'79 BMW R45 build

Great news! My bike flew through the MOT. It has a nice list of advisories: crap front brake; scored disc; slightly ovalised rear-drum; no front mudguard (apparently a bit of a grey-area but they let it pass); excessively loud exhaust.

They guy who rode it to the MOT centre was glad to get off it and hoped he didn't have to ride it again due to the crap brake and very bitey clutch. Can't wait until tomorrow when I pick it up!
 
So, i've done a fair few miles on it this weekend. I upped the main jets from 123 to 130 and mostly sorted out an idle issue and she pulls fairly nicely. I did that as the headers have turned blue quite quickly.

Still a couple fuelling issues, at just-open throttle she runs crap (stumbles), I'm thinking a pilot jet problem and possibly too lean.
Also when at WOT at speed for more than 1min the carbs run out of fuel and have to back right off until the running-out-of-fuel feeling/sound clears. It happened twice, once on the M5 and A4 when I was doing speed runs (no idea what speed though, just streaming all the cars). I have noticed before that the fuel filter does provide quite a bit of back pressure and also makes the reserve fuel inaccessible. I think I might take out the filter.

All in all I like her. Despite the clutch being a heavy bastard, the lack of knee dents and as long as I stick to out of towns, she is actually reasonably comfortable. Although coming back from Bath at midnight last night in the frost was a bit of an hypothermic mistake. Those jugs make good hand warmers!
 
It's come along loads since i last posted, good work - I really should get my finger out on my own airhead
 
Hey man, run that bike by a BMW dealer and see if you can't get that front wheel replaced. There is a recall on the snowflakes without the reinforcement webbing.

http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/19inchrecall.htm
 
cafematty said:
Hey man, run that bike by a BMW dealer and see if you can't get that front wheel replaced. There is a recall on the snowflakes without the reinforcement webbing.

http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/19inchrecall.htm

I had heard about that before. It says hairline cracks appear after severe use so I wasn't worried. I'll just check it now and then and get round to replacing it when my other bike and car are ok.
 
I'd keep the wheel - betcha someone would pay big money for an uncracked original snowflake. Better to buy a used replacement and hang that one on the wall as an investment or sell it to a die-hard restoration type.
 
Last weekend was going to be the weekend I finished the tank. Sandwheel, wet&dry (180->4000grit), polish wheel were all sourced. In the end I cleaned up the underside and smoothrited it.

I must admit, I was suprised at how well Autoglym engine degreaser worked this was absolutely filthy before:

2012-11-10 14.32.53 by jonno85uk, on Flickr

I Wet sanded @120grit, dried it off and lathered on the paint. I think it was a bit too cold for it really as it wouldn't hold and ran down the into the middle. I made up for the thin side sections by chucking more on, no one is going to see it; I just don't want rust slowly eating away at the tank.

I was also going to finish the top but in the end I did this

Weston Super Mare beach by jonno85uk, on Flickr

I managed to drop the bike and fall over in spectacular fashion first. Stuck at a queue for petrol I one-handed pushed my bars full lock and moved off, went to bring the bars across and as i lean over the bars are stuck to the wrong side and I fall over and the engine revs like buggery! 1 of the throttle cables got wrapped around the bars! Thankfully it was @3mph and apart from another ding to the right-valve cover no damage was done.

I'm getting a lot of nods and compliments when i'm out and about. Looking forward to the spring when it should be properly finished!
 
So, not a lot has happened on the bike over the last couple of months. Mostly been riding the bike and coping with corrosion.

A few minor/major issues in the meantime :
  • Dealing with engine bog on part throttle. Replaced the carb diaphragms, jet needles(1 was quite pitted) and tweaked the carb a lot. I tried rasing the needle 1 clip and it improved the midrange but it smelt like she was pissing fuel. I now think that was because I hadn't done the idle jet correctly.
  • Transmissions oils were something I overlooked apart from the shaft. I checked the bevel this evening ~100ml of treacle, fuck! There's supposed to be around 350ml but I didn't find any filings on the magnetic plug. The shaft oil had turned a bit dark so I changed that. The gearbox oil was correct level but foamy, fuck! I'm hoping that as I've done ~700miles I haven't caused too much harm. I'm not riding it until it's been changed with some fresh 80w90
  • Intermittent ignition issues were traced to a loose, wet & corroded HT lead
  • Rear brake light switch has given up the ghost. It was seized but freeing it up with wd40 hasn't brought it back to life
  • Put new EBC sintered (GG) pads on the front brake. Now I can use 2 fingers
  • Cheap Chinese generic headlamp and mountings have the shittiest chrome i've ever seen. The hasn't seen a lot of rain but rust is coming through quickly.

In general the bike is a reliable thing, starts up 1st go even in sub-zero conditions although she does take quite a while to warm up and idle nicely. I've gotten used to most of her quirks and my arse even finds the seat comfy now. My left hand still finds the clutch one hell of a workout in traffic.
If only I can figure out why the bike is cutting out on 1 cylinder after prolonged high speeds of ~90mph, it feels like a fuel issue and what I thought was fuel feed cause (the filter) isn't. It's hard to etst as my closest test stretch, the M32, is always busy during the day and the nights have generally been wet or freezing.

The general public seem to like it too. I'm getting thumbs up, requests for pics or come up for chat everywhere I go, although some people quite understandably gesture about the bikes decibels. I don't think these pipes came with any glass packing.
 
So, this went in this evening


2013-02-06 23.00.21 by jonno85uk, on Flickr

What a tacky piece of equipment. The magnet rotor requires bending bits of the original beancan and a bit of filing to get it to fit. The stator has the wires epoxied into a really awkward place which then means the wires bend at 90deg right up to the beancan housing - not good for longevity. The PCB of the stator is too large and requires more filing. Boyer use araldite as a staking material. No conformal coating on the PCB which wouldn't be such an issue if they had flood filled the board with copper, but they didn't. The 90degree mounting tabs for the stator have nice sharp edges so as you position the stator in the beancan you create nice bits of alu swarf.

The ignition unit itself is hard to judge as it's all potted but where the wires came out of the unit they are not flexibly supported and for some unknown reason the ground wire is bundled up with coil wires which puts the ground wire in a position where there are no places to mount. And would it have killed to put a fucking LED on the unit say that its got power!

Rant over. I got the bike to fire up with the timing adjustment in the middle. It seems a bit advanced but i'll have to wait until my timing light arrives.
 
I thought i'd do an update.

It's been a summer of riding, mostly. I put ~3000miles going to London, Wales (Brecons have some awesome roads) and around the Bristol area. She's been great fun and have had many a great evening blasting up and down Cheddar gorge.

Build wise not much has changed: rearsets, finally put some badges on the tank; built a mini hi-powered LED rear light; fixing various oil leaks

The dreaded neutral switch leak (actually, easily fixed):

IMG 20130825 155957b by jonno85uk, on Flickr

Here are a few pics of it out and about:

Weston

IMG 20130705 213953 v1 by jonno85uk, on Flickr

Wales

DSC_0408_v1 by jonno85uk, on Flickr

Shoreditch (The Event by bikeshed.cc)

IMG 20130518 140005b by jonno85uk, on Flickr

Things to get on with this winter (apart from setting up my RM250 race bike and rebuilding a DR125):

- clay out and get a proper seat done
- weld in the subframe loop
- fork refresh
- front caliper rebuild
- nickel-plate all the things!
- glass-pack the silencers
- paint the battery black
- wiring tidy-up
- relocate ignition switch
That should do for otherwise i'll get nothing done!
 
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