1982 BMW R100RT, the next winter ...

The roads are dry enough and the temperature was in the low thirties. I got out this afternoon and decided to visit the same roadside that I had stopped on in January. I tried to take the same photo shots as I did then from memory and got kinda close. I wanted to document the changes that I have made this year on this RT. This is on State Line Road just north of Hebron IL
January:

January 2010

December 2010

January 2010

December 2010: 1982 R100RT with R80RT Colorado Red fairing, Krauser bags, Parabellum windshield, Reynolds articulated rear rack, 1979 R100RT battery covers, rear drum brake from a 1983 R100, EBC front rotors ...

This reminds of a picture that I found online in the early nineties, after my /6 and before Sharona the 1988 R100RT. I was bike-less and then I was on a Honda V30 and was dreaming of those nice old BMW motorcycles. I found a really neat black & white picture of a 1979 R100RT parked on the side of the road in the snow. I was impressed; riding in the snow!! .

Gilera's Attention

I burned up the 1st bottle of propane this year.
I have the swing arm off, the exhausts off and the transmission out. It is time to study on the rear main seal replacement. I have gotten to the point where most stuff is done without a manual except to look up torque settings and the like but when it comes to something like a rear main seal, getting past the clutch and flywheel, ... I got to study on that.
I am not happy about the condition of the transmission input spline shaft. Shortly after I got Gilera, in the first big go-over, I had replaced the clutch so that spline bore is practically brand new. The spline shaft was worn a little but I let it go. Now, I think that I had better look into what it would take to replace this.

Side bar:
When I bought Huckleberry, the R100RS, the only thing that bugged me was that it was a red smoke. I don't like red motorcycles. And then when I bought the R100RT I was pleased with the black paint with white and red pinstripe but was disgusted to find out that there where hidden repairs to the fairing and fairing frame. That problem was solved by swapping out with a good R80RT fairing but, you could have guessed it, it is ... red, Colorado Red. That works and got the RT the name Toad.
No simple stories when it comes to my bikes. At Pecatonica this year my big score was a complete and perfect Polaris Silver paint set with blue pinstripes. The plan is it dress Gilera up really nice with this as her Polaris Silver is aged and not quite matched, no pin stripes on the fenders, etc. Normally I pay for a purchase with this by selling the parts that are being replaced. Well, the idea popped into my head that Huckleberry sure would look good in silver. What to do about the fairing though. Here is what I experimented with today:

Mmmmm .... no. It looks raggedy patched up and brings out the worst in the worn out red fairing. There is a fella in Indianapolis that is going to cafe the RS that he just bought. I offered to come down there and take it off for him ... it is a recent paint job that from all the digital pictures looks really close to Polaris Silver. Certainly a closer match than this! Money is tight right now. but still ...

Winter Ride 2010 II

I made a little video in Jan. 2010 when I got stir crazy and broke out on my RS. This month of December has had weather that for one reason or another has kept me captive. This Christmas time off I have been trapped because the alley is ice over packed snow. Well, today it evaporated enough that I could find a path out. GO!! This is on Toad, the red 1982 R100RT ...

I had a Canon A530 strung around my wrist on a lanyard. This is not good video.

Gilera's Attention

Christmas is over.
Sunday, the day after Christmas Beth was sick, up all night with the flu.
I played my bass guitar at church in the morning and when I got back she was camping in my bedroom and wanting to be taken care of.
I camped on my computer reading ride reports at advrider.com
ChiTown's Winter Madness
kerncountykid's Go West Young Man
CannonShot's CannonTracks - Great Divide
The alley is iced up and I can't get out. Only one day on the motorcycle this month ... so far?

