BMW R90/6 Cylinder Options

By Lynx, on September 11th, 2015

This was the reason I was able to give Marco my rear wheel to get him home over the weekend…

After getting the BMW running great for the first time in 2 years and having too much fun zipping around town I decided I’d better focus on fixing other long time issues to continue with making the R90 into a solid and reliable side car platform. The pushrod seals and rear main seal had been done by the previous owner shortly before I got it which helped push me over the edge on pulling the trigger on this bike.  Unfortunately now 7 or 8 years later the pushrod seals were now starting to weep and were in need of being replaced again.   I had already gotten a full set of top end gaskets and oil pan gasket with the carb rebuild parts.  I figured it would only take a weekend tops.

 

What I found when I pulled her apart was shocking and unexpected to say the least. The left cylinder had quite a bit of pitting on the top side of the cylinder and a lot of discoloration on the bottom. The biggest rust spot on the bottom did have a bit of a slight raised swede feel to it and the other spots were smooth with the barrel. The pitting did not feel very deep but could feel it with a finger nail.

Listen to the video, there was no indication that one cylinder was this damaged.

Top of left cylinder

What a way to kill a guys spirit. From the high of finally getting the thing running great and seeing it starting to come together to your dreams dashed on the rocks. Ouch.

I knew one thing, fixing this was not going to be cheap.

Bottom of left cylinder

The other cylinder looked perfect by the way.  Pretty damn good for around 90 to 95,000 miles on it.    The right side had always had a bit of oil weeping from the base of the cylinder and I was expecting to find a pulled stud but instead I found it was leaking because this side did not have the O ring at the bottom of the cylinder!  Some good news.

Right Cylinder

At least now I know why I had a ring set in the box of spare parts from the previous owner that was missing the oil ring…

This also finally explains why this thing smoked like crazy if you happened to leave it on the side stand.  I know everyone says that they all do that but this was on a whole other level, we are talking Uncle Buck car type smokeage. After I smoked out a tech day and sent people running for air even fellow airheads said mine was particularly bad. If left on the center stand, however, it never smoked, again check out the video up top. Unfortunately you cant always park on the center stand.

I had always assumed that it needed valve guides done, probably still needs those too, and I’d been trying to avoid that expense as long as I could by never parking on the side stand when possible.

I sent a few emails out to several vendors to price out my options and compare services offered and received an outstanding response from Ted Porter of BeemerShop with some great info on the R100 cylinder differences that I was not aware of and had to share for others and I’ve included a few snippets from him below in the list.
This is a common problem, I can’t tell you how many times I have seen this over the years. It’s moisture and this is what happens when a bike sits.
Considering the mileage, the bores are probably both tapered out of spec. This is not something you can see with your eye, a bore gauge is required. In a steel bore with this many miles, it’s very likely that the bore gauge needle would swing pretty significantly indicating that it’s time for a bore restoration.
In the old days we would simply purchase first oversize pistons and bore to the first oversize. However today the pistons are scarce and very expensive, plus we now have the technology to plate with Nikasil and continue to use your existing pistons which generally do not wear. This provides a harder Nikasil bore and it is less expensive at $450.00/pair. You will need to use Nikasil appropriate rings which we sell at $76.55 each, two sets required.
Of course one step better than this would be to install a set of Siebenrock 1000cc cylinder/piston kits

 

So how do we fix this mess?  I’ve put it out to the Airhead Community and I’ve come up with a few options…

