Tag Archives: basket case

One Bike Naked, one to go get

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Space it a bit limited in my garage.  I made a promise to myself that i would tear apart one motorcycle and organize all the parts before i acquire another one.  So, on a sunny sunday, i had this poor gal torn down in about two hours.

BMW Donor Bike #1. She's in sad shape. This is how it looked in the rear of my car.

BMW bits ready for Boxing

Engine (other side has a broken rod), wheel, some goofy home made center stand

Naked frame. Just gotta remove the triple tree, steering bearings and swingarm bearings

I finally decided to get one of Ed Korn’s bearing / race pullers.  I love having a new tool in the arsenal (ha ha, i said tool). I look forward to pulling the races out of the frame…. but i’ll save that for another day. Time to pack all this stuff up and stash it under my stack of surboards in my garage.  And, the best part… time to get bike #2!

Found one! No wait, found two?

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i started to keep my eyes peeled for a donor bike and sure enough, one turned up on a BMW online classifieds site for $600. It was the right model, but in sad sad shape. No biggy, the whole thing will get torn apart and rebuilt anyway.  The seller is about 5 hours away but was visiting his mom who is 2 hours away.  I agreed to go meet him and pick the bike up, take it apart and cram it into my station wagon.

As i meet the seller at a gas station in the Palm Desert, somebody else pulls up and asks me if that is a R75 BMW and would i like to buy another one.

Thinking he is a joker or is going to want LOTS of money for it, i tell him yes but it depends on cost and condition. His name is Mark, dressed in business attire and he offers to help out with us taking apart a motorcycle and cram it into my wagon.

 

parking lot bike disassembly

BMW transaction #1 into my VW Diesel wagon

After i settle up with the seller, Mark asks me to follow him to his work.  A few minutes later, we wash our hands of all the grime and we talk about motorcycles in his office. He’s an interesting guy with an sad yet interesting story. It turns out he has another bike, the exact same model, fully complete and wants only $400 for it. We go for a ride to take a look and holy crap. I entered the holy grail of motorcycle garages.  JAWAs, Bultacos, Triumps, Harleys, tons of Yamahas, a sweet Honda CL 200, etc…   I tell him i’ll take the second bike and i’ll be back in a few weeks to pick it up.  The other bikes are for sale too and i can’t help but drooool over some of them… but the garage was so overwhelming, i could barely take it all in.

my dream garage. The BMW is up there among the others.