www.Transalp.org

[Jeff@TireBalls]

This is going to be a project to turn my 89 Transalp into an Africa Twin with better off road capabilities. The first part of the conversion is the suspension, I'll be starting with the forks then moving on to the shock. I'm going to give basic instructions with each pic.

Here is the list of parts for the front part of the conversion. I found most of this stuff used on Ebay.
XR600 parts (XR650L parts will also work):
1. Pair of forks
2. Triple clamps with stem
3. Axle (only if XR is 93 or newer)
4. Brake hose brackes and clamps
5. Front wheel bearings, seals (Pivot works makes a complete kit), side bushing and center sleeve (only if XR is 93 or newer)
6. Speedo drive (only if XR is 93 or newer) and cable
7. SRC fork brace (optional)
8. SRC seal savers (optional)
9. XR or CR front fender, bolts and spacers (optional)


Other parts
1. Galfer custom length (XR600) brake hose with TA master cylinder and caliper ends
2. 1 brake caliper bolt that is 5mm longer than stock TA
3. 17mm x 2.5mm washer



After removing the TA forks and triple clams (this is much easier than it sounds) Install the XR triple clams into the TA stem.



I chose to use the SRC fork brace because of my years of racing XR's and working with Scott Summers. These braces make conventional forks steer like upside down forks without the harshness that come with upside down forks. It also gives a perfect place to mount the OEM TA fender. I have never had or seen one of these units fail!



I only had todo very minor triming and drill 4 holes to mount the fender to the brace.



Next up is to slide the forks into the clamps, I ran mine about a 1/4" above the top of the upper clamp till I get the rear done and can set the ride height. I used the SRC fork skins to protect the forks from rocks, mud and dirt. Its amazing how much crap the stock boots suck inside them. All that dirt will sit on top of the seals and will eventually make them leak. The fork skins will not allow any of that stuff to get to the seals.



Now its time to install the brake system. The only difficult part about this is that the lower caliper bolt hole on the fork must be slotted about 1/8" upwards. To do this I used a bit that was the same size as the bolt hole and pulled up on the drill to slot the hole. Do a little bit at a time untill the bolt will thread into the caliper. It took me all of about 2 minutes to do this with a sharp bit. This will not weaken the mount since it is very little material removed.



You will now notice that the upper caliper bolt is too short so you will need to find one that is 5mm longer.



Next comes the brake hose. I called up Galfer and told them that I wanted a stainless TA hose that was the same lenght as an XR600 hose. Just make sure you tell them you will be using the TA master cylinder and caliper since they have different ends.
I used 2 brake hose guides from the XR on the upper and lower triple clamp pinch bolts.






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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Jeff@TireBalls]

Next comes the wheel. If you got forks from a 93 or newer XR then you will need to buy the larger XR bearings, seals, bushing, center sleeve and speedo drive (you can also bore the speedo drive) since the axle on these models is 17mm as opposed to the 15mm TA and 92 and under XR axles. I used a bearing/seal kit from Pivot Works and the spacer from Honda.



Once you have the bearings replaced, slip the wheel into the forks and push the axle till its just come through the opposide side of the hub. This is where you will insert the 17mm x 2.5mm washer (you won't have to use a washer if you have the 15mm axle and forks).



Now is the time to install the fork brace if you have one.



I mounted my stock front fender to the brace using the thread holes in the front of the brace. You can also go with the high fender since the lower triple clamp has the mounts to install an XR or CR fender. You will also need the aluminum spacers/washers and bolts from Honda to mount one.



And drilled 2 holes in the center of the brace towards the rear.



All done, it took be about 2 hours including answering work calls to install these.



Man its gonna have some great ground clearance!


_________________
Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Jeff@TireBalls]

Ok, now its time to take care of the key switch and fuse box since our XR600 upper triple clamp does not have the brackets to mount them. This mod actually took longer to make than installing the forks but its not hard at all. I used a piece of 3/16" sheet aluminum cut to 3" x 5". I layed the piece of alum. on top of the 600 clamp and marked the two existing threaded holes that where used for the odometer. Using the old TA t-clamp I traced out the key hole and mounting holes for the key switch. I used a 1 1/8" holesaw to cut the hole for the key switch and a drill bit for the two bolts.
Next I removed the bracket from the fuse box and trimmed off the two little rectanguler plastic extrusions that where on the bottom of the fuse panel. I snapped the cover on the fuse box and temperarely mounted the key switch to the plate and set the box and cover onto the key switch and plate. I marked the location of the holes for the fuse box snaps. Drill holes and set assembly with cover back on top of plate

Next I used a pensil to trace around the plate and cut the excess material off the plate for a nice clean look. I had to cut the upper left corner off so the wires would have a place to exit (fuse box is mounted upsidedown from stock position) and cut two notches for the cover clips to attach to the fuse box.

