IndieSol
"This one goes to eleven." -Nigel Tufnel
I was lucky enough to pick up this barn fresh 1974 R60/6 a few days ago. An old airhead has been on my short list ever since my love affair with older bikes first started, so when I saw one I could afford pop up on Craigslist, and the ad was only like five minutes old, I jumped on it.
It's actually in pretty good shape, runs, and aside from the front signals, is complete. It also came with Krauser hard bags, a Clymer manual (of course I'd prefer a factory manual) and the original sales brochure from a dealer in Seattle.
My plan is to more or less just fix what needs to be fixed in order to ride it safely, make a few small changes, and ride it. A lot. I'm going to start at the front tire and work my way back, but I'm going to leave the engine in the frame.
Changes:
Norman Hyde "M" bars
Epco Peashooter exhaust
Paint the tins black with white striping (as nature intended).
Possibly an earlier headlight bucket with integrated instruments
It'll be a couple weeks before I can really start ordering parts for it, but I'll be cleaning up some of the easy stuff in the mean time. This afternoon I took a wire wheel to the latches on the krauser hard bags and got rid of most of the rust shown in the picture. The latches function properly now and, while they don't look perfect, they're presentable and show a nice patina. I'm going to look deeper into how to properly restore the bags and see what's involved. The inside straps are trashed, so I may have to get creative there.
I also plan on taking some steel wool to the front spokes and rim, and cleaning some of the oxidation off the front hub/drum. Any suggestions would be appreciated on the hub/drum portion.
It's actually in pretty good shape, runs, and aside from the front signals, is complete. It also came with Krauser hard bags, a Clymer manual (of course I'd prefer a factory manual) and the original sales brochure from a dealer in Seattle.
My plan is to more or less just fix what needs to be fixed in order to ride it safely, make a few small changes, and ride it. A lot. I'm going to start at the front tire and work my way back, but I'm going to leave the engine in the frame.
Changes:
Norman Hyde "M" bars
Epco Peashooter exhaust
Paint the tins black with white striping (as nature intended).
Possibly an earlier headlight bucket with integrated instruments
It'll be a couple weeks before I can really start ordering parts for it, but I'll be cleaning up some of the easy stuff in the mean time. This afternoon I took a wire wheel to the latches on the krauser hard bags and got rid of most of the rust shown in the picture. The latches function properly now and, while they don't look perfect, they're presentable and show a nice patina. I'm going to look deeper into how to properly restore the bags and see what's involved. The inside straps are trashed, so I may have to get creative there.
I also plan on taking some steel wool to the front spokes and rim, and cleaning some of the oxidation off the front hub/drum. Any suggestions would be appreciated on the hub/drum portion.