An email was waiting for me as I logged in over breakfast on a Monday morning. It was from Eddie B & simply said "be fast or last". Attached was an advert from trademe for a 1991 BMW R80GS. I clicked on the link, saw 'BUY NOW $2400' & immediately hit the button. After viewing the usual sellers details contact page I went & looked at the pictures of the bike I'd just bought. It looked rough but seemed all there allbeit very rusty -it was also RED - one of the things I'd have to change. It had been sitting under a house on Waiheke island for a while & the owner was told a new shock was in order for the next warrant. As they go for about a grand he decided to get rid of it. EddieB also directed me to a used shock on trademe which I bought the following nite for $150. Getting the bike from Auckland to Nelson was to cost approx $400. A post on kiwibiker asking if anyone was coming to Nelson from Auckland with an empty van brought out the kindness of fellow motorcyclists as Anthrax went out of his way to trailer the bike from Auckland to Maramarua to pass it on to Javahead who had driven up & was competing in a crosscountry. He could bring it back down to Wellington with him. Whilst in wellington Eddie B came around & had a looksie & posted some more pics so i could get a better idea of it's condition. Eventually after taking up room in Javaheads garage for a few weeks he offered to bring it to Nelson the weekend he was to do a cross country with the Nelson riders. It arrived safe & sound & the guys declined any payment just a "pass it on". I'd been poring over the Airhead sites for a while biding my time till the right one came along & it seemed from the start the stars were all in alignment with this bike. And even as I'm in the initial stages of getting Schmidt roadworthy & running I'm appreciative of all the generosity so far from fellow airhead & motorcycle enthusiasts. Indexed for your veiwing pleasure 1st Carb rebuid. This page post#11 Checking stock brakes also Gbox drain plug pic page 3 #33 Start of ME109 paint job page 4 #55 New brake calliper & adapter pg5 #75 Removing front fairing roo bars etc pg 6 #87 1st removal of swingarm etc after finding oil pg9 #121 Matthias' GS in the Dyno room pg 10 #141 Diagnosis of gbox or final drive oil pg 10 #147 Bar risers pg 11 #151 Gratitious loation shot ME109 paint job pg 11 #161 Start of making pivot pegs pg 13 #182 Making of higher seat pg 13 # 194 Discussion of replacing rear shock pg 14 #197 Pics & RR of xmas riding around the bach dec2010 jan 2011 pg 16 #226 rewiring the new aftermarket headlite & cool action shot by Nordie Pg 17 #251 Ride reports Dusty Butt 2010 RR & pics - the start of the period of sadness - gbox blues pg 18 #270 Sounds RR pg37 #554 Molesworth RR pg40 # 600 Dusty butt 2011 RR pg 42 #630 - Hori Bay RR pg 48 #714 Titirangi Bay RR & new screen pg 49 #734 onwards for a couple of pages Videos Riding sept video pg 19 #282 - Still love this vid - takes me to my happy place. Long live the kings pg76 #1135 - I feel a beard coming on Lynard Skynard pg 54 #804 Dirt quake vid - gottta love a laugh. pg67 #999 Left side story & Hildo's Harley pg74 #1106 - Inspirational for when I feel blue. Maintenance, modifications etc Clutch plate pg 23 #340 The pure white paint job pg 24 #353 Shock comparison & prices pg 25 #373 replacing stock hand controls with aftermarket & wiring. pg 30 #442 New wilbers rear shock pg 31 #464 New guards front & rear pg 32 #474 Y pipe & R1 exhaust pipe pg 33 #486 & pg 36 #535 Battery box & moto batt pg 37 #549 Discussion on revs hanging on next few pages using Mammary machine pg 60 #886 Big engine stripdown pg69 #1028 Timing chain info following pages, piston heads inspection etc following on pg 70 #1039 Pushrod tube replacement pg 71 #1053 Timind chain replacement pg75 #1120 Heads back from machine shop pg 76 #1128 Gearbox strip down halfway down page #1257
I had to do a bit of customising to make it fit in with the fleet I started to look at the rusty bits & had a go with the front spokes. The rear look fine. I tried scouring clothe & a small go with steel wool. After asking around I think the best option is to buy a set of stainless spokes & relace the wheel one spoke at a time. A few threads I read really inspired me. One was this one lots of detailed pics. He also isn't an expert but learning as he goes so I could identify with that. His photos became invaluable when reassembling my carb making sure I hadn't got things wrong. As a carb rebuild seemed the best place to start I ordered a bunch of parts from Motobins in the UK. The price seemed very good compared to local prices even with postage & GST & levies included. It was like christmas to see all these parts waiting to be assembled. On with the clean up.
