Well, I've got a lot of updating to do. The project has been busy.
I finally got the drivetrain fully assembled.
Note the tube of moly past on the ground next to it. Apparently BMW used to make some special lube for greasing shaft splines and when I went to inquire about purchasing some of this unobtainable grease, I was told that the product had been discontinued. Honda apparently makes a comparable product for those parts that can realistically only expect to be lubed once in a bikes lifetime. It can be found here for anyone interested: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083BWUYW
With the drive train together, the next step was to get the thing back on its wheels so that I could mock up the seat design. I spent a bit of time cleaning up the frame where I had cut all of the brackets off. I used a file to do most of the work and then cleaned everything up with a flap wheel.
Post file:
Post flap wheel:
With those details cleaned I bolted the frame on and focused my attentions on the front end. The original headset on these bikes looks more like it belongs on a vintage Schwin bicycle than a motorcycle, and Ed Miliach of GuzziTech makes an adapter kil that allows you to swap in tapered roller bearings. I purchased a set of these and tackled the modification and cleaning up the tripple trees.
Step one of the mod requires you to remove the original race off of the lower tripple tree. A Dremel cut off disk, cold chisel, and map torch were all used to accomplish this. Following remove I had a local bike (bicycle) shop pop the cups out of the frame and install the new ones. As things would have it, the bicycle shop is actually better equipped for this than the moto shop I spoke to.
The removed race and cup:
The torch and a c-clamp was then used to install the new bearing races:
With the new headset in place, I sand blasted the old crud off the lower tripple tree and paint off the upper. I then filed off the casting seams, buffed the aluminum, and used a scotch brite pad to finished everything with the brushed look.
The toil:
The reward
With the tripple trees on, I installed the fork and front wheel. Following this, I dropped on the gas tank and used plywood and scrap insulation foam to play with seat designs, which I'll continue elaborate upon in another post.