCATI engine. So what? Well, this was a Ducati static diesel engine that had previously run a piece of farm machinery. Heroic. Also, he had gone and made sure to use a Ducati (motorbike) silencer for the exhaust. Now that is my kind of humour. Got to say, we hit it off.

Here y'go. 

The tank holds a gallon, which he reckons is good for a hundred and fifty miles!
The sidecar (which isn't in this picture) has a nosecone from a Hawker jet. I touched it and yes, it felt good.

One Hundred and Fifty Miles on that tank? Strewth

Chris,

I heard that you finally decided to come to meet me in France this summer. Have you started the design of your trailer yet?
The Dordogne area is beautiful and when the Irish are there it's party all the time.

I wish..

I'm at that 'why shouldn't I?' stage of my life. Which is good, but also bad...

Crazy Frog wrote:Chris,

I heard that you finally decided to come to meet me in France this summer. Have you started the design of your trailer yet?
The Dordogne area is beautiful and when the Irish are there it's party all the time.

An invite was made to join us at St Leon....camp site is available and waiting and room for another tent. We can see some interesting Ducati conversations between Chris and BobT who espouses the lack of weight of the Ducati. Now Chris can add the frugality.

On a serious note we have some camping kit down there in the form of creature comforts like a large table and patio chairs and a bbq etc plus a very good supermarket about 10km from the camp site.

As you say, you are at the age when its 'why not'.

Given the nature of your steed I would recommend a route that takes you in Caen or somewhere like that and you might do it with one overnight stop. Or trailer it down..? I have done Roscoff to St Leon in one run but that was a faired RT. Fortunately I never had the misfortune to own a Bantam, started out with Japanese bikes albeit it 2 strokes that would run on paraffin.

chris846 wrote:Pride..

comes..

before a..

fall..

Ooops!

It crashes well in typical BMW style - this was the only damage after a fair slide. Decided to lean it well over round a well known slow bend, thought that it felt like it was falling into the bend, so I opened the throttle, which is when I discovered that both tyres were in fact happily sliding away owing to them still being coated in workshop crap - that and a slippery road surface.

Always wondered why these things only have two wheels...?

They always bounce back, mine did...twice!

Crash number 1, Cadwell park. A rider I was approaching went to the outside of the track when I was overtaking him-on the outside.








Crash number 2 below at Donington on someone else's oil coming into the Foggy esses.
A Marshal asked "Do you think it might be oil on the track?"
Me, "Why?
Marshall "That R6 has just blown up coming down the straight"
Me "WTF didn't you put the diminished adhesion flag out?"
I walked off at that point because I could feel The Red Mist rolling in!



I've got to say, at this point, Congratulations on the build. It's turned out really well, top man!

Cheers Mike, has your Cobas always been a 16v?

It did indeed start life as an 8v but went to 16v in search of more grunt. 👍

I have no idea how to post videos myself, but if anyone's interested below is the address of a video posted by a chap from bikerlifestyle who I was chatting to at the recent Kickback show. I entered the Madass in the best freestyle section (no other categories fitted!). Didn't win anything but the good news was that it did the 200 mile round trip at a cracking old speed, in the wet too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYnRvpeRDj4&feature=share

Holy GTA Batman, I've just re-watched the video to make sure the link worked and I've realised that I left it parked at the show all Saturday with the keys hanging on the end of the handlebar!
The dope in the background with the piece of paper is me btw.

chris846 wrote:I have no idea how to post videos myself, but if anyone's interested below is the address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYnRvpeRDj4&feature=share

Chris. Just click on the youtube icon(beside the link icon) and enter the Youtube address.

I see you are a celebrity now, with Motorworks posting pictures of your creature on that bookface thing.

Ah, I called up yesterday to see my pal and steal some more of his knowledge for the K75k. He put a MW sticker on the MadAss and made me park it in front of their sign!

They are a terrific bunch of guys, helped me out loads.

Forgot to post this as an update to the thread:
This was last October's issue of Bike magazine. A brick in Bike magazine!

And Mark, if you're reading this, it's reminded me that somewhere I have an unanswered email from you. I'm off to Scotland for a few days, I'll be on to that as soon as I return. I'm rubbish at emails as you well know, 'pologies.