This is what you should have. I have the templet if anyone wants it to save you a BUNCH of time.



While I had the fuse box off I noticed that it had two empty ports for fuses. Knowing that I will be installing some cool electronics and grip heaters soon I thought I would take advantage of these ports. I used 2 female spade connectors and stuck them into the blank holes. On one end I soldered a short piece of wire to the switched hot wire on the left hand side. On the other side I ran length of wire (white) out of the box and ziptied it to the wire loom for future use. I left the fuse out till I get ready to wire in a GPS or digital guages later on.



Now to mount the plate to the t-clamp you'll need 2 6mmx12mm machine screws. For the key switch you'll need 2 6mmx50mm machine screws with 2 washers, 2 nyloc nuts and 2 25mm alum spacers that I found at Ace Hardware.



Use the 2 alum spacers to space the key switch down below the plate. I did have to do some minor grinding on the t-clamp with a dremel so the lower bolt would be back far enough to align the steering lock properly. Its not enough to cause any saftey issues.



Now you can snap on the fuse box.



And the cover.



It looks factory and the steering lock will still work in both directions!



Hopefully I'll get a piece for the rear shock in tomorrow so I can bring it up to match the front.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Jeff@TireBalls]

The first set of footpegs I ordered worked like a charm! All I had to do was drill out the mounting hole in the TA mount to accept a bigger pin (which I found at a hardware store ) of the footpeg and grind a little off the footpeg seat and it bolted right up.
These are the IMS Pro-4 pegs and are top of the line. Much wider than stock and have nice sharp cleets. These retail for $95 but I bought them on clearance sale for $50. I have 3 pairs left if anyone wants a set. I sell them to you for what I have in them plus shipping.

Here you can see the section where I had to grind away a slight amount of material so that the peg would sit flat. I did this with my dremel. I drilled out the hole with a 13/32 bit.



The pins that I bought where a little long so I used an alum spacer to take up the gap. I could have looked harder to find a shorter pin but I was in a hurry.
All mounted up and added a little chrome bling too!







Ok, now starts the beginning of the Africa Twin conversion. First is this Africa Twin RD04 swingarm that I won on Ebay for $7 plus $35 freight.

You can see in this pic that the AT swingarm is quite a bit longer and made of aluminum instead of stamped steel.



All the mounts are exactly the same, the only difference is that the AT swingarm is longer and it has a tab for a disc brake instead of a drum brake.




No worries, the dremel comes to the rescue again. With a little grinding work, the drum brake slides right in to the disc brake bracket tab. This is only temporary till I can find an Africa Twin or Transalp rear wheel with disc.



The TA axle is a little long so I used 2 oversize nuts to take up the slack till I can find an AT axle.



All that I need to do to make the brake arm reach is index the drum lever foreward 2 splines and it will just fit. I will hook the return spring to one of the screws for the brake cable holder on top of the swingarm.



Linkage will bolt up but you need the bolt that attaches the linkage to the swingarm from the AT as it is a special bolt.
Oh ya, and don't for get to order a longer chain! I bought a DID 525V o-ring with 140 links and cut it down to the right length.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Jeff@TireBalls]

Ok, I finally received the piece from the machine shop to raise the rear end to match the height that the XR600 forks gave. It raises the shock by 30mm. It's a pretty simple piece that any machine shop should be able to make for you for around $25. This will work fine till I can order up a Wilbur's shock.



To make the brake rod work I had to index the brake arm on the drum 1 spine forward. Then I made a simple little bracket to hook the return spring too and attached it to the forward most brake line holding hole. (does that make since?)



Now I'm just waiting for the AT fairings, headlight assembly and vacume pump.

AT pieces are ariving little bits at a time. Here is a teaser:





I actually found a tank that was red, white and blue (the color I wanted) after buying this one. Today I sold the one in the pic to Modrover, I'm sure he'll get some good use out of it.

More parts arived today!



I finally received enough parts to conver it to the Africa Alp. The only thing I need now is a seat.
The tank bolts right on with no modifications.





The insturment and light bracket also bolts right on in place of the stocker.



I made a custom dash out of lexan. The stock guages are only temporary untill I get a digital guage set.



After routing the fuel lines from both petcocks I mounted this $20 Mikuni vacume pump (CKDF-44PU) to move the fuel from the low hanging tank sides. This works like it was made for it and I'm sure it will be much more reliable than the OEM AT electric fuel pump that is known to fail. I attached the pump to the existing coolant hose retainer bolt.