Today, Monday, I fired up the heater in the cave and got started, at long last on Gilera. Gilera, 1980 R100T  was parked months(?) ago so that she could give up parts for other for-profit projects. I needed the headlight ears and some other parts so that I could make the R80RT a bare bike and swap the red R80RT fairing with the slightly damaged black R100RT fairing. I needed the wheels because I couldn't afford new tires for the RS in the middle of summer. The R80RT sold, the 1982 R100RT (now with the red fairing has become "Toad") has been used so much that a new set of tires just went on. Back to Gilera, she gave up parts that were to be swapped out anyway and much needed repairs are due. That being said, procrastination set in and this has set on a lift longer than almost anything that I have ever had. All spring, summer & fall I was riding or repairing the RT and RS. Now I am not riding. The RS is leaking oil from the final drive seal into the wheel. The RT needs a battery. So what ... I need to get Gilera going.
I wanted the forks back on before anything else so that the handlebars are not flopping around stressing cables and wires. This gave me the chance to mock up the machined aluminum top plate on the triple tree. See, everything that goes back on Gilera is going to be an improvement. Tomorrow I plan to start stripping everything else almost to the frame.
Here's the planned recipe:

• reinforced swing arm
• new Lester mags, (the original ones are on Huckleberry)
• Nikasil cylinders
• replace the leaking rear main seal
• replace the cam chain gasket
• set up the new reinforced triple tree
• change of clothes, put the "new" Polaris Silver w/blue pinstripe on
• lots of cables, gaskets and hardware to be replaced as seen fit along the way.
• new battery
• new tires

that should do it. This won't be a quick one. Hopefully if I start now and persist I could be done by ... Pecatonica Swap Meet? ... Slimey Crud Run? 

I went out and bought myself a Christmas present today, David Hough's "Proficient Motorcycling". I'm gonna learn how to ride! Seriously, any new or reinforced safe riding techniques are to be valued.

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]

September gone?

um, yah. were you not paying attention? yes, actually, I was but I was not blogging, I was living. September is the most important month for me but I guess I won’t share that on a blog.

I was sorry to see my hot rod R75/6 go but felt that it was the right thing to do because I needed that R100RT Sharona to get to that job in Rockford IL. Right. That job is gone. The contract ended after 91 days, it did not lead to direct employment and maybe that is a good thing. But still, if I had known that I was going to be unemployed again would I have spent the $3000 on the RT?

I have adjusted to my 2nd stint of unemployment in 2009 by

• putting the R100RT up for sale. The original price was $3200 which went to $3000 and is now at $2700. It is the wrong time of the year to be selling old motorcycles. I have a couple coming here from Iowa to take a look at this bike this weekend. I even have a deposit from them but I am not terribly confident that they will leave with this ‘sight unseen’ motorcycle.
• I organized the remaining bits from parting out the traded-in R60/6 along with left over stuff from the R75/6 project and other things and started selling those online in preparation to …
• Paul and I went to the U.P. to Marquette Michigan on Lake Superior to buy a 1982 R100 for $1000. That may have been too much! I always want to rescue these old bikes but survival tells me that I need to part this out for a small profit. This was a good running motorcycle but there are some components missing that would make it profitable. It had a Pichler fairing on it which I haven’t gotten rid of yet. The fairing precludes some pricey parts like the headlight  and related parts. The tank may not be worth trying to sell. The front end was from a mono-shock motorcycle and are not really in demand parts. There is a lot of risk on this venture and prolly not a lot of profit. Well, I have just managed to make my $1000 back and that is in the bank in time for bills and I have a lot to sell yet but things are moving slowly. Still, it is providing some extra income and …
• I am always looking for the advantage; there are some parts of this R100 that will go towards putting the 1979 R100RT back on the market in the spring as a ‘bare’ bike and, if things go as planned, I may be upgrading my Gilera, the R100T, finally. I am hoping to add Nikasil cylinders, electronic ignition and dual Brembo disk brakes from this parts bike along with the reinforced swing arm from the R60 and the fork brace from the 1979 R100RT. So, Gilera has been patient and long-suffering; three years since I have done major work on her and probably some neglect before that. But with all the before-said improvements and stuff like a new rear main seal and other maintenance this poor thing will leap so far forward … there won’t be much else that I can possibly do for her!