The Hearth

This relic spoke to me.......Its' story ;



My origins came from fire, ice and inland seas. I lay entombed for millennia until the ravages of wind and water brought me forth to see blue skies.
Creatures, now long extinct, tread upon me. I lay dormant for eons until this animal of man carved me from my earthly bindings.
My fragments were hauled great distances by wagon and beasts to this windswept, desolate place. These men laid their skilled hands upon me and transformed me into this present state. They proudly carved their sign upon me.



I witnessed the building of a rough-hewn structure around me. Fire once again raged within me, warming souls which gathered to escape the endless winter. Many great tales were told in my presence;
Tales of men who witnessed “The Great Wars” and the sacrifices of fallen comrades who lay still in foreign lands.
And the grieving for loved ones lost never to be seen again.
Dreams were sown for the future, sorrow was expressed for the past.
Ecstasy, happiness, grief, anger and the wonders of new life I have been witness to.
Until again fire surrounded me and left me to this solitary existence.
Again destined to return to the earth.

Going...going.....gone

Spent today disassembling this R75/6....a lot of stuff going into the dumpster....exhaust pipes, mufflers, seat, fairing & mount and a lot of stuff. Bike had a set of Maserati airhorns, relays and compressor...looked beyond hope so it went into the round file too. Was hoping that the original tool set would be under the seat but to no avail....just a bunch of rusty junk living there.....I drained the transmission and final drive oil to check for water and metal debris. The oil looked pretty good and no water was present. No metal on the magnetic drain plugs either. Looks like I'll take it down to the frame and peddle off a few of the smaller pieces......The transmission appears to be a keeper and we'll join my stash of spares. The valve covers are nearly perfect...one little dink that can hardly be seen from the outside...a little deformity on the inside......they'll take a lot to clean up but will go on the R100S/6....Just got "walking papers" for Texas so looks like "life" will be on hold for a while......

BMW R75/6 "Barn Find"

A mere 60k miles on the clock...poor bike never lived even a partial life......bike is in pieces but is complete and PO says everything is there.......Harley handle bar risers?

Parts bucket.......weathered.........

The latest addition to the butchers block.......appears to have a lot of usable parts.........

Someone removed the spark plugs then let it sit out in the Oregon weather.....engine guts are rusted.....

Tank is undented.....saddle bag condition is rough........carbs look OK.........valve covers appear to be undamaged......I'll use them on the R100S engine.......

Has the alloy turn signals.......a monster period back rest.......apparently has some "other brand" handle bar risers......

All in all I'm paying more than it is worth but it will be delivered to my door and the salvage parts sales should cover the cost of the thing......

BMW Barn Find "Fishing"

Did a little BMW fishing and may have caught a dead one.....From the photos it looks like a 1974 model R75/6.......I see alloy turn signals on the dis embodied fairing so if they are original it should be a 1974 model. Also appears to have the older style control switches. Has some bazaar looking handlebar risers, but can't really tell from the photo....Sitting out in the snow with the engine apart isn't good. Looks like its' been laying there for quite some time. I wouldn't mind a spare small fuel tank and I could make it black. Hopefully the gear box is in usable condition. If it is a 1974 model it should have a kick start transmission. Might be some decent parts still aboard? Kind of wanted to experiment with using an 18" rear rim on the front of my /5.(?) I was told if the spline hub was removed the rear wheel could go up front. That would fit the /2 US fender better.

Appears to have an old Vetter fairing which aren't worth anything but it does have a pair of alloy signals on it. The owner is in Co. so we'll connect up in the near future. Don't have a price yet....it will have to be pretty cheap......

Poor old thing.......kind of a shame.........
Was hoping to find a pre 1974 model but if it's cheap I'll haul it home just to give it a decent burial.....

Acewell Speedometer Installed....mostly....and more money poured into the "pit".

