I saved a /5 yesterday...

That's right Flux,........ Get Elvis ready for a ride to the Blue Ridge in late April.....


Boojum

Good advice, Kurt, thanks for that post. I am thinking similar thoughts.

Jeff, stay tuned, I will post up details about the shirt. Yeah, his booth at Barber was hard to spot, but so was everything down at the swap meet. It always amazes me how much total CRAP is down there. Funny enough I have never seen money exchange hands at any of those booths EXCEPT at Wes' for shirts .

Mark and Boojum, long time no see, fellas. Hope all has been well with y'all. The April rally sounds doable with some luck. I'll have to go find the thread. You know TWO is opening back up...

Good deal. I recall reading about that T-shirt artwork before Barber's and then getting completely overwhelmed and fergittin' 'bout it.

Do post. I'm thinking a link to a thread in Vendors will be OK???

--Bill

Ok I finally had time and decent weather at the same time to take a few pics. In no particular order, this is what I'm dealing with:

Sweet bike, wearing the patina well.... looks pet-friendly too! (they are Always good judges of character!!)....



quick take: looks like the jugs have been pulled (red rtv seeps...) I think I would pull the heads for a quick look into the jugs, change the fluids, clean and wirebrush what you can (get the chokes hooked back up) and take some rides....

Agreed. The jugs have been off at some point.

Do what mechanics are needed like fixing leaks and threads. A spline lube might be in order and this job is a good way to get at some of the harder to reach systems for checking. If there is oil on the shelf under the trans it may be from the engine rear oil seal. This job and checking the clutch wear can be done when the rear oil seal is done.

Often neglected in these discussions of where to proceed with the resurrection of an older machine is the wheel bearings. The wheels will come off and the bearings removed to check their condition and if replaced then they will be clean and properly adjusted. The same bearings are in the swing arm.

All possible directions of course. The machine will tell you what it needs, of course.

A very nice original condition bike, good patina. It is original only once. Please do not restore, repaint, if possible. Fix and repair. Ride it. Keep the original paint. No repaint is every worth as much as what you have there.

Very cool looking bike . I'd be tempted to drop the pan too, depending on plug tell and condition of drained oil.

Great bike!

Here you can see the restoration process of an R25.

http://www.moto.gr/forums/showthread.php?t=127533

It looks like a NICE MACHINE!
Keep it and do not restore it.
Brest wishes always...
spo

Yes I am with you guys. "Restoration" is not the right term for what I intend to do. I want to get it to good running and reliable condition and I want to ride it. A lot. It's a cool bike, and I bought it to use it. Been bloody busy here but sometime over the next week hopefully I can start cleaning and sorting through it. Your feedback/tips/advice are all much appreciated. Looking at it I've had a problem figuring out where to start, .

I also had a good look and it is a SWB bike. I'm not sure what the significance of either is. Is one more desirable than the other? I suppose the LWB is more stable. Matters not to me, just curious.

The /5 were all SWB at first. Because the American public wanted a smoother ride, on the Freeway, they started making the LWB. Somehow the SWB got forgotten by the time of /6. Supposedly the SWB is quicker turning, or more nimble might be another way of putting it.

I like the looks of a SWB personally but I've never owned one. I don't think there's much difference in value. Some riders would prefer one over the other but rarely do you see some one say "I gotta have a SWB bike!" They aren't rare at least yet. In general /5 seem to be having a recent increase in value. This should be expected. They will increase in value as they get older, of course. /2 has doubled in value in the last ten years.

Clean, clean, clean. Careful to not wire brush the nuts and bolts. Many of these were originally Cadmium plated and many of them are now rusted or discolored. We should maybe have a big discussion about what to do with the original nuts and bolts? But the warning is to NOT wire brush them. They will look really great at first and then they will rust even worse than what you may have now. A lot of riders convert to Stainless Steel and this may have advantages but it also has disadvantages. I think the look of the original nuts and bolts is under rated. You may want to change this but move slowly with this one. It's hard to just replace some of them with SS. Once you start you end up replacing them all.

beer drinkn, i mean tech day

sweet ride

BMWs have never been the most stable of bikes, especially when fully laden with bags and screens etc etc, going from SWB to LWB was part of BMWs effort to make the bikes more stable, together with changes in the front suspension and by some accounts, remedying quality control issues which had meant that /5 forks came out of the factory with badly aligned forks. The extra space created by lengthening the swinging arm also provided room for a 28AH battery rather than the weedy 18AH battery on the SWB bikes that could struggle to start the bike on cold mornings.

The SWB is really flickable. Its quite nice, but you can feel the difference on the freeway.

many miles on a short wb not smart enough to know the difference


u know u have now drank a different kind of kool-aid

Flux

Enjoy your project as it will be well justified in the end. I've done a few of these, so if I can be of some assistance, PM me. Here's a few of my current projects - http://airheadstuff.shutterfly.com/19

Sorry guys I have not been good at updating this thread. But I have been a busy boy. I've spent probably 5 or 6 Saturdays over at my friend's place, being mentored and bringing this bike back to life.

Its ALMOST ready. One more day, I think! Sorry for the lack of pics. I have tried along the way but greasy hands and my DLSR don't really mix, and its been hard to get shots of stuff along the way.

Yesterday I put new bars on it, after a lot of debating, and I chose the Flanders Euro bars. They look way better than the US bars they replaced, and to me the bike is more comfortable now. Also put all new cables on since we broke one of the originals. It seemed like a good idea!



I also used the sandblaster and polished the fork mounts. They look great again. Sandblasting things has been my favorite part of this, and I must resist the urge to blast everything lol. After doing some of the engine parts, they look fantastic. I will likely end up soda blasting the engine. Don't worry, I am not repainting anything though!


Before this, though, the thing that took the most time was cleaning and relining the tank. Good grief, that is a chore. Wes built "the Tumbler": A table you strap the tank to after putting the cleaner, a chain, and some bb's in, and the table turns the tank over and over. The idea that the chain and bb's knock the big crud off the tank. He tells me before that they spent hours just shaking tanks by hand. Screw that! It took a long time to get that tank clean enough. I tried to take some pics along the way but they never turned out. Trust me when I say it was gross. I used aircraft grade paint remover, which has been described as "evil" and I must agree.

After finally getting the tank cleaned and relined, it was ready for test ride, carb synch, and adjustments to idle speed, etc. She ran great, shifted flawlessly, and handled good. The front forks DEFINITELY need redoing. We are going to replace the rear suspension next weekend. Wes' shop is on a gravel driveway so I even got to play "Scambler" for a bit.



Next step is redoing forks, replacing rear suspension, new tires, and changing all fluids, and valve check. Then its time to start riding it and seeing what it might need after some miles! The time is near!

Tell that to this guy...

<a href="http://s814.photobucket.com/user/hardwaregrrl/media/fire_zps40d37b2a.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/h/hardwaregrrl_fire_zps40d37b2a.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo fire_zps40d37b2a.jpg"/></a>

Looking good Flux!

Holy crap, Jenna!