  1. New R90 cylinders and rings – $$$$ not an option
  2. Used R90 cylinders with pistons – I’ve seen sets on http://marketplace.ibmwr.org/ and Ebay from $300-$500 of unknown mileage so a bit of a gamble. Also I have a 1976 and only a set from another ’76 will fit.
  3. Used R100 cylinders with pistons – I had incorrectly assumed that any R100 cylinders would be a direct swap for my ’76.  I learned from Ted Porter that “you could look for a good used set of BMW 1981-on Nikasil cylinders and pistons which will require a minor modification to the cylinder base to be used on your 76-on block. There is a small step of metal inboard of the base oring groove that is designed to fit into a chamfer in the 81-on block which your 76 model does not have. We just remove this step for $70.00/pair and the cylinder fits the 76-80 block just fine. Keep in mind the 81-81 Nikasil pistons were low compression at 8.2:1, the 1988-on Nikasil pistons were 8.5:1 so they’re a little more desirable.”
  4. Bore to next size with new pistons – A local shop has quoted me 50 bucks a side to bore them and their machinist was pretty confident that one size up would take care of the pitting, [Motobins has first and second over pistons for £154 ea] [ Motoren-Isreal has Wossner pistons for 349 Euros a set ]
  5. Have cylinders restored, bored and nikasil coated and reuse existing pistons with new rings for nikasil – http://www.powersealusa.com/repair-process/ I heard about this process also from Ted Porter who carries the rings “at $76.55 each, two sets required” and got a quote from PowerSealUSA “From the looks of the photos we should be able to fix them by honing to accommodate the plating thickness then plate/hone to size. Price to plate a steel/cast iron liner is $225 per cylinder.”
  6. Siebenrock kit – from  Motoren-Isreal – 817 Euros with shipping to the US. From Motobins it is more but comes with a gasket set.

I think the first 3 are not an option, at the going rates for questionable used parts I can get new pistons and a rebore. I’ll still keep an eye out for a really good deal on a post ’88 R100 set though.

Wossner pistons and a rebore look like my cheapest option for new parts. The downside here is I really want nikasil cylinders that will last forever.  A few guys that have gone this route that replied to my forum threads have been very happy with the results though.

Having my existing cylinders nikasil plated is a very intriguing option that I was not previously aware of and roughly the same price as the others.

I really think the Siebenrock kit with the horse power boost is my best option with this bike being built up for a sidecar tug in the future.  Unfortunately $930 is a big expense that I was not expecting, the good news is with the dollar surging this option is $270 cheaper than it was just a few years ago if you buy from Europe.

UPDATE:  Several other unexpected expenses that also added up to $1000 have pretty much killed this restore project for the time being so I’m going to go with plan G: hone the cylinders myself, re-ring and call it good for the time being.  It’s run decently with plenty of pull all this time in this condition so I don’t think it will hurt to leave it the way it is for another 6 months until tax return season rolls around and I can revisit this then, along with getting heads done.

 

Leave a comment   BMW R90

Road Karma

By Lynx, on September 9th, 2015

A group of guys traveling cross country from New Jersey made an emergency pit stop at the house over the weekend.  I saw a post on a Facebook page from the previous day that Marco’s BMW R90 had a wheel bearing go out in Gallup and gave him a call to see if they still needed help. He thought it was a loose axle and fixed it by tightening the nut but by the time they rolled through Albuquerque it turns out it actually was the bearing and it had grenaded on the way here.

I swear these old Beemers are very reliable bikes once you go through and fix all their weak points. I read the blog they have been keeping of their trip, www.6onasphalt.com , and sadly it seems like the BMW has been having every textbook failure in the book,  charging system, ignition system, starting system, front and rear wheel bearings..  Good thing his bike has a beefy reinforced subframe carrying all that weight so he shouldn’t experience the broken frame problem as well.   Just think, by the time you get home you’ll have a well sorted rebuilt bike that can go anywhere.

The bearing on Marco’s bike must have gotten super hot as it was destroying itself and part of it was seized on the axle making it impossible to remove to get the rear wheel off.  Unfortunately my Dremel tool, and also my grandfathers hammer, were stolen in a breakin and both would have come in real handy.  I had to call in some help from my neighbor to cut the bearing off.

