BMW Classic Racer Project

Most years I go to Pukekohe for the CMCRR annual festival with a friend of mine and we drool over the bikes in the carpark and wander thru the pits admiring the race bikes and all the work that goes into them. A couple I know race a Harley and Ducati and every year they say " so when are you going to come racing its lots of fun" and every year I say one day.......one day......

I didn't think I could cut it in the over 500cc class and BMW had built a 500 but they were pretty thin on the ground so my friend and I started buying 500 parts on Ebay and sharing the shipping costs home with another guy who was importing VW parts ( who later went on to run the California Superbike School here).

Kelvin and I brought in frames, engine cases, wheels, forks, gearboxes.......most of which were /5 stuff.
Eventually tracked down some 500 cylinders and heads from Victoria Island off coast of Vancouver......

Soon afterwards I located an R50/5 in Wellington for $2700 and had it sent to Auckland, when it arrived it looked sad with flat tyres and covered in dust. I pumped up the tyres, put some fuel in it and away it went, an hour later I had it registered and WOFed.

I liked riding the little 500 but I could not see how it could ever be a racer as it was so slow......
Bought some toaster panels and it became known as Toaster on the local BFTP runs.

Toasty was far too nice to hack so it was back to the drawing board......
Next to arrive was this POS bought sight unseen on Trade Me, cost me $1000 including delivery, was I disappointed.

It had major electrical issues, the conrod had broken the starter motor




It all got pushed to the back of the shed and I rode around on Toasty for a year or so....but I still picked up bits from swap meets and on TM. Around this time I met Nick ( aka Maxheadroom) on Boxerworks and he was a huge help moving the project forward.
more parts were bought and tinkered with in the hope of building a fast 500.....600cc heads.....600 cc cylinders to be cut down and used with a r65 crank..........

From time to time it was dragged out and parts offered up for inspiration.....

In 2009 a chance purchase on TM changed the scope of works forever.......
Thats all for now...better do some work....

Cool, good to see you documenting it...

Airheads are taking over the NZ Forum!

Fricking awesome bro

May be some competition coming up at a later date - watch this space - well probably not this space, it'll prob be down the page a bit more but you know what I mean

cool

keep it coming

It's a long and slippery slope. Good luck with the build.

A few ideas made it off the beer coaster into life some good ...some not so...

The welded in rear subframe using really expensive tube.......:huh no...not the PVC ones. Wood was found not to provide much degree of damping...

The DIY second braked fork leg



the ill fated lets bung a 750 top end onto a r26 bottom end ( in a box if anyone want to make an offer)

The " its worth the $350 just for the gearbox mate" swap meet R100 rolling pile of crap...:eek1
There are no pictures of the R50 case with r65 crank shortened r60 cylinders and heads......( also in a box on she shelf of shame).
The big break thru was when I won an R90 motor on Trade Me that had gone down a gravel road smashed the rocker cover sucked in some damp gravel and left to rot in a shed...... GOLD....first motor that had turned up in ages.
A year later 2008....
Meanwhile I had bought a rubber band Ducati 900 and this all got pushed into the corner where it belonged.....out of sight, out of mind.....over it.
2009....a whole year of doing nothing on it.....
2010....Max Headroom in a moment of weakness said..." why don't you bring that 900 motor down and we'll have a look. So I did and we pulled it to bits.....
Overall in good order apart from broken fins from its slide and some corrosion on the bore.A plan was formulated.
Case was cleaned up, oil pick up drilled out, 10mm flywheel bolts sleeved for later flywheel.....
Fins on heads were welded up, valve guides were fitted with liners, 3 angle valve job, 336 cam, newer lifters and valve gear, pistons were pocketed to suit, 1mm shaved off heads....new rings and a hone......its only a track thrasher....
That took until mid 2011.
Meanwhile I had tried to sell the Ducati as I wasn't that keen on its modern styling and ride....but the market was dead so ended up swapping it for a Triumph Thruxton.....
So what do you do when you sell a Ducati and buy a fat underpowered 60's knockoff.....you go to the California Superbike School and learn to ride on a track.

Whoo hoo this is fun....

Some sort of Italian bike in the way...
Did level one and two and now was hooked...... it was now November 2011 and with a completed engine, some spoked wheels with new tyres,some nice machined up bits the Pukekohe Classic Race Festival looked do able for February....only 12 weeks away....so I paid my entry fee and sent off for a race licence......now all I had to do was build the bike up.
Next " The Build"

Subscribed. How much fun was the Thruxton? quite like them.

December 26 2011:



Motor in back of van.

bearing tool made from old steering top bit of tin.

hand sanded frame.

Dented toaster tank with less dents...

Later Brembo fork dampers with racetech kit. Note 6mm holes and additional set above at 90 degrees.

Thruxton is a lot of fun on and off the track, got as far as peg scraping at Hampton Downs and I'm a pretty conservative rider.
I put Ikons on the rear and it needs emulators and better springs in the front, good all rounder with about 50HP.

"BFTP runs"

not from around here... plus maybe no 'faster' than that 500
could you help a buddy out with the acronymic colloquialism.

BFTP....local sub group who are interested in pre 90's bikes of Kiwibiker...Blast From The Past.

the 500 is the engine size of the R50/5.

Ah, got it.

no mystery there, toaster rider

Curse you Voltaire

That was a brave move. An insurance write off? I gather you didn't pay much?

Most of that will buff out...
If its an R65 do yourself a favour bung it on Trade Me.

Why?

Because you will spend the same money as a larger bike, pay top rego and have an underpowered orphan...thats worth less than you spent on it....just my opinion Motu may say different. Is it the photo or is the frame bent?

EDIT: I'm not picking on R65's....just sometimes you get a 'bargain'....its not what you would have chosen but you got it cheap and pour $$ into it....I've done it several times....I bought an R50/5, really limited to one up riding short distances.... spent quite a bit on it and sold it for less than I paid for it.....had it been an R100 it would have been worth it and been more versatile...same would go for most medium sized engine bikes.....and the rego is a killer.
I can't keep up with Motus R65 on them there twisty Waikato roads....:eek1

Oh how the mighty have fallen - eat those words you lil mofo

Cool, good to see how it all started.

There's a German word for this...schadenfreude....
Schadenfreude <sup class="noexcerpt">i</sup>/&#712;&#643;&#593;&#720;d&#601;nfr&#596;&#618;d&#601;/ (<small>German:</small> [&#712;&#643;a&#720;d&#601;n&#716;f&#641;&#596;&#655;d&#601;]) is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others