Received this Acewell Computer / Speedo assembly on Friday and worked this weekend to get it installed. I really like the looks of it and the installation was easy with the help of a thread on the "ADV Site"....under "Olds Cool". An ADV'er did the installation on his /7 (?) and documented everything as he went....even posted his wiring diagrams etc.....really helped me out on my installation. The Acewell unit won't facilitate the BMW generator light system so I simply found the smallest LED light I could, drilled (gasp) the headlight bucket and mounted it there...(below photo arrow) I think it looks pretty good......

Mounted the Acewell using the existing BMW gauge mount.....cut off the ears....bent it a little lower to gain the angle I needed, then made up some spacers to gain the correct height to clear the /5 steering damper......I have not tackled the magnetic speedometer/sender installation to the front wheel yet........I'll get on that task next.....

Gauge looks clean and simple.......

The wad of wiring hanging off the handlebars was a temporary "generator light" I hooked up to make sure it was working after hacking up the BMW wiring harness for the installation............

The Acewell has individual (left & right) turn signal indicators rather than the stock BMW single indicator......this required coming off the "board panel" in the head light to wire in....Gauge has ; low pressure oil light, neutral light, high beam indicator, individual L&R turn indicators, clock, resettable riding time hour meter, aggregate riding time hour meter, odometer, two resettable trip odometers, bar graph tachometer, digital tachometer, speedometer....you can also get a fuel gauge and hazard warning light on different models.....What, No Thermometer? lol.........

I order a couple of special brackets yesterday.....I need to affix the tie-down for the /5 steering friction damper to a cross member under the tank.....don't want to weld to the frame so found some generic brackets at Graingers.....Also will use a similar bracket to attach the right side "Henrys" floorboard to the sidecar frame.....the lower sub frame I used won't allow the right floorboard to mount to the bike........I'll mount the floorboard reversed to the sidecar frame to achieve the same end.....I really like the extra foot places/spaces when on long rides to keep comfortable.....I'll post that when its' done.......I took the bike for its' maiden voyage on Sunday. Ran it 100' up the street and back...(on a low, square front tire, no front brakes and no tags....)

Purchased a pair of tires for the sidecar tug tonight.....was buying Dunlops for years but they doubled in price in the past two years.......last set (last summer) were Bridgestone S11's, great soft tires (great for solo use).....nearly wore them off on the /5 tug in 5000 miles or so..... this time I went with a pair of Shinko tires for the "new" tug. For the sidecar tug use I eat them up so fast that I thought I'd try a cheaper, likely harder tire......Shinkos are likely some Chinese brand.....but I guess about everything is Chinese these days......we'll see how fast they wear out.....With the sidehack attached the softer "grippier" tires aren't quite so necessary.....I put some cheapo hard tires on a solo Yamaha 850 years ago and they were terrible, slippery and harder than a rock...no good for solo use and they scared the crap out of me more once.....

also bought an Odyssey dry cell battery via EBay. Never tried a Dry Cell battery before but I've read that the Odyssey is a good one....we'll see.

Had some Pay Pal play money sitting so figured I'd better use it for things needed, rather than for things not really needed.....

R100s slowly coming to life.....

Installed the new throttle cables and choke cables....ends up that these carbs are later carbs which use a different type choke cable...was able to rig the stock cables with some spacers and the new clamp bolts I got from Huckys. Unfortunately they bind up a bit and don't want to fully open when lever is pulled up...not too big a deal.........

Last weekend I pulled the sidecar wiring harness from the /5 and installed it to the R100...also wired in the saddle bag lights. They are dual element so will now have a total of 4 tail lights and 4 brake lights.......missing one flat three pin connector for one saddle bag light so had to order that. Next I'll have to finally wire in the right front blinker mounted to the sidecar fender.....and the new Acewell unit....
Still need to : Change out the front tire
: Lube the front and rear wheel bearings
: Fill / bleed out the front brakes (hope not to rebuild but will likely have to)
: Adjust the front fender.....(now that the hack is mounted the shocks rub in the fender detent area)
: Purchase a larger battery....using the/5 battery now
: figure out a mount for the right floor board
: figure out a frame mount for the /5 steering friction steering damper
: complete engine tuning , timing. etc, etc, etc................

