Monday, February 16, 2009

Parts Pawning / BMW R100S Crash Victim Obtained

I've spent the past few days working on the old Blue R90/6. Attempting to get it running. Was able to build two functioning carbs. out of four I had on hand. The Old Blue bike got real close to firing today but didn't quite fire up. Got a few grunts out of it though. I finally ran out of time.
I've been running a couple of EBay auctions recently and have a customer in Tennessee buying quite a few BMW parts. I sent out a shipment nearly every day last week. I had about 17 EBay auctions week before last and moved a lot of pars from the Green Toasted bike.
I had a pick up load of odds and ends of parts which I didn't have room for. Two frames, two extra engines in various stages of disrepair, old seats, mufflers, boxes of misc. parts. Most were not really good EBay items due to size and condition. I ran a "Craigslist" ad three days ago and had a buyer come up from Tucson this morning. He took the whole load home with him. That really helped me clear up some space as my little shed is getting quite crowded.
We head back to Las Vegas tomorrow for work. I will pick up the 1979 R100S around noon and have a place to store it for the week at a contractors yard. ( outfit that worked with us at LakeMead). Today's truckload sale nearly paid for the R100S so I am happy about that. I am not sure what I will do with the two "new" BMW acquisitions but will likely build another bike of some sort out of the two of them. We'll see how much damage the R100S sustained and decide which platform we will build on.
Tuesday 17Th. We came to Las Vegas for work today and had time to pick up the R100S. The bike was crashed 15 years ago and has been hauled all over the western U.S. as the owner moved about. The side car preparation on this bike was extensive. It has a very wide set of handle bars definitely with the side car in mind. Also has a heavy I-Beam sub frame attached on the lower frame motor mounts and a series of tubes welded into the main frame for the upper rear attachment point. Someone had a real good plan when setting up this bike, definitely not their first set up. The leading link front suspension looks good and has no apparent damage. The main frame only shows damage at the lower right. The swing arm is tweaked and the right lower passenger foot peg section of the frame is seriously bent and the factory weld has cracked. I think the only way to go on with this project is to remove the additional frame sections which were installed and attach them to a new frame. I will get a few more opinions on that scenario. Quite often frames subjected to serious impacts are tweaked in such a way that the problems are not really visible. One would hate to try to repair this rear frame only to find the rig dog-tracking after assembly. The bike is a real eye sore and has had a rough 15 year retirement from the looks of it. Hopefully I can help it find a new life someday. I was able to store the bike/trailer securely in a shop building in Henderson until Friday AM when I'll haul it out.
The rig was originally set up in the Bay Area by a side hack builder who was well known in that area. The Blue 1974 R90/6 will end up being the "donor" bike for this project. The main frame will be reinforced, the engine removed and the R100S engine installed. I am not sure of my transmission choice but apparently the tranny on the R100S was rebuilt right before it was crashed. I have two other kick start 5 speeds and a 4 speed tranny so there is no shortage of gear boxes. The front suspension will be replaced with the leading link unit. Between the two bikes and all the spares I have I should be able to come up with a pretty good Tug.

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Gila Mtns.

Gila Mtns.