Beartooth Beemers Rally

Had to attend a meeting at Fort Harrison on Friday morning so decided to ride the solo R75 over to Helena. From there I headed to Red Lodge MT. and this years Beartooth Beemers Rally. My wife and I attended this rally the first two years but haven't made it back. I think this was the 12th or 13th year. I ran the Interstate over to Columbus MT. and then took a short cut over to Joliet Mt. Had a couple of miles of one lane dirt road from construction. It was dry and dusty....that road section would have been a nightmare in the rain.
I arrived at 6:00 PM just in time for Dinner. My yellow tent in the background.


"Dr. Bob" trailered his nice old 1971 R75/5. His father bought the bike new and Bob rode pillion when he was young.

Bob from "Bobs' Motorwerks" in Red....talking with Rex, "The BMW Dog"...Bob and his wife Anne are the Rally organizers,

A friend in Billings just picked this side hack rig up over in Ca. It is an "EML" and is a total EML setup including the main frame...based on an R80 so might be a tad underpowered.(?) Sure is pretty....

Camp site was at the Lions Club Camp....great kitchen , showers, location, etc. The food was plentiful and very good! As was the beer.

I awoke Sat. AM and had a good breakfast. Packed up some essentials and headed over the Beartooth Pass to Cooke City Mt....our old stomping grounds...

The Mt. Airhead Flag was hung...I brought the flag home with me as we plan on attending the Airhead "Tech Day" in Paradise Mt. this weekend.

Glacier Lake, barely seen from the Beartooth Summit....we used to winter camp up at the lake.

The "Bears Tooth"

Pilot and Index Peaks. Cooke City sits on the opposite side of these two peaks.

This home was built by our family in the late 70's and was our summer / winter hideout for 25 years. Now in the possession of a new owner...

Downtown Cooke City

Old hotel on main street.

Rode over to Silver Gate Mt. (entrance to Yellowstone park) then back tracked towards Red Lodge. Decided to take the Sunlight Basin road for a change of scenery.

A few Sunlight Basin photos...

Switchbacks up "Dead Indian Hill"

Vista Point near the summit.

Once I made it down the mountain I was greeted by much higher temperatures...felt like 100 but I was told it was only 92...This fire was near Columbus MT. and ended up burning 10000 acres.

Australia...a few miles from home...

Saturday evening was beautiful...another great meal and I was awarded for "The Oldest Bike Ridden to the Rally". I hit the hay by 9:00 pm and was up early on Sunday AM....had to get to Billings to see family, and then back to the Great Falls area...

I liked this old R65....it had a lot of character!

I dodged some huge thunderstorms heading home...only got a few drops on me while my wife, who was a few minutes behind me in her car, got nailed by some big down pours...guess I was living right!

I received my "new" pair of Lester Wheels so worked this evening installing them. Had to swap out tires, then also installed the over sized "MAC" oil pan. I'll put up some photos later....

BMW "Lester" Wheels / Upgraded oil pan

I've come to the conclusion that Alloy wheels need to be a priority for the Mongrel...my current front spoked rim had a couple of bent spokes, which I straightened and then tightened all the spokes. I realized during the last trip that the wheel is not completely true.

Pulling corners at speed puts a huge lateral force on the wheels.

I recently purchased this rear "Lester" wheel via EBay a while back...it arrived with a nice tire mounted but the wheel spacers/collars were missing. The bearings look real good but the spacers need to be set up properly to account for bearing preload, etc. Proper set up is crucial for these wheels and set up improperly the bearings can fail, from either excess preload or insufficient preload...I do not feel confident to tackle this myself so this wheel assembly will be set aside for now...


I saw this pair on EBay but didn't really want white wheels on the bike...plus they were priced pretty high...



So I finally settled on this pair...also on EBay...bought them today so I'll get them in a week or so and get them mounted. I called the bike shop selling them and was assured that they are complete. true, and damage free....

During the last road trip I experience slightly high oil temps in a couple of situations. I can't mount a conventional oil cooler as the sidecar lower subframe interferes with any cooler plumbing at the oil filter location....looked for a "Brielle" (?) oil cooler which is a pan extension with cooling tubes running through it. Had no luck finding that particular part. Ended up going with an aftermarket MAC pan which is what I mounted on the /5 engine. This will raise the oil capacity to 4 quarts and allow more cooling surface area / volume. This technique worked to cool down the /5 so hopefully this method will suffice for the R100S engine.

Hang on..... Video Clips, BMW / Sidecar in Glacier National Park

BMW Sidehack - "Going to the Sun"

I was able to pull an extra day last weekend so what better thing to do than take a sidehack trip! Finished the left piston/valve spring / valve replacement last week so the bike was ready to give it another try...We pulled out on Thursday noon and headed up over the Little Belt Mountains towards White Sulphur Springs. Stopped at an interpretive site I built years ago...met some Canadian bike riders and they took our photo....


Beautiful day and a long straight stretch of road.

Nice old rural church.

We crossed the little Belts...stopped at white Sulphur Springs and said hi to an old school buddy, then off over the Big Belt Mountains to Canyon Ferry Reservoir.

Ran into a few miles of new road construction outside of Helena MT....of course I get right behind the water truck. We planned on camping. Stopped at a campground we stayed at years back and found it to be in a state of disrepair...bad enough that I would not set up a tent and leave anything unattended. A lot of questionable folks about. Since there were no other camping options nearby we ended up in an old 1930's "Motor Hotel", which had great old renovated cabins. $60.00 / night which is a deal these days. The place was nice and I'd stay there again. At about 8:00 pm a huge thunderstorm blew in so we were glad not to be tenting it...

We hit the road Friday AM and stopped at the top of McDonald Pass for this photo.

Cut upwards towards Lincoln MT. turning over towards Seely Lake...big cows around there...

A lake south of Seely Lake

We made it to Kalispell MT...again huge thunderstorms around so decided to Motel it again...glad we did as the Columbia Falls area which we were going to camp in had golf ball sized hail and massive winds...We headed towards Glacier Park at 8:00 AM..

River outside Columbia Falls

Entered Glacier Park in a big waiting line...took a few minutes to get through the gate...$12.00 per person for MC riders....

A nice view of lake McDonald...kind of hazy

Darian working her camera...

The ride into the park was great...many miles of brand new pavement as smooth as glass...

The smooth road came to an abrupt end and we were bouncing through terrible sections for quite a few miles. Some bumps were so bad I had the front end wobble a couple times, even with the hydraulic steering damper.

Up towards Logan Pass we go...

Traffic up the mountain wasn't too bad...some road construction had things down to one lane.

A wonderful place.

The "Triple Arch Bridge"

Road work.

Logan Pass looking back down the grade.

A few nice views

Some more miles of gravel...would not like to be here in the rain...

Heading out towards the plains...old fire area.

Stopped in Browning for a lunch break...bike started up rough and back fired a few times...decided to just hit the road and head home for the final 150 miles...bike got us home just fine but will need some valve adjustment attention before another ride...