My Winter Project (I must be nuts)

[Boojum]

Originally Posted by KneeDrachen

I WISH i had half of your aptitude and mechanical ability! good luck and looks great. looking forward to updates!

+1, Oohhh, If only!

Nice Job, Mike! That frame and forks is looking good. Keep up the good work, keep us posted, and we ALL look forward to seeing this bike sometime in 07, at an Airhead Event or some twisty road!!!!


Boojum!

[philp38]

Please keep the updates coming.

[sdpc2]

especially since i seem to be developing a worsening case of "airhead-itis"!

Originally Posted by KneeDrachen

I WISH i had half of your aptitude and mechanical ability! good luck and looks great. looking forward to updates!

[wintonio]

where can one find the online microfiche? edit: AHA! awesome...

[Boojum]

Originally Posted by wintonio

where can one find the online microfiche? edit: AHA! awesome...

I Believe MaxBMW has a good one.

[SteveBroskey]

Mike, what made you decide to do a total overhaul vs. just getting it running?

'Course experience might have something to do with it - I got a '72 Yamaha DT2 three months back and I'm still working on tearing it apart. (thread in old school)
I'm just planning on getting it running first, and then taking stuff apart for a really good cleaning and tuning/rebuild.

[I've gotten myself in trouble in the past where I dive into a project way too deep, then never get out; this is my first tear-apart-and-rebuild.]

[Cogswell]

Originally Posted by KneeDrachen

I WISH i had half of your aptitude and mechanical ability! good luck and looks great. looking forward to updates!

It's all just a bunch of parts, knowing their orientation when putting it all back together helps a lot.

+1, Oohhh, If only!

Nice Job, Mike! That frame and forks is looking good. Keep up the good work, keep us posted, and we ALL look forward to seeing this bike sometime in 07, at an Airhead Event or some twisty road!!!! ]

Hopefully I'll see you at the rally, not completely done but rideable.

where can one find the online microfiche? edit: AHA! awesome...

Hammersley BMW and Max BMW both have online fiche.

Mike, what made you decide to do a total overhaul vs. just getting it running?

'Course experience might have something to do with it - I got a '72 Yamaha DT2 three months back and I'm still working on tearing it apart. (thread in old school)
I'm just planning on getting it running first, and then taking stuff apart for a really good cleaning and tuning/rebuild.

[I've gotten myself in trouble in the past where I dive into a project way too deep, then never get out; this is my first tear-apart-and-rebuild.]

The decision for a total rebuild was that the bike was rough as a "COB"
when I started. It did run, albeit a bit rough and the front brakes were locking up. Just take your time on yours, plan what needs to be done in what stages. I plan to clean things up as I go along on the reassembly.

MIke

[camgregus]

[kbasa]

I'll be interested to see what you do with the timing chain cover. Mine looks a lot like yours and I keep going back and forth on whether to replace it entire, repaint it (in frame) to look acceptable or just live with it as it is.

[Cogswell]

Originally Posted by kbasa

I'll be interested to see what you do with the timing chain cover. Mine looks a lot like yours and I keep going back and forth on whether to replace it entire, repaint it (in frame) to look acceptable or just live with it as it is.

Yeah, I'm still pondering that as well. Repaint it or blast off the existing paint and leave it natural. The powdercoat guy I'm using is good about taping things off and not putting paint where it's not supposed to be. I probably don't really have it clean enough to evaluate it yet.

Mike

P.S. One of my riding friends says he knows you, Steve Hancock from up in the northeast. Ring a bell ?

[AntonLargiader]

Hey Mike!

Nice project there. You're rocketing along with it; I'd be still just staring at it wondering what to do. When I started reading the thread I hoped you'd do a frame-off and was really glad to see the newly-powdercoated parts.

What grit do you have for the flex-hone?

Also, consider the 9.5 pistons. I just put them into an R100 and it feels really nice without any roughness. It's a good upgrade if the bike doesn't already have them.

Getting the forks right is totally key to the ride and handling. Looks like you had them apart; be really sure that they slide easily after the brace is installed but before the springs go in.

And keep the pictures coming!

[SOLO LOBO]

Originally Posted by mikewarax

Cylinder wear looks negligible and I will probably just hone and go with it as is. Mike

Hiya Mike,

You do know that you shouldn't use a normal hone on the '81 and later cylinders, don't 'cha The BMW shop I worked at had a "dingle-ball" hone for these...

[kbasa]

Originally Posted by mikewarax

Yeah, I'm still pondering that as well. Repaint it or blast off the existing paint and leave it natural. The powdercoat guy I'm using is good about taping things off and not putting paint where it's not supposed to be. I probably don't really have it clean enough to evaluate it yet.

Mike

P.S. One of my riding friends says he knows you, Steve Hancock from up in the northeast. Ring a bell ?

I'm proud to call Steve one of my closest friends. Talk about a guy that can ride....

His wife's a peach, too. This was at MotoGP a couple years ago. Ask him about it. You know Gene too, then. Another great guy.





Sorry for the hijack.

[WR_guy]

Nice work Mike.

Think It'll be done when I come down in June?

-Rich

[Cogswell]

Time for an update on progress and regress.

Bad news first.

If you look at the first pictures of the bike before I started you can see a blue sticker on the frame near the steering head.
Seems the sticker wasn't fully removed during the frame clean-up and was powder coated over.
I also made another discovery that the steering/fork stop was missing from the front of the frame.
I made a phone call to the fine folks at Smiths Customs, Brandon and Josh.
They told me to bring the frame back and they would make it right on their dime. (for the sticker)
I fashioned a stop for the steering/forks and they are going to attach it to the frame.
If you need any powder coating done I would Highly recommend you give these guys a shot at your business.
They do great work, and stand behind what they do.

I got the wheels back when I dropped off the frame. I was concerned
about the wheels turning out too dark from the color sample but after seeing them finished I an happy with the result.
One small detail on the wheels, seems there was a recall on the BMW snowflake front mag wheels. They would tend to crack and break after riding on rough surfaces. Thanks Crow. I now have a new front wheel on the way courtesy of BMW. It will need to be powder coated to match the rear.
Hey, things like that are going to happen and it's just a minor delay. I don't really have any set time this bike must be finished.







I also picked up some other goodies for the charging system to replace the diode board. ( a known weak link at this mileage)




Other than that, I had a call from the machine shop that the heads are ready. Fresh valve job and cleaned.
Need to borrow the press again to remove the steering head lower bearing and install the new one.
I need to schedule some time on a glass bead cleaner for more parts cleaning.
Spiegler brake lines and another box of gaskets etc are on Brown to arrive this week.

May be I can have a roller by the end of the month !

Mike