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.

Great River Run Rally (GR3) 2009

It is great to have a neighbor on the same street that likes sixes too. Pat had this idea, hey, let's go to the Great River Run Rally in Soldier's Grove WI this weekend! Motorcycle camping! Sure, I'd love too ... except that I don't have the six done yet. He has a 1975 R75/6 and I really want to travel with my R75 too. I'm in a pickle. The RS front end is making clunking noises (later I tighten the steering stem bearings and replace the damper valve circlip), The R100 is stripped of luggage and is not set up for camping ... I need to get this R75 done. All the previously mentioned work is done and I am working out the bugs in the dual-plug, electronic ignition system. I worked for hours on this from Sunday to Thursday and did get it done for leaving Friday morning but barely. The long story short is that I had to Dremel the advance mechanism base plate so that I could set the timing to 1° ATDC, replace the spark plugs with 5k ohm, route one cable from each coil to both cylinders and move the Dyna III ignition control out into the breeze to keep it cool. Sounds simple now but it took a lot of troubleshooting and trial and error to figure what worked best. I really believe that the biggest improvement was moving the Dyna III out from the hot place that the PO had mounted it, on top of the engine under the tank. It must have been overheating.
Anyway, Friday morning we finished up packing and hit the road. It was pretty cool to be cruising on pretty closely matched mounts ... two R75/6's. We had some rain and drizzle and hard south winds as we traveled but no problems. The rally was great like they said, the roads were nothing but fun, the camping was an adventure but even though it was 29° Sunday AM I slept real good and warm. We took the long way home and found some great deserted roads.

and then ... 1976 BMW R75/6

Don't even wait for that spot to grow cold. Time to get the next one on the lift.
Rebuild master cylinder, replace fork seals, dump the ATF out of the forks and put real fork oil in, replace the steering stem bearings, renew fluids, grease the final drive spline, for starters

Slimey Crud Run sighting

This was the first Slimey Crud Cafe Racer Run that I have ever attended. As soon as I pulled up in the parking lot at the Red Mouse in Pine Bluff WI this is the first bike that caught my eye!! bwahaha. The new owner drove over from Madison after fixing a defective starter relay.

Ship it out

Sold!! I had an offer from a guy in Madison that I really liked. He offered me cash plus his 1975 R60/6 in a box. I will elaborate on the R60 later but I thought that this was a really cool deal in that I had boxes of parts a couple of weeks ago and then I put it all together and now I have the cash that I need so badly and I have boxes of parts too! Well, my enthusiasm will be crushed later but today is a good day.

Wrap it up

Installing the instrument cluster, the headlight, adding fluids, adjusting things, double checking nuts and bolts, . . . . . finishing touches. I have video that is dated April 18 that is of the first start-up and alley test ride but I was still finishing things like wiring and such up until this day.

I had an issue with the shock absorbers; they would collapse as I was riding until the fender was into the tire. When I parked it they would slowly extend. This is not good. I swapped them out with a used pair that worked a little better.

Upgrade instrument cluster

This bike came without any speedo or tach; no instrument cluster at all. Way back when we located and won an eBay unit from Germany. This is a newer type with an electronic tach instead of the mechanical cable driven one. That is not a problem; it can be converted easily enough. What I didn't think about was the way that the indicating lights had been rearranged, both physically and electrically. At first I thought that I would just rewire it in the headlight shell. Nope, the plug from the instrument cluster goes straight into the main wiring harness. I cut the cable about a foot down from the plug and rewired it there by solder splicing them back together. That worked nicely.


Then I ran a separate wire the ended outside the cluster in an automotive connector. I hooked this up to a wire that I ran to the points wire on the coils. Now I have an electronic tach.