Ordered this Acewell Speedo unit tonight for the R100s....it has a lot of features....speedometer, tachometer, odometer, 2 trip odometers, accumulative ride time hour meter, resettable hour meter, clock, plus idiot lites for neutral, high beam, oil pressure, turn signals. I'll need to rig a separate generator light. The speedometer is calibrated from the actual diameter of the front tire so should be accurate. Price was $119.00 + shipping.......

Decided to sell a few a few left overs on EBay last week.....a pair of pretty decent R90/6 side covers......

The old 1978 R100S gauge assembly which was in pretty fair condition......

A pair of new Krauser saddle bag latches...I spent $15.00 a piece for them a while back.....lost a couple of bucks on that one.....

An early style BMW saddle bag mount and luggage rack...........poor chrome in a couple of spots.....

Also sold a pair of R100S handle bar perches, levers and switches..........All told these items brought in $223.00.....not too bad for left overs............

Back on three wheels..........

Today was spent installing the sidecar sub frame and then spent a few hours attaching the hack......had to reposition both lower mounts to fit the sub frame......everything came together pretty good....still need to fine tune toe in and lean out but things look pretty close.

I removed the Califia Fairing as I still need better access to the chassis. Looks like the upper front sidecar mount will be a tough fit with the fairing mounted...we'll have to wait and see.....I want to get any "gremlins" that may arise before wiring in a fairing and making access harder than it already is.........



This sub frame will be much more stable than the mounting system I used on the R75. The down side is that the I-beam sub frame crowds the oil filter access....may have to pull things apart to change out the oil filter....Upon removing the upper rear mount from the R75, I saw where the mount wore into the frame a millimeter or two....looks like it would have eventually ate through the frame.....obviously had some movement going on there but it was not noticable.


The old R75/5 will now get a rest and likely retire to solo use after 15k rough sidecar tug miles....she served me well......

R100S Sidecar Tug Progression

We are settled in Montana for a time so now have a garage to work in. Installed clutch, throttle cables and went about double checking wiring and connections....could not get oil pressure dummy light to function so rigged a separate oil pressure light.


Rigged a small old syringe for a fuel feed as I wanted access to the electrics while running the bike up. Tried to kick start the bike but compression is such that kick starting proved difficult. Plus it is 14 degrees outside and around 50 in the garage. The electric start was not working so jumped the starter relay to turn over...engine fired although was not hitting full time on left cylinder. Ran it up a few times and engine sounded good...have good compression and spark so carbs will need a little tweeking. Swapped out the starter relay for another I had on hand and starter worked just fine......got the stock oil pressure light working too......

Received some vintage Bates Saddle Bag mounts via EBay so fit them to the bike.....
These "old school" mounts utilize the muffler for support the lower mount.....
never thought I'd find these mounts in a million years....EBay find for $9.99.....I had bought another set of mounting frames for $9.99 but they were damaged and did not fit....
Lower mounts in place.....Bags are solid....had to make up some spacers for the sub frame to center the bags to the frame...........

Had old early 70's period Califia Fairing in storage so went ahead to check for fitment with the earls fork....fairing fit just fine and hopefully the sidecar mounting lugs will clear the fairing mounts.....
There is a gap in the fairing mount which appears to be large enough for the upper front sidecar mounting lug......

The protection of this fairing is great and also has a lot of storage in it...it was originally on my /5 Toaster but I removed to access the headlight electrics and never reinstalled it....I was going to sell it for $50.00 but shipping was a hassle so kept it.......glad I did now....