Originally I had planned on just swapping out the bearing from my wheel to his and calling it a day but since it took an hour and a half just to get his wheel off so we decided to just swap the whole wheel instead and deal with getting parts back to the right owners later.  It is only fitting since he’s already changed out the front wheel along the way too.

I was very impressed that little Robert who had been sick and fussy for several days thought all of this was fascinating and amazingly watched the whole thing for a couple of hours which was the longest he’d gone without crying all weekend. Even when he is not sick he won’t sit still for that amount of time. We’ll make a motorcycle mechanic out of him yet.

I thought I’d write this post after a friend asked Why? the next day after explaining how I’d smashed my thumb with a roofing hammer helping some motorcyclists that I’d never met before they rolled up in my driveway.

I’m not sure why I do what I do, even before I got into motorcycles I’d helped over 100 stranded motorists.  At the time living out in the country and frequently traveling dirt back roads with a less than reliable Jeep I had to become proficient in fixing my own stuff to keep going and had to carry a full set of necessary tools with me at all times.  As you experience new problems that you weren’t prepared for your tool kit grows, like after the time I overheated and had to hike back and forth to a windmill for water with only an empty soda can to carry it in I started carrying a gallon of water and antifreeze with me at all times.  With a rolling mechanics shop in the back I knew I could fix most common issues and get people to their destination so why not?  Helping those in need makes you feel good after doing your good deed for the day.

When I drove my Jeep pickup I did everything from countless jump starts to replacing a thermostat in the grocery store parking lot and more than once more than once having to do CPR on a crash victim before emergency responders arrived. Back then cell phones were a rare item and even after they became more common there was no coverage outside of the bigger towns so if you broke down between towns you were screwed. Learning to be self sufficient and prepared was a necessity.

I am a firm believer that what goes around comes around.  You shouldn’t expect it but many of those that I have helped have returned the favor later on, I got invited to a wedding reception for fixing a thermostat and even got out of a speeding ticket when the officer remembered my truck as the one that had helped a family member a few months earlier and occasionally had a few 20’s forced on me here and there. One rider gave me $100 for fixing an oil leak her bike, when I refused payment I found she had stuffed the money in my saddlebag.

After I got the V Star and used that as my primary vehicle and really couldn’t carry all the tools I had before I got a little bummed that I couldn’t help people like I used to, I had to pass by all those cars with hoods up in parking lots waiting for a jump start.  It was then that we started going on motorcycle trips that I discovered a whole new level of Road Karma, helping fellow cross country travelers.  When you give a soccer mom a jump start in the grocery store parking lot her day has just been slightly inconvenienced, when you help out someone on a cross country bike trip 2000 miles from home who’s already been on the road for several weeks you can be a god send!

Unless you have broken down thousands of miles away on a road trip without knowing anyone to call for help for several time zones you really don’t know what it is like. You are stuck, there is no going anywhere until you solve the problem and most of the time you’ve already gone way over budget by then too so a really expensive repair could be the end of the trip. Those that have been there will usually drop everything to help a fellow rider in need and bend over backwards to help someone in the middle of a trip. It is also a neat way to meet fellow travelers and hear about where they’ve been and in a small way become part of their trip.

I’ve also found that you are far more likely to run into road trippers that you’ve helped again. After you’ve saved their butt in the past they are happy to be able to return the favor and fellow road trippers like to travel a lot so you are more likely to meet them on the road and at gatherings.

Who knows, that random person you helped field strip and repair their bike in your girl friend’s mother’s driveway …

may offer you a bed to sleep on in Texas.

Or the guy who gave you a free stay at a nice hotel they’d won at a poker run in Arizona …

you may run into at a meet up in Texas where you can give them an inflatable mattress you didn’t need.

If you decide to go on road trips eventually you will need the kindness of strangers so it is good to have lots of Road Karma points in the bank. Even if you don’t break down you’ll need a new tire or maintenance item along the way and getting your bike in for a quick thing without an appointment can still be a problem.  More than once we’ve been told by dealerships that their schedule was booked and we’d have to come back a few days or a week later and have had techs sneak us in under their foreman’s nose to do a quick tire change and get us back on the road.  Thanks guys at Adventure Motorsports !