Ha!! After a few posts you'll be begging me to stop putting up boring stuff- I will interupt the flow of updates ( kind of like Pulp fiction retrospective arty stuff) to log in how my first ride went while the impression is fresh in my mind. The main purpose of this thread is easy reference to note the differences of the bike as I replace or upgrade parts- bear with me. If anyone has any advice relating to any issues I have with the bike please feel free to jump in & post - you can even use these cool colours if you want Today I received a new throttle slide from Kane @ R Twin Works - top bloke!! (story later) which meant I could put the carbs together & get it running I went for my first ride (carbs unbalanced) & this is my first impression. Great turning circle & lite at slow speeds, Front wheel shimmer at approx 50 Kms getting better as I go faster & noticeable but not worrying at 100+kms Will change front tyre, check/ grease bearings, check trueness of rim when relacing spokes. Wouldn't idle very well when cold - good when warmed up - just ticking over. Under 3000revs it was rough but from 3500 onwards it was just singing. When warmed up the acceleration from 4000 was great - smooth in every gear. Sitting at 4500 at approx 100kms Schmidtty was just loping along- very easily- very comfy. Hopefully will be better when carbs are balanced &/ or tuned. The gear changes up to 3rd & down again were very notchy & almost 'ratchety' 4th & 5th were good.- Hopefully will improve when gear box & diff oil is changed. Front brake seemed OK - not as bad as most GSers comment on however when free wheeling the pads seem to rub. The disc is pretty scored. Give clean out with brakleen & see if pads will retract. - Disc may be warped - Leave until no brakes Rear brake non existent:huh had to twist leg sideway to get brake pedal down enough to aply any pressure. Realised on way home I hadn't readjusted the wingnut adjuster back after reinserting back wheel- Take anti-DOH tablets next time. Check free wheel & make sure shoes not rubbing. Handling was great. On the twisties (seal) it felt pretty planted & low down. The skinny front wheel wanted to drop quickly into corners but pressure must be down as I felt every bump on the road. Change to gruntier tyre & give the cruiser tyre to Anthrax. Going over a bump on Pomona Rd I nearly pogoed off the rear - no damping perhaps? Change rear shock over asap. Couldn't see out of either mirror - Replace with higher mirrors Fairing vibrated annoyingly but did it's job well. Footpegs kept legs in a semi crouched position could perhaps be lowered? My ride took me around the Nelson hinterland & over the Moutere hills. Past vineyards & lifestyle blocks, forests & estuaries. It felt marvellous riding along & I began humming a Roger Whittaker tune. Soon I headed back home where I relaxed in my armchair, pipe stoked & glowing, feet aslippered & tucked into a good Wilbur Smith. Ahhh BMWs you can't beat them.
Here's a few pics of what's been going on. I started with a carb rebuild with all the new O rings & gaskets. I cleaned all the bits with white spirits & carb cleaner. The carb cleaner is beaut stuff- melted the ends off my rubber gloves. Put all the bits in safe little trays & as I spend my life picking up bloody dropped screws & bits I was extra specially careful to keep everything together. Before During
More before This looks beautiful to me The LHS carb was in pretty good nick however when I opened up the RHS carb a lump of black rubber fell out from inside the carb top. I presumed it was a seal that fits under the top lil button looking thing. Consequently the area above the diaphram was really manky looking. A problem that came up was that with the seal gone it had sucked salt water or crap into the carb & the screw that covers the needle in the throttle slide (or piston) was seized. After soaking the screw for a couple of days I tried undoing it to no avail. A trip into City Motorcycles to see the boys didn't come up with any joy either. They had a go at heating it, impact hammering it eziouting it however the little bugger wasnt going anywhere. We ended up drilling it out & I would drop the needle in with a drop of araldite to hold it in place until I get a new slide. Good idea until I tried reassembling the slide into the top of the carb. With all the heating, hammering etc there was a bulge in the shaft & it wouldn't slide back up into the top of the carb. I tried grinding it a bit but wasn't gonna slide nicely. A call for help got me a contact - Kane @ Rtwin works who sent down a mint 2nd hand slide fast post. I talked to him Thurs nite & I joyfully received it on Sat morning. On inspection tho it had a couple of thin ridges on the bottom of th enew slide that my original one didn't have. - They look like locating ridges to me so it's not put backtofront. These ridges make the slide sit up & not sit flat how it should. Oh well I'll try it because I really want to get the bike started up & see if it runs
As part of my trade cert exam I had to dismantle and inspect a mainshaft from a gearbox. Laid all the bits out nice and tidy (like your carb bits) Tester came along, looked at everything shuffeled the whole bloody lot and said "well done, now put it together please" :huh
Cool! You need to post up some pics of what you want the finished product to look like. Are you going for the sensible gentlemans adv tourer restoration or is she gunna get stripped down to a badass rat bike? Cheers Clint
You mean I have to make a decision? :eek1 I try to avoid making them - they've got me in trouble before...