I love the old school look of this fairing...I have never seen another one although I'm sure they are out there......The stock gauge assembly will eventually be replaced by a modular electronic gauge which contains all functions in one unit......The fairing will need to be removed for the remaining electric work necessary........

I installed the "new"muffler / header shields...took me a while to hunt down the 9mm Euro hose clamps needed.....also won a front / rear set of "Henrys" floorboards for $80.00 on EBay....... Still have a lot of small issues to sort out but will continue with one issue at a time......might be on the road this spring.(?)

Was able to get all "dummy lights" functioning on the instrument panel so now I know wiring is ok. I will likely order the "Acewell" gauge soon.......

Spent some time setting timing and discovered that the spark plugs in use were bad....swapped out plugs and engine purred......Installed some fuel pet cocks on cop tank & mounted. Added a bit of fuel for tweeking things while running.

"The Earth without People"

We made a mad rush from Texas over to Yuma AZ. in the past two days. A lot of things have happened in the past two weeks and we are "reeling". My Mom, at 88, recently fell and broke her hip and has been in a nursing home for the past few weeks. We made the commitment to move in with them in a house and help take care of Mom. This decision brought forth a huge number of logistics to deal with in a short time. We found a house close to other family members and the house has been purchased. Dad will move in on the 18th and we will be moving in at the same time. I had to make arrangements with my employer and also deal with the storage of our motor home & trailers. The over all situation is going to work out fine. Plus I'll have a garage to work on my motorcycles! Once things settle in I'll concentrate on getting the R100S running. I picked up another crate of misc. BMW parts I had in Yuma and hopefully have most of the parts I need.

Arriving in Yuma we were greeted with a vision of a forest of weeds......When Dad lived here he would clean up the lot and spray it each year before we arrived so we never saw it in its' "natural" state. I have a landscaping company coming out tomorrow to clean it up and spray....just don't have the time to do it myself.
I'll need to winterize the motor home tomorrow before we head north...looks like we will be heading into some cold ass weather........

Weeds................

and more weeds.................

BMW Odds & Ends....Wheels & Deals......

Been trying to figure out what to do about the gauge situation for the project R100S. The R100S engine utilizes an electronic tachometer and the R90/6 used a mechanical tachometer. Both sets of instruments I possess are in pretty rough shape......after a little snooping around I found the speedometer / tachometer below.....

This one is all electronic and also has the signal indicators / oil pressure light / neutral indicator / high beam indicator / odometer / clock and two riding hour timers. Also has two resettable trip odometers, I think it will be used to replace the existing set up. Retails for $119.00 plus $10.00 for the electronic speed pickup which is calibrated from the front tire circumference. Wiring should be pretty straight forward from the existing gauge set.

This thing here is kind of crazy...this WW2 German Military Leather Motorcycle Sidecar Gunners Helmet came up on EBay on an auction. I ended up winning it for $40.00. I see other ones now coming up for a "Buy it Now" price of $500.00 to $650.00. So far the dealer has listed about 5 of these. They are very rare. The European Antique Dealer selling them came across an old warehouse full of captured WW2 German Military Equipment which has been untouched since 1945. These and hundreds of other items(many medical equipment / surgical items) are being auctioned. The vast majority of captured German Equipment was destroyed at the end of the war. This warehouse was uncovered in Eastern Europe and the seller is in Bulgaria.

Not really sure what the hell I will do with this thing....guess maybe I'll try to wear it in cold weather! I don't foresee any sidecar "gunnery" practice in the near future.....

This odd assortment of "junk" I found on EBay for $12.00......Those big clamps are old Bates Saddlebag lower mounts....they actually clamp around the mufflers to form the lower bag support. Never thought I'd find a set of these in a million years......and I needed them.

I'm currently bidding on this front & rear floor board set on EBay......doubt if I will win them but you never know. (?) I may end up extending the R100S motor mount bolts since the new sidecar subframe also bolts there....this may not leave room for the floor boards mounts.....