We’ve also had to deal with asshole managers at oil change places and had techs step in to save the day.

Sometimes it is nice just to get out of the tent and have a couch or bed to sleep on without paying for a motel.

So don’t think that you’ll never need help along the your trip with your super reliable bike.

Whether you’re packing light and traveling by sweet Excelsior-Henderson …

or petal power …

or taking everything with you …

including the kitchen sink …

or traveling by well used and abused classics …

or brand new rides for a father/son cross country trip, eventually you’ll need help from someone.

So what can you do to earn some good road karma?

  • Offer your trade skills:  If your frame breaks you aren’t going anywhere until you find a welder …

  • Being able to fabricate new parts from scrap metal instead of having to wait for an overnight or a back ordered piece is great!

  • If you are mechanically inclined or just have a good set of tools to borrow that may be enough to get someone back on the road.

  • Write a repair article. If you don’t want to host your own blog other sites will welcome guest posts for your content and you may even get paid for it.

  • If you don’t know how to work a screw driver you can still carry a set of jumper cables, if you don’t know how to use them chances are the other guy does and sooner or later you’ll need them yourself, it’ll save you an hour wait for AAA to show up.  Any basic set will do, I have the heavy duty extra long 25 foot kind after my truck had a dead battery in a downhill space in the corner of a lot and we had to find 3 pairs of cables to daisy chain together to reach.  With these ones I can park behind someone and still give them a jump, the downside is they are heavy and bulky and don’t fit in my car I drive now.

What if you have no mechanical ability at all?

  • You can still offer your garage, spare bedroom or couch as a place to stay:

  • Recommend some amazing hole in the wall eateries you think they might like, like this sadly now out of business Greatful Dead themed pizza joint that had wall to wall memorabilia of the band and played the Greatful Dead channel on a big screen TV up front, my friend who was passing through on a Greatful Dead themed bike thought it was great!

  • Do a tour of the local sights around your town.

  • Or do a longer tour and show off some of the best motorcycle roads.  I have taken days off work to lead travelers through the best back roads to the Colorado border.

  • Throw an epic BBQ and get together to welcome a fellow forum member on a long trip. This is how some annual meet and greets got started and now people come from several states away to attend.

  • Or arrange a behind the scenes tour of a gator farm.

  • Or a behind the scenes tour of an aquarium to show how dolphins are cared for.

 

I am thankful that we have not had a major breakdown on any of our trips that I was not able to fix on our own.  Not to say we haven’t had a few scrapes to get through, there was the time that my auxiliary light broke off and destroyed my fender in the process on the Texas coast …

Or the frustrating time in Washington state that it took me over an hour to figure out that a mosquito had gotten into the carbs while I was changing jets and caused us to loose one cylinder a while later.

Or overheating issues in Utah.

Or the time a lady backed into the bike in Oregon …

Or an Excursion crashed into us in Albuquerque.

 

It is practically impossible to plan every detail of an epic road trip ahead of time, you may want to spend longer in one place or less in another and lets face it, shit happens.  You may not make your motel reservation due to a wind storm that shut down the interstate, or it may take 3 days to ride the 101 across Oregon instead of 1 because you didn’t plan on being there on the 4th of July and getting stuck in 6 hours worth of parade speed traffic.  You have to be flexible and roll with the punches.

I’ve always said if everything went according to plan life would be too boring. Getting through those obstacles and deviations from the plan is what life is all about, you will always remember the time your engine exploded on the way to Grandma’s on Christmas Eve and you and your future wife nearly froze to death waiting for help, you probably won’t remember the same routine trip when nothing happened.