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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Jeff@TireBalls]

And WALA.....the Africa Alp is born!



The tank and shrouds cleared the Givi crash bars perfectly.



The stock TA seat gets pushed back a little at the front. The AT seat will bolt right on. I'm going to send an AT seat to Bojangles to do his magic when I find one so in the mean time I'm using the TA seat.



This a simple bolt on project, the TA dash will also bolt right on but mine will be custom and that is the only fabrication work that I did. As for the extra light, I changed the OEM AT bulbs to H4 and bought a socket at Auto Zone and just spliced it into the existing TA light socket.

Now I'm gonna go for a spin!

Knowing that I was going to be powering a few accessories, I decided to install a second fuse box that I had left over from my NX250 project.
It was pretty straight foreward, just had to figure out which wires where which using the NX wireing diagram. This will give me enough to mount 4 more accesseries with 3 being hot all the time and one being switched with the key.
The fues box mounted right into the location where the AT fuse box goes.



The NX plugs went right into the extra plug holders in the AT insturment bracket nice and neat.



I added this water proof 12v outlet to the dash that I sell, its made by Summers Racing Components.



I used one of the other ports for my GPS, one for my HID aux. lights and the switched one for grip heaters. I still have one port open for maybe a heated vest purchase this winter.

Ok, I got around to doing somemore mods today.
First off I installed some Renthal Jimmy Button bend bars, Spider Grips and grip heaters. I made up a little box to bolt up to the dash to hold the switch for the grip heaters and LED lights that I'm going to be adding soon.

The red LED lights up when the grip heaters are on.



Next I mounted up my Garmin 76C with Ram mount.





I found this nifty little clock/thermometer/voltmeter/ice warning display at Radio Shack and mounted it on top of the guage cluster.



Last, I had some Trail Tech HID flood and spot lights left over from a 12 hour race last year that I wasn't using so I mounted them up to the crash bars.







I used this water proof rocker switch for power.



These lights are unreal, way brighter than the OEM H4's headlights and only draw 13 watts each. I doubt I'll make too many friends if I use them on the road but they should be a life saver on the backroads and trails.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Russ Grover]

Jeff I really should make you, your own website
_________________
Small Business Server SBS2008 Support - SBITS.Biz
Administrator of Transalp.org
Weather and Webcam  
Disclaimer: The information contained herein is based on sources I believe reliable, or I just made up, so its accuracy is not guaranteed.  Commentary by "Russ Grover." expresses his opinion and not those of "Honda Motor Company".   There is No Warranty for any advice or Opinion given by Anyone on this forum. (Note: This Disclaimer can change at any Moment.)

[Jeff@TireBalls]

Sorry Russ....am I using too much bandwidth?

Oh, buy the way.....I finally found an AT rear wheel so I will soon be installing it so I can do away with the very weak TA drum brake.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Russ Grover]

[Guest]

Jeff,
Great to see all this on the site again.
Thanks

[Jeff@TireBalls]

I may be selling it
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Zappa]

[Jeff@TireBalls]

Well someone just opened a new XC track very close to me and I'm getting the itch to race again. I will probally build an XR600 for racing and dualsport riding.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Rondini]

:?: Jeff your Transalp is 89 What year are the Africa twin Parts ( for futer reference

Cheers Rondini

[Jeff@TireBalls]

The parts come from RD03's and RD04's. Not sure exactly what years.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Rondini]

Thanks for the info, Great Bike. Well Done.

Thanks Ron

[clockwatcher]

This is an extensive project......does anyone know where this bike is now? I would really like to see this project up close.

[Jeff@TireBalls]

Thanks guys!

This is not estensive at all, it was an easy project that anyone can do with normal tools. I am not a mechanic at all and had no problems with this project. Everything basically bolts right up.
The bike is now somewhere in CO.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[locorider]

Would you be able to send detailed pictures of both footpegs, and how you mounted them. In particular, the one you did not show here, I guess is the left side one. I just bought a pair of used IMS Pro, but I fear that the left side spring isnt the one I need. Great work yoú did on your bike.
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Freedom...

[adh007]

I'm considering tackling this.. Not the Africa twin body bits, but the suspension modifications.

My question is this.. Is there a solution for the rear shock that is better than the spacer, but not as expensive as having a custom shock built for you? Is there a rear shock out there with the correct length that could be had from a motorcycle wrecker that would give the correct lift and travel to match the front? Even if it meant having some sort of adapters fabricated so that it would bolt in it would be cheaper than a custom shock. Has anyone considered this option?

I'll probably start with the spacer then start looking for a shock.