While I was waiting for the slide to turn up I thought I'd check the petcock so I could be sure that all the fuel supply is good to go. Taking the petcock out I found this crap around the intank filter. Looking at the tank it looks like either the tank has had a respray or the original paint inside has come off. I cleaned out as best I could with white spirits & a bottle brush then blew it out wth compressed air. When the tank started ballooning I realised they are thinner than I anticipated. Still no dents in there so that's good. I'll include this pic for the ladies - the kinky ladies By this stage I'd also replaced the old unifilter with a new paper filter, gave an oil change with Dino oil. I paid particular attention to making sure the cover O ring had enough compression to ensure the oil passes thru the filter & doesn't cause loss of pressure. This is called the $2000 O ring. What happens is the cannister the oil filter fits into sometimes over time migrates inside the engine case. If it has receded too far into the engine case the o ring doesnt seal between the inside & outside of the oil filter. This causes loss of oil pressure & a clusterfuck of problems. Anton explains it better http://www.largiader.com/tech/filters/ Next up were new throttle & choke cables,along with new HT leads - oh all the kindness I'm showing the bike. Here it is looking all spiffy I got the feeler gauges out & set the valves. Although reportedly an easy job I found this process to be a real pain in the arse. All you have to do is loosen the lock nut, adjust the rocker adjuster with a crescent until it's got the right gap then retighten the locknut. Easy aye? Fucking Arse is it You need about 3 hands as tightening up the fking locknut would shift the whole fking assembly out of spec. I worked out the locknut would hit a bit of thread that was munted - maybe the mm that sits between the rocker & locknut - & moving it past that point would cause it to travel too far on the thread. Luckily 2 of the valves were ok so I din't have to do it to all of them. Remember we're talking 0.1mm gap & have to hamfistedly adjust it with 2 fking spanners - now the Germans are brilliant engineers however whoever thpught of that should be rooted by a goat. Man I'm stressed just thinkng about it. Better go get a toffeepop.
Despite the meltdown over the valve adjustment I'm really loving working on Schmitty. Everything is relatively easy to get to & work on. Also the feeling of satisfaction when it goes well is extremely gratifying. Here are some more pics of things that need attention. Dirty electrics Rubber boot perished. I replaced the shock with another similar one from Trademe. The PO had upgraded to a wilbur so I'm not sure how this is gonna feel. The rust problem hasn't been addressed properly yet. I have gone to them with emery paper, green scoring pads, dremel with small wire wheel. I will wait till the important stuff is done before tackling this. I checked the rear brake to see why it was so crappy. The shoe looks like it has plenty of meat on it & the drum was in good nick. Drum brakes just suck I guess. I was very impressed with phreaky phils disc conversion. He seems to be one of a number of kiwi BMW fanatics that are extremely talented. In fact it was Boxer Odyssey's thread on his street tracker that initally got me turned onto working with an airhead. As far as what style I'mgoing to go with - well I'm not sure. At this stage I want to get it runnning right- replace or repair what needs to be replaced or repaired & then start taking things off it. I can't see myself being able to shout myself ohlins yet so willl just ride it & see where it fits in with my riding.
looking good Padmei - obviously providing you hours of fun in your man cave - thanks for posting - cheers Aslan