When you break down and things are looking dim just remember someone will be along to help you out of the jam and think of it as another opportunity to meet more interesting people.  When things are at their lowest it can only get better right?

Look forward to what you’ll see over the horizon when you get back on the road and what a great story this will be when you get home.

Ride Safe.

Related posts:

  1. Hot and Cold
  2. Breakdown
  3. Valvoline Care?
  4. Give me fuel give me fire
  5. Fall Ride
4 comments   BMW R90, Trips, V Star 650

BMW R90/6 throwout bearing

By Lynx, on October 23rd, 2011

Lots of new BMW parts!

Getting this very stiff rubber piece on the piston is tough!   I had to resort to using a small jewelers screwdriver for leverage to pry it on there and it still took about 15 or 20 minutes to get it on straight in the underlying groove.   Just keep at it you’ll get it eventually.

Here is what that blasted needle bearing looks like and the reason for all of this mess.   This is a bad design, BMW dropped the ball here.  The outside edge of these rollers will always try to spin at a faster rate than the inside edge causing these things to partially slide and slip along and eventually wearing out and turning to dust as I found out.

Previous versions of this clutch actuator design instead used a roller bearing with round balls, much better way to go in my opinion.  I have been thinking of a way to use the old bearing in my clutch, I think it can be done by just machining down the face of the piston and a bit of the end that contacts the adjustment screw to compensate for the thicker roller bearing.   More info on the differences and changes of the design over the years on this excellent website here.

With all the new parts assembled in my hands I now understand how this mechanism works, from the drawings I couldn’t quite understand what kept the end of the rod from drilling through the pressure plate (like mine did) without needing to be lubricated.   Now I see, when under pressure to open the clutch the whole rod spins freely (from the silvery bearing forward) and the piston remains stationary.

Like I mentioned before the washer on the end of the pushrod was fused to the shaft on one side and the other end mushroomed and flared out which made the removal of the old rod impossible from either direction.   I had to cut it apart to get it out.  Cue picture of sparks flying because it looks cool.

The aftermath:

I have heard several accounts on ADVrider.com about using floss around the felt part to get the rod back through the transmission without it being removed.  So I decided to give it a try to see if I could do it for the future when I may need to do this..

Supposedly if you wind floss tightly around the felt (much tighter than in this picture) then you can squeeze the rod through without the felt coming off, then you just need to carefully unwind the floss leaving the felt intact.    Try as I might I could not get the @#$%^ floss to come off once inside.  I’m not sure if I was doing it wrong.

Looking at the old felt on the other rod I found it also had some string wrapped around it still, so maybe its ok just to leave the floss on.  It was a extremely tight fit even with the felt squeezed down with floss.

I also discovered that I had to put the rod through from this side as there was a ridge and groove inside the tube on mine which prevented it from being inserted from the other side, I have no idea what caused this, possibly bits from the old bearing when it cratered.

They say to lubricate this bearing when reassembling with lithium grease I believe, it gets lubricated with oil from the transmission which will wash the grease away once it is started up.   I didn’t want to go out and buy some so I used this Lucas Assembly Lube instead, great stuff.  Assembly lube is very tacky and will stay put while putting pieces together to give bearings like this essential lubrication on the first startup before they start getting oil on their own.  Should do the trick.

 

While the transmission was out I decided to do a fluid change and found this on the magnetic drain plug, a bit concerning.   I have read in many places that this much filings from the gears is “normal”.  I’m sorry but that much metal loss from anything should not be normal in my view,  regardless every airhead guy I’ve talked to and threads I have read on ADVrider.com have said not to worry about it.

They say just to rub this in your fingers and make sure its a very fine sludge with no big pieces which could mean eminent bearing failures and expensive fixes ahead.

This is what I found, a few small flakes of metal inside all of that sludge.  The biggest piece is about the size of a sesame seed for scale.  It does look like bearing material to me, I don’t know if this means that I should get the transmission rebuilt or not.    My airhead mechanic friend says for that not to worry about it and  just ride.  “They will have a clunky shift like a tractor when new and they will still clunk when well broken in so don’t worry about it”  he says.