[Jeff@TireBalls]

[quote="locorider"]Would you be able to send detailed pictures of both footpegs, and how you mounted them. In particular, the one you did not show here, I guess is the left side one. I just bought a pair of used IMS Pro, but I fear that the left side spring isnt the one I need. Great work yoú did on your bike.[/quote]

Sorry, I don't have pics of the left side but it was the same to install as the right side I described. Just use the TA springs.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Jeff@TireBalls]

[quote="adh007"]I'm considering tackling this.. Not the Africa twin body bits, but the suspension modifications.

My question is this.. Is there a solution for the rear shock that is better than the spacer, but not as expensive as having a custom shock built for you? Is there a rear shock out there with the correct length that could be had from a motorcycle wrecker that would give the correct lift and travel to match the front? Even if it meant having some sort of adapters fabricated so that it would bolt in it would be cheaper than a custom shock. Has anyone considered this option?

I'll probably start with the spacer then start looking for a shock.[/quote]

I'd say that finding a shock form another bike that would bolt up and work correctly would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Even if you do find one that will bolt up and have the correct travel, it will need to be revalved and resprung for your setup. The best thing other than a custom shock would be to use the shock, linkage and swingarm from a PD03-04 AT.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[adh007]

Thanks for the tip.

I'm looking into Wilbers now, but I'm a bit of a suspension dummy. What should I tell them as far as ride height goes? I'll be sticking with the Transalp swingarm, how much more ride height should I tell them when I'm pricing the shock if I plan on fitting the front from a '90 XR600R? I noticed that your spacer added 30mm.

I'm getting pretty excited about this project now.

How was it's manners once you got this setup? Ground clearance and travel probably made it way better offroad, what about it's pavement performance?

Thanks.

[Jeff@TireBalls]

Had I kept the bike, I was going to use the Wilburs shock. I've been in the suspension business for 6 years and the Wilburs seems like a well built shock. Just tell them you want the shock extended 30mm, that will match the 600 forks. The difference was night and day! I took the bike on some pretty serious single track, over large logs and rocks. It will go damn nearly as good as a big XR600 or 650L if your used to riding heavy bikes off road. It will sit very tall! I have a 34" inseam and could just flat foot with my weight on the bike. Road manners were the same as it was stock. If your going to be riding fast through woops and small jumps you may want to have the 600 forks resprung and valved for the extra weight.
Hopefully soon I will be building another AfricaAlp!
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[adh007]

Just got a message from the guy at wilbers.. $516 for the most barebones one that'll do the job. I know that's par for the course, but still.... Ouch.

[adh007]

I don't suppose you still have the specs for this spacer so I could get it made by a machine shop without having to pull my rear shock and take it with me?

[zapp]

just lurking
TERRIFIC thread! [where's the popcorn?]

[Jeff@TireBalls]

There really isn't much to it, its just a 30mm male/female spacer. You'll need to take the shock to the machinest anyway so they will know what thread pitch to use.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[ggandy]

Just a quick note to say THANKS    
Looking at your posts got us started on our project

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GGandy
That's Gene & Sheryl - (the Boss)
89 TA - slightly modified
70 Guzzi Ambassador
98 Valkyrie
97 Valkyrie
84 HD
Gene is a Shriner, should any of you know a crippled child in need of help in the US, please contact us.

[Jeff@TireBalls]

No problem ggandy, I hope to build another one soon.
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Jeff@TireBalls]

WOW, I really miss this bike!  
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Jeff@TireBalls]

Check out my new project   http://www.transalp.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=7959#7959
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[ajls1]

I like the idea of the spotlights. Would be something i would consider doing to mine at some stage.

[Jeff@TireBalls]

I'm back!!!  



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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[SteveT]

Hi Jeff.

Been watching your posts on the XRV forum over here in Blighty, in your search for @ bits . . . yet again.

Amazed by your first effort (this thread) so I'm waiting with baited breath for your latest project to morf into. . . . . what ever you make.

Keep up the great work.

Regards,

SteveT


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Never underestimate the power of a small tactical nuclear weapon

[Jeff@TireBalls]

I have now started a new project named RallyeAlp!  
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Jeff Stoess formerly Jeff@TheQuadShop

[Russ Grover]

I revisted this thread again.

Now that's what Footpegs should look like

Russ
_________________
Small Business Server SBS2008 Support - SBITS.Biz
Administrator of Transalp.org
Weather and Webcam  
Disclaimer: The information contained herein is based on sources I believe reliable, or I just made up, so its accuracy is not guaranteed.  Commentary by "Russ Grover." expresses his opinion and not those of "Honda Motor Company".   There is No Warranty for any advice or Opinion given by Anyone on this forum. (Note: This Disclaimer can change at any Moment.)