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Restoration of BMW R69s engine
- Thread starter malmac
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That is the bike that changed everything. 0-60 in 3.5 sec. Never rode one but there were few around. My uncle who was a die hard Harley man rode one of the first Honda V45’s, so went out and bought a Ninja 900. He rode it down and stored it in my garage and gave me the keys. I took it out in the country behind Castle AFB. Insanely smooth, fast with no feeling of speed. I never even got close to full throttle. Ran it through the gears and looked down and was doing 110. That scared me. Took it home and put it back in the garage.
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The Kawasaki 500 3 cylinder (shown above) had a power band that had you holding on for dear life. If we ran Torco synthetic injection oil it hardly smoked at all. If we ran the outboard motor oil, ha, you layed down a smoke screen
The Kawasaki 900 was ahead of it's time (1978?). In 1980 I had to have the Yamaha XS1100 Special. Black with red specs in the paint. The back tire was massive (for those days) Just don't try to turn or anything.
Brings back fond memories of my youth. I courted my wife to be of 36 years on that Yamaha. She said, "It's the biggest one I've ever seen!"
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The pipes are like the Kawasaki. Oh, that's a triple.
Mine looked like this. Except new. eech, drum brakes
They were pretty darn fast!!
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I am sure I did some work on that model for a friend back in the mid 1970's. The only work I have ever done on a two stroke from memory. I guess this was the fore runner to the 750 water bottle.
Mal
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- Jun 7, 2016
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I rode one of these once and crap I nearly killed my self when the beast hit the power band.
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I rode that 380 for several years and the only thing I did besides lube the chain and plugs was put a set of points in it. I still have the kit with dial indicator you screwed into #1 in place of the spark plug. At a measured point before TDC your continuity tester on the points went off to set timing after setting gap. Having set point gap with a gauge and my timing many times with a continuity light on my VW’s I was familiar with the process. Just not using the DI.
I have always liked the vehicles best that I fussed with the least. The Bink’s carbs idle on the Beemer drove me nuts. Otherwise once I got it caught up on maintenance it was perfect. With the Vetter fairing it was as comfortable as I ever got on a bike. After one crazy close call I took it as a sign bikes were too dangerous no matter how alert I was and I put it up for sale and it was gone 2 days later. No regrets.
Hey Mal,
Love the look of your vintage BMW (what a classic!) and though you might enjoy my motorcycle adventure so hear it is. I bought a Honda CL350 in Japan on my last 6 month (USN 12/65-11/69) WestPack tour and brought it back on the aircraft carrier I was stationed on.
Getting ready to be discharge end of February 69' and I had two weeks more leave than I could sell back and burned those up riding it up coast from San Diego to San Francisco and then back to San Diego through the mountains and national parks sleeping along side the highway behind some shrubs/etc. This was my first experience riding a motorcycle and I survived it without any damage to me or anyone else.
Then after discharge the last week of February I road it cross country from San Diego to Hialeah Florida which was seven days of freezing my ass off drafting semi's trying to stay warm and sleeping on the ground next to the bike.
One year after discharge I attended a 9 month motorcycle mechanic school just north of Davenport Iowa and worked as a motorcycle mechanic from my mid 20's to mid 30's and then switched careers to data processing. My first motorcycle mechanics job was at a Honda Norton dealership in Davenport and I fell in love with Norton's and owned two of them (750 Interstate and 850 Commando) while wrenching on Honda's. Briefly worked at a Honda BMW dealership in Tampa Florida although no BMW wrenching experience.
I'm really enjoying your rebuild and special tool making as it brings back some nice memories of my wrenching years. I rebuild both of my Norton engines and while not as refined as a BMW they were a pleasure to work on as you could rebuild everything as opposed to Honda parts swapping. About five years after the end of my wrenching days I sold all of my tools and my last Norton for which I had about ten boxes of long neck bottle beer boxes full of new/used parts that I acquired over the years at various salvage yards and dealerships. I sold the bike and parts to a guy that appreciated Norton's and it did my hart good to know that the bike was in good hands.
To me there is nothing like old iron either motorcycles or metal working equipment and looking forward to the rest of your rebuild.
And yes per your quote “though were the days ...”
Harry
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I'm trying to find a pic of the 1969-70 Honda 350 Scrambler. It was the dual sport version with knobby tires, black exhaust with upswept pipes on both sides....I think.
I was dreamy over that bike. My best friend's big brother bought it new. We would look at it for hours and dream.
I was dreamy over that bike. My best friend's big brother bought it new. We would look at it for hours and dream.
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Hi Tony
I am learning a lot from the posts re the place motorcycles hold in a rider's memory. While we are all different there seems to be an easy friendship between motorcyclists (maybe true for boating folks and golfers - but that is just a guess).
I was a motorcycle training officer for about 15 years and appreciate that to put the bike aside before one gets hurt is wise.
Maybe I'm just not wise - but I ride pretty steady these days.
Mal
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