Ok….      I’ve put new fluid in it and slapped everything back together and the bike runs just as good as before the clutch broke so I guess all is well for now.

I will most likely send the transmission in to get rebuilt next winter or when I don’t have as much expensive projects going on at the same time just for peace of mind.  Almost everything on a BMW airhead can be fixed by the do it yourself mechanic at home but rebuilding a transmission I’d leave that for the professionals to do.

 

 

3 comments   BMW R90

BMW R90/6 Clutch

By Lynx, on October 2nd, 2011

Just a quick follow up on putting the clutch back together after checking for damage and getting new parts in.

I am impressed that the OEM parts come in such heavy duty packaging. You don’t see that much anymore.

Siebenrock clutch disks come pre greased with something.  I went ahead and added a touch of Honda Moly 60 paste on top of this just to be safe.

  • If you have gotten the clutch apart as mentioned earlier reinstalling the parts is pretty easy, just reverse the process.   You will need this special clutch alignment tool, I got this one from Jeff Trapp at Northwoods Airheads.  Use the shorter end for pre-1981 bikes and the other end for post ’81 bikes when they changed the clutch design.
  • Simply install the long screws you used in removal to hold the assembly together while using the alignment tool to make sure all of the pieces are lined up properly. If things are out of alignment you won’t be able to get the transmission on later.

Continue reading BMW R90/6 Clutch

4 comments   BMW R90

What bearing?

By Lynx, on September 11th, 2011

This exploded parts diagram shows how the clutch actuation works. The lever #14 is attached to the clutch cable and handle bar lever which pushes on part #1 to release and engage the clutch.  When I pulled mine apart to see just how bad the needle cage bearing #4 was on mine which I guessed had failed this is what I found below.

There was no bearing at all!!  All I found was a silvery crumbly paste and the three small bits of roller bearings to the right.  The bearing was completely ground down to dust!  That might explain a few things!

The push rod (#1) goes through the center of the splined input shaft to the transmission.  An unusual but compact design.  The end of mine looked like this,  very heavily worn and mushroomed out making it impossible to pull out through the back.   Normally you do not need to pull the transmission out to inspect all these pieces and this regular maintenence of inspecting and lubricating the needle cage bearing can be done with everything still on the bike. (I wish I had known that ahead of time and perhaps my bike wouldnt have broken down in the first place)  However, as this part on mine is completely mangled the whole transmission would have needed to come out anyway.

Why doesn’t he just pull it out through the front of the transmission you might ask?   This is why.  On the other end the shaft is fused to the washer and it’s impossible to remove!  This is looking bad for what other damage I might find…    Time to get out the hack saw or dremel cut off wheel.

I was not expecting these pieces to be so mangled, so I need to pull apart the clutch and check for additional damage and see what other parts I need to order.

First step in pulling apart the clutch is to remove every other bolt. These parts are under tremendous pressure and if the pressure is not released slowly and evenly you could loose an eye or more importantly damage the flywheel.  The existing bolts are not long enough to fully release the spring and longer ones need to be put in.

Continue reading What bearing?

3 comments   BMW R90

BMW R90/6 Update

By Lynx, on August 28th, 2011

For most of the last year my 1976 BMW R90/6 has been neglected.  Sadly the R90 has sat inoperable before starting the teardown this weekend.  A year ago the V Star’s pickup coil and clutch decided to go out and a week after that the BMW’s clutch cratered also.  During a ride home the lever got very stiff and on the last hard pull it made a loud expensive sounding CLANK and the lever went slack, riding in rush hr traffic on a 34 year old bike with sucky antiquated brakes at best and no clutch is not a fun experience.   I decided to fix the cheapest one with readily available parts first then its been one thing after another and before you know it wow has it been a year already?

