New Rubbers

Since the mechanic had my bike in the shop and the original tires were cracked and dry rotted, I decided to heed the advice of the Airhead Archive list and try out the Bridegstone Spitfire S11 tires.

I also listened to the whole thread on whether to use tubes or not.  I decided to go with new tubes, rim strips, and new tires.  I went online to American Tire and ordered the following for the bike.

1 x BRIDGESTONE S11 100/90H-19 BW FRONT (B1150) = $51.01 

1 x BRIDGESTONE S11 110/90H-18 BW REAR (B2140) = $53.36 

Sub-Total: $104.37 GROUND SHIPPING 

(Code 2000  Texas, United States  ): $16.79 

Total: $121.16

These tires will hopefully last 10K miles.

Some major items

In mid July, the guy I bought the bike from had his mechanic finish some items that needed looking after from the Bill of Sale.  This wrencher loved to work on bikes, and seem to have some good knowledge of beemers.

He drained the brake and fork oil, replaced some seals, rebuilt one of the brake calipers, replaced the valve cover and oil pan gaskets.  He also installed the grab bar and brand new turn signals on the front.

One thing to note is on the 1977 BMW R100S, the front turn signal brackets are chrome plated metal, gut a later R100CS model uses black metal brackets which are much cheaper.  Rusty at MAX BMW turned me onto this and I had the mechanic install those instead.

Napa inline fuel filters

After noticing that my petcocks had no internal screens in them (I will replace these when I service the petcocks), I decided to go with the inline Napa Fuel Filters (paper ones).  These are cheap and can be purchased also in bulk at some marine supply stores.

Here is the Napa link for future reference, Part Number 702323.

http://www.napaonline.com/NOLPPSE/(S(oimsun55uan0n0vr40qfbt55))/Results.aspx?Ntt=702323%20&Ntk=Keyword&N=0&Nty=1&D=702323%20&Dn=0&Dk=1&Dp=3

These fuel filters are easy to install, but I did remove the cross over line between the original fuel T joints to make these fit.  I have the older Fuel Petcock Style #2, the the output nipple sticking straight down, not to the left or right on later bikes.

Lets get Wrenching

Ok, my first maintenance item.  I found a very useful post on how to fix a slipped gear within the airhead boxer odometers.  

This link (http://www.airheads.org/content/view/160/98/)  is awesome, has pictures, and a very well laid out description on how to fix the slipped gear preventing the odometer to advance.

I carefully removed the odometer, the tac cable was a bear to remove, laid out everything on the dinning room table and dismantled this baby until I could see that the gear was indeed slipping.  I proceeded to use JB weld to fix the gear as instructed, and everything went as planned.  Fixed odometer.

Got to love free resources.

Lets get started

The moment I got home I went on to eBay and purchased a Clymer manual.  While doing my research of the bikes, I came across BMW websites that suggested getting this bible right away.  I ordered the book for a total of $42.17, and decided I would not do any work until it arrived, (Yeah Right).  

I took the bike out today for a short test ride, and the first thing I noticed wrong besides what was told to me during the test ride, is the odometer was not advancing as I rode it around the neighborhood.

What GIVES???

Today I also decided that I would keep a spreadsheet of all maintenance and parts order to show a running total if I ever needed to sell it.

I also decided to use delicious bookmarks to store all my favorite online resources which is a very long list up to this point.

My first beemer

June 28, 2008

I was very excited today to be purchasing my first BMW motorcycle from a gentlmen in Dallas. He is a hobbiest who would buy old motorcycles, wax them up, change oil, and turn them for profit. He was busy running a furniture warehouse business, so he decided to get out of the turning motorcycle business for a bit.

I found this 1977 BMW R100S boxer through dallas craigslist with 35263 miles. I was debating going with a 1975 R90/7 which was black and in good condition also, but this one looked a bit newer even though I knew it needed some work to get road worthy.

The bill of sale included some misc items, grab bar, turn signals, and a left side head gasket which was leaking a bit on the floor.

I ended up hauling the bike home, and taking pictures right away. Little did I know the slight mess ahead of me.