Narnia is in Hebron IL?

I pulled over and parked on the side of the road because I thought that I had lost my way. Where does that bright yellow tunnel lead?

OK, I know that is where I have come from ... the world.


Oooooh. So that is where it is at?


Actually, I was just looking for Hebron. Is that the same thing now?

I was just out for a 2-hour ride with the temperature at about 20° F. All sunshine and oaks and prairie and snow, praise to the Maker of it all.

I've been working at the pickle factory for over a month now. It is weird, how life goes where you least expect and could never imagine. It is not much pay but it is something that I can work with and bills are getting paid. I might be in pretty good shape by the end of February. The work is good, the people are some of the best that I have ever worked with but they all speak in this secret code language. Yo no entiendo.
I have shelves of unsold BMW motorcycle parts. I have gotten to the financial state where I don't need to sell them but I should do something. I was looking at the 'donor' bike, the 1979 R100RT wreck and thinking that I have some really good major components, maybe I could stop selling parts from the donor and try to put it back together. The whole front end is gone but I just got another front end from a 1982 R100RS including the brakes and all. I want to rebuild this. It is so cold out in the mancave. I was thinking of moving this into the basement and starting to reassemble but then I realized that since it is stripped down so far I should keep right on going and replace some seals and gaskets and stuff on the engine before I start putting it together. That would be to dirty for the basement. Oh, well, later.
The R100RS is running great. I just finished a lot of front end work and adjustments. The hard downshift worries me but that's all.
Gilera the R100T has been great handling since the front end upgrades and the electronic ignition upgrade. The most pressing thing that needs to be done in the cave is to get Gilera on the block and start rebuilding the engine. Her compression was below 90 psi when I last checked, a while ago, and the rear mains seal is leaking a lot of oil. So, I need to do that engine work, I want to put the reinforced swing arm on and add the billet top brace from the eBay front end that I got for the donor bike project. Get that done and tires ...
Only question that is open right now; should I sell the 1982 R100RT in the spring? )That is the one that you see pictured in this Narnia post) You know that Gilera and Huckleberry will never get sold and the donor might get sold after assembly but that will certainly be a long time from now. The only cash bike would be the RT but I just don't know .... hmm.

Crazy winter ride, break out!

Crazy winter ride, break out on Huckleberry the R100RS.

[soundtrack is Andrew Osenga singing a demo version of The Longing]

Comfortable with that voice in my helmet

Oh, by the way, Rockerbox 2009 was a blast! I look forward to this event all year and it is always an adventure. It was such a summer's day with unpredictable rains and sun and late afternoon wind and humidity ... The rain in the morning was such that I couldn't connect with the Chicago Ton-Up club at Morrie's Place, so I missed that ride, but an adventure it was anyways.
I rode the RS to work today ... makes me appreciate the fine job that the RT does!! Don't get me wrong, I still really like my RS it is just that the RT has gotten so-o-o-o comfortable for the long ride to work. I had to adjust to the RS, not so good on the way to work but the ride home was a blast!
I am feeling so satisfied with the line-up in the mancave right now.


This is Gilera.
This is a BMW motorcycle.
This is a 1980 R100T that just turned 91,000 miles.
I like this bike.
The next time that you see this bike it will have dual discs in the front, San Jose fork brace, reinforced swing arm, a rebuilt engine, the Lester mags repainted and a bunch of other well-deserved treatments.
This is my favorite ride for no logically reason.


This is Huckleberry ... "I'm your huckleberry."
This is a 1982 R100RS.
This has gotten a lot of care lately to complete the rescue when I got him in early 2008. Lately the top-end rebuild has been completed.


This is Sharona.
This is a 1982 R100RT.
We have a very comfortable LTR ahead of us.


This is the donor.
This is a 1979 R100RT that ran into some hard times.
This was rescued by the PO and put back on the road but she bucked him off in Indiana (front brakes seized up???) and laid down at speed without the rider.
I was originally going to rebuild this to be my RT commuter bike but Sharona came along and changed all that. For now, many good parts will be donated to keep the others roadworthy ... eventually this may become a project.

Don't try to justify this .... I am really happy with what I do.
I can still say after about 37 years of motorcycle riding and at least 16 BMWs that I have never sold a BMW for less than I paid for it. That is much better performance than my 401k. And everything that I own is paid for. I owe nothing. Pretty good for 5 months of unemployment and the rest of this year under-employed. I am really happy with what I do. God the Father of all has blessed me in this way ... to keep me from despair. To give me happiness amongst His joy

R100RT

It hurts to even look at that picture of the /6's in the prairie hills of N.IL. (See previous blog 5/17/2009)
That 1976 R75/6 is one of the BEST motorcycles that I have ever ...
sob.

