'88 BMW R80 cafe

[MIOB]

I prefer to keep these forks, they've been overhauled by Technoflex and revitted with technoflx springs by the previous owner. I'm now negotiating with a company that races with older airheads, ghopefully they can do something for me.

The rest of the bike is nearly finished now, just some finetuning left. I'll also have to give the tank a tank-cure treatment and a new paintjob. I was thinking about something wild, candy aple red with flakes and green or something at first, but now I think I'll redo the current paintjob.

great riding weather today:

[Kismet]

Originally Posted by MIOB

I prefer to keep these forks, they've been overhauled by Technoflex and revitted with technoflx springs by the previous owner. I'm now negotiating with a company that races with older airheads, ghopefully they can do something for me.

The rest of the bike is nearly finished now, just some finetuning left. I'll also have to give the tank a tank-cure treatment and a new paintjob. I was thinking about something wild, candy aple red with flakes and green or something at first, but now I think I'll redo the current paintjob.

great riding weather today:

Couldn't agree more !!! Some stealthy color, not gaudy, let the innocent pass it by, and the informed look closely at the machine.

Maybe a little fly-screen, just to complete the look.

So very nice. Well done!

[NicholasMav]

I totally dig your cafe...I'm scheming to find an old airhead and doing the same thing. I know nothing about how to go about it, but it'll be a great learning experience. Now....for the funding. ugh.

[Nick Makwell]

Looking fantastic there!

What did you have to do to get the Rickman tank to fit?

I guy I know around here can make one in fibreglass and I was considering using that on my R65 conversion.

any pictures of underneath?

Cheers

Chris

[MIOB]

I don't have any pics form underneath at hand, but it's not too hard to explain.

The tank already had two drilled holes all the way at the back, so made two brackets on the frame to bolt it on to. Next I welded two bars onto the backbone part of the motorframe, they support the tank. To make sure the tank woulden't go anywhere (since it's only bolted at the back) I use a normal leather belt. The belt goes trough the original tanksuportbracket at the front and I made a clamp underneath the tank at the rear.






I still have some finetuningproblems with my carbs though. I can't seem to get it to idle properly, it's just not running smooth. Als when I rev it a bit the rev's dont drop fast enough to my liking. I checked for airleaks in between the enige and the carbs, but it seems there's non. I synchronised the carbs and adjusted the valves, but it only seems to get worse. I even have trouble starting her up now (much to the amusemend of the packed restaurants in the centre of the city of Utrecht yesterday).

Anyone any suggestions?

Have you rebuilt the carbs? It's a must do for carbs that age, and pretty simple on the Bings. If you haven't, you probably have deteriorated O-rings, worn seals, etc. Plus there are some small passages that would need some TLC. It will make your bike happy.

[toolfan]

I really like that bike.

[bpeckm]

Any chance of some pics of the rearsets (tomasellis?) and how they mount...??

[channelcat]

I'd say start with timing and advance mechanism. If all thats kosher, then tune the carbs, first cable free play, then mixture, then balance. Sometimes idle speed gets set too high to compensate for late timing.
You probably know all this, but with all the HELLA COOL stuff youve jacked into so far, sometimes those basics get overlooked. You cant get good deals on carb kits...do the free stuff first. Just my two cents...
Great hooligan look...reminds me of my ex-Speed Triple...I'd paint the tank blood red, find someone to paint a reclining skeleton smoking a fattie in gold the first third length of the tank, then coats of clear black till you run out of material. Thatd be sick...
Dont want to be an old fuddie duddie, but you lower the front end, you lower the valve covers, and extra load your forks braking into turns. from your pic, I'd say you'll need all the clearence you can get....
HAGO
Tony H.
bmwthrottlesprings.com

[MIOB]

Originally Posted by bpeckm

Any chance of some pics of the rearsets (tomasellis?) and how they mount...??

Lol, Tomasseli's... I wish!! I used the original footpegs of the BMW and turned them around....



But I got really lucky on Ebay last week, so there should be a set of Yoshimura rearsets on the way to me.

[MIOB]

Originally Posted by channelcat

I'd say start with timing and advance mechanism. If all thats kosher, then tune the carbs, first cable free play, then mixture, then balance. Sometimes idle speed gets set too high to compensate for late timing.
You probably know all this, but with all the HELLA COOL stuff youve jacked into so far, sometimes those basics get overlooked. You cant get good deals on carb kits...do the free stuff first. Just my two cents...
Great hooligan look...reminds me of my ex-Speed Triple...I'd paint the tank blood red, find someone to paint a reclining skeleton smoking a fattie in gold the first third length of the tank, then coats of clear black till you run out of material. Thatd be sick...
Dont want to be an old fuddie duddie, but you lower the front end, you lower the valve covers, and extra load your forks braking into turns. from your pic, I'd say you'll need all the clearence you can get....
HAGO
Tony H.
bmwthrottlesprings.com

I found the cause... Some (**(%^%(*^*^%*^&&*#(* had put sand in my tank a while ago (yes, sand, I can not think of a reason why). I thought I had cleaned it out pretty good, but appearently not so. I now cleaned and recoated the tank and had the carbs sonically cleaned. I'll still have to pick those up, but I'm pretty sure that was the cause (along with the O rings of the choke mechanism).

I will respray the tank, but I want to keep it simple. besides form not liking skulls and skelletons I think this bike needs a simple and a bit rough looking paintjob. Since I will have to redo the tank I'm thinking about doing it in roughly the same colour blue but than with with flakes.
About the front end: I really, really want the bike to lean over to the fornt a bit more, I'm 100% sure it will improve the handling. There are only two options: I will have to lower the front or make the rear higher. The last thing would require a new rear spring which is too expensive for me. I prefer to have a bike that handles great but has a little less groundplay than having a bike that can go through corners faster but never does because it deosn't feel good.

I've made a short vid of the bike, you can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLwXPQJLK50

[bpeckm]

Highly recommend those little clear triangular fuel filters.... you can see what's going on, they're cheap, and, hey, they're cheap insurance against grit, purposeful or not!



Great bike!

[MIOB]

Originally Posted by bpeckm

Highly recommend those little clear triangular fuel filters.... you can see what's going on, they're cheap, and, hey, they're cheap insurance against grit, purposeful or not!



Great bike!

Thanx :)

I had already planned to place those before someone dicided it would be funny to throw sand in my tank, I just wasn't far enough with rebuilding the bike to do that. But I did start using them directly after ofcourse.

[crazydrummerdude]

I used those exact fuel filters, and after about 2 months they dried in the sun and cracked.

[MIOB]

I'm sure mine won't, I've got an aluminium set.

But slightly offtoipic: I'm building a chopper out of an XV920 together with a friend of mine. We are using an old BMW brakecylinderl, this one:



We really, really have to know what type of BMW it originates from, the ecxact type and preferably the years it was produced aswell. Anyone here an idea?

(by the way, the state looks a LOT worse on the picture than in reality).