I had been able to temporarily fix the clutch by readjusting the cables and the push rod bolts at the back of the transmission but that resulted in lots of squeaking and the clutch then being stuck open.  I’ve guessed after reading numerious threads on ADVrider.com that the needle pushrod/throw out bearing is toast and mine sounded bad enough that I’d want to check the clutch too for damage and piece of mind.

Main thing preventing repair has been the center stand that was broken when I bought it.  I didnt have the equipment to fix it and didn’t trust any of the dealers who couldnt even find the air cleaner in the computer to lay a hand on it.  A few months ago a buddy and former BMW airhead mechanic opened a independent shop 2 miles from my house and to throw a little business his way I had him drill and retap the frame to finally repair the center stand.  With that finally done teardown can begin!

First thing was getting rid of the battery box to see what I was working with to pull the transmission.  What a royal pain in the ass that was!  In hind sight its better to leave it there and first remove the air box to give a big hole to pull it out through the side of the frame instead of out the top.   Also 4 of the 5 rubber mounts came apart and sadly I cant find any OEM replacements.  I have a link for some rubber mount fasteners somewhere that I’ll put up on my Airhead resources page I’m also working on as I rebuild it.

 

Next, loosening the drive shaft bolts at the back of the transmission.  The 10mm wrench in the tool kit is perfect for this, my own box end wrench was too thick to fit.   Step down on the rear brake to prevent the shaft from turning and getting these out is a snap, Cece did all of them.   You must use a 12 point box end though, these are not hex head bolts.

To remove the swingarm on an airhead you need to remove a thin recessed nut inside a tube. Its placed in such a way that a regular off the shelf socket will not fit.  You’ll need something like this special machined down and faced socket available from Northwoods Airheads.   These are very high quality and nicely made and also much cheaper than the BMW made tool for the same job that I happened to find in the stock tool kit after I started and didnt realize I had.

Continue reading BMW R90/6 Update

2 comments   BMW R90

Fall Colors

By Lynx, on October 4th, 2009

Was an absolutely beautiful day today. I spent the morning putting the bike back together and headed up the mountain to check out the fall colors and de-stress. The weather was perfect! Not too cold, not too hot. The sun was out with outstanding lighting.

I guess many others had the same idea as the roads were packed with cars and a fair number of bikes too. All were enjoying themselves. Got a few thumbs up from a few of the other motorists too, it felt good to be out.

Continue reading Fall Colors

2 comments   BMW R90

Airhead Cleanup

By Lynx, on October 3rd, 2009

Oh No! Another bike tear down. My landlords must just love me.

Task at hand today is just to clean everything off somewhat, check the wiring and cables and inspect for any other unknown issues to get a better idea of what work lies ahead and what I’ve gotten myself into.

Continue reading Airhead Cleanup

Leave a comment   BMW R90

1976 BMW R90/6

By Lynx, on September 12th, 2009

Heres the reason for ditching the V Star at my parents house on the way back home last weekend. I needed something to tow a trailer so I could pick up a new bike!

Here she is a 1976 BMW R90/6. I found the owner on ADVrider.com from a thread where I only half jokingly said I was looking for an airhead to work on and he said he had one. He was in Kansas and I’m in New Mexico, so a month later and we met up in Walsenburg, CO to do the deal. I would have liked to have found an R90S model with the dual disks better carbs and lots of stock performance mods. But for me intending on eventually converting this to a cafe style bike down the road I think its better to start from a plain R90 so the BMW purists dont scream as yet another collectible S model disappears.

The bike came as you see it, in what appears to be good condition with mostly some cosmetic flaws and mostly sound mechanicals. There are a few issues here and there, and more that I’ll find as I go through a rebuild like any bike of this age is sure to have. It came with both fairings, the hard bags, passenger back rest and a big box of parts. I think I got a good deal.

Continue reading 1976 BMW R90/6

One comment   BMW R90