I did find a job, a contract job, no security yet. A job that is good enough yet pays at about 75% of what I was making, with no benefits, nothing, just a job. Not only that but this job is 70 miles away in SW Rockford IL, 140 mile round trip on some of the worst interstate surface ever. I-43 to Beloit is one of the biggest mistake in the interstate history, really bad surface. I have an $1800 Jeep Cherokee. If I drove that every day it would die. I know that it would. So I drive the RS. I modified the RS with K75S bars and new shocks and other things to make it more comfortable and reliable but I think that an RS is not cut out for this service. So I thought about GoldWings or some other kinda touring motorcycle to make this commute. What was I thinking? I do airheads. If anything else other than an RS it would have to be an RT. Too bad that I sold an '88 just a couple of years ago; I could use that now. Who would have known.
So I keep up the RS and keep improving it. I took the /6 to work a couple of times. It rode great but I fear that the wear and tear would ruin it soon enough. Sorry, RS, you are here for the abuse. I have been managing fine. Small amount of pride there; I'm a 54 year-old guy that can put 140 miles on an RS everyday in all sorts of weather ... let's see you try that. pffft.
I put the R75/6 up for sale.
I started searching for a good R100RT. I test drove several R80RTs and was tempted but knew that I would find an R80 disappointing in the long run. The motorcycle market is incomprehensible right now. there are a lot of motorcycles for sale for way more than what they are worth and no one is buying them yet they don't budge in the price. Really strange market. So, imagine my surprise when as interest was growing in my R75/6 sale I found a 1982 R100RT priced correctly in Madison. The R75 sold; I trailered it to Kenosha to meet with a buyer from Chicago. While I was making the sale of the R75 the owner of the R100RT called me from Madison to make an appointment to show it to me. I had boughten the R75/6 for $2000. I sold it for $3000. I gave that $3000 to the guy in Madison for the R100RT. In essence I traded straight across a 1976 R75/6 for a 1982 R100RT. I am that guy.
I have been prepping the R100RT for commuting work and it is almost there. For the most part I had to disassemble all of the fiberglass and replace/repair/tighten/fix every single connector on the fairing. The sidestand was wasted and has been replace with a Brown's stand. I replaced the old seat with a good 1979 RT seat from the donor bike (we'll get to that next). I replaced all of the oils including the forks and she is ready to go. For now. Soon I will convert the oil cooler thermostat valve to the R100GS no-valve oil cooler, replace brake pads ... that should do it. Nice.

On with it

Organize, on the stand and attach the sub-frame. Now that there is a sub-frame we can attach the rear fork, drive shaft and shocks.

front end, axles and wheels

Actually the aforementioned idea is working out pretty good. A series of events lately has proved that out.
On his birthday Luke said something about finding a complete front end so that we didn't have to mess with rebuilding one out of the two that I have for this bike. Just out of curiousity I went on eBay, found and won a complete front end; triple tree, bar clamps, forks and shocks, at a pretty nice price. I was pretty excited about that because that would cerainly make things easier and maybe things would start moving along. Yeah, right.
I received the forks. They were from a 1976 R90/6. I learned something new. In 1974 BMW's first disk brake was released on the new /6 series and as part of that design they went from the standard 17mm axle to 14mm. That didn't prove out to be a good idea so they quickly changed back to 17mm late in 1974. So, the 1974 front wheel that we have has a 14mm axle and I want to use a 17mm front end. See how simple this is?
I asked around and reviewed my options and what I am going to do is to modify the 1974 wheel hub so that I can uses post-1974 parts on it. This should be possible. I already have bought a 17mm axle and I needed to replace the bearings and seals anyway so the extra cost left is for the different 17mm axle spacing and shims. This should end well and it is giving me some momentum to get a little done.
Part of the momentum is that now I have three front ends and I want to just keep what I need and clear out the rest. I had today 9 auctions complete on eBay. Really disappointing. I had about $96 dollars in sales, 3 items didn't get any bids and the rest went for really low prices. Oh, well, cash is better than clutter.

Cleaning the stable II

Now that the R60/6 is gone the man-cave population consists of:
1982 R100RS 'Huckleberry'
1980 R100T 'Gilera'
1978 R100/7 - in storage. Another great buy but I am not sure what to do with it.
and, the star of this blog ...
1974 R75/6 ...

Yesterday I finally built the shelf over the motorcycles in the man-cave for helmets and riding gear. It looks like a firehouse now with the steeds ready to race off in a moments notice. I bought a 1"x 12"x 12' plank and all of the rest of the materials used to be a cedar picnic table.




The RS is getting it's top-end rebuild because that is my main ride. It is time to admit that this R75/6 project will be done over years ...



... I got everything out and laid it all out on the garage floor. I am moving all of this, except the frame and engine, into the basement for storage and safekeeping. Having it scattered all over the man-cave for years is creating a risk of losing or damaging parts. This way when someone has the time to work on this they can pull out carbs to rebuild or the forks or put new wheel bearings in ... we will continue on that way until light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. I was hoping that this would be done by now and it would if it were the only motorcycle but it is not. This will be awesome when it is done as you con invision from the photos above.