BMW rider from Mississippi (pictures)

[henrybayuzick]

Hello everyone,

I'm 19 years old and plan to turn this bike into a cafe racer over the next few months. It's a 1977 R60/7. Just bought it a few days ago for $1800 which I thought was a pretty good deal.

Excited that I found this forum. If you know anything about BMW's, feel free to share some advice! New to riding and and very new to these airheads.

First thing on the list is to replace all the spark plugs and fluids and start rebuilding the carbs. Then tearing it down, cleaning the engine, and then I'll start a build thread.

I think I found a new home!

 

[Maritime]

Welcome, there are a few airhead guys here that should be able to help you out. Nice bike.
Cheers,

 

[Bozz]

Welcome to the madness!


Honestly, the sheer volume of knowledge on this forum is staggering. And awe inspiring!


The search function is your best friend in tapping into this community.


And congrats on the purchase. $1800 for that bike in the US is a decent deal indeed!


Take your time, get the book, and get to know/ride the bike before you go making wholesale changes. Establish a firm baseline so that you know you will be making improvements with your changes.

Again, welcome and enjoy!

 

[session101]

nice airhead, it seems to be missing something on the Right side

what are your plans? you going to cafe it out or keep it original?

 

[Brentscafe]

Good looking bike you found there

 

[IndieSol]

Congrats on your purchase (which appears to have been a good one, by the way).

A couple pointers...The charge light is supposed to come on when you turn on the key, and again if your RPMs drop real low, but it should be off when the engine is running and above about 1300 RPMs or so. If the charge light does not come on with the key, your charging system will not work. Even if it's just the bulb that went out. It's an integral part of the charging circuit.

The exhaust flanges, they often bind to the cylinder head. If you attempt to remove them, and they seemingly break free but then tighten up again, spray them with PB blaster and let them soak for a day or two, try again and repeat if necessary. DO NOT FORCE THEM. Forcing them could damage the head which would have to be machined to fix. If you simply can't remove them, carefully cut them off. They're only like $15 or so. Same thing goes for the secondary oil filler plug. If you can't get it off, take it to a pro.

Speaking of which, make sure you can get the filler plug off before you drain the secondary, otherwise you'll have no fluid and no way to put it in.

Order the Bing manual before you rebuild the carbs. It will be of great help to you.

Follow your maintenance guidelines and the bike should treat you well.

 

[henrybayuzick]

Congrats on your purchase (which appears to have been a good one, by the way).

A couple pointers...The charge light is supposed to come on when you turn on the key, and again if your RPMs drop real low, but it should be off when the engine is running and above about 1300 RPMs or so. If the charge light does not come on with the key, your charging system will not work. Even if it's just the bulb that went out. It's an integral part of the charging circuit.

The exhaust flanges, they often bind to the cylinder head. If you attempt to remove them, and they seemingly break free but then tighten up again, spray them with PB blaster and let them soak for a day or two, try again and repeat if necessary. DO NOT FORCE THEM. Forcing them could damage the head which would have to be machined to fix. If you simply can't remove them, carefully cut them off. They're only like $15 or so. Same thing goes for the secondary oil filler plug. If you can't get it off, take it to a pro.

Speaking of which, make sure you can get the filler plug off before you drain the secondary, otherwise you'll have no fluid and no way to put it in.

Order the Bing manual before you rebuild the carbs. It will be of great help to you.

Follow your maintenance guidelines and the bike should treat you well.

Thanks for the pointers! I'm a tad confused with the charge light though. This is what lights are on when I turn the key on. Is the charging light "Gen"? If so, it's not on. What's the first step to troubleshooting this. The battery is a week old.

 

[henrybayuzick]

nice airhead, it seems to be missing something on the Right side

what are your plans? you going to cafe it out or keep it original?

I think I am going to cafe it. Just trying to gather ideas and get inspired and do everything tastefully. I really need some good resources for quality parts before I start.

Also not sure if I want to buy a seat or do it myself. I've never dealt with fiberglass. Just want this bike to be a looker.

 

[IndieSol]

Yeah, it's the gen light. Check the bulb by taking off the pod cluster and switch it out for the oil light, reinstall and see if that changes. If it's not the bulb, it could be one of many things, and it'll take some good old fashioned troubleshooting to get to the root cause of the issue. If it's not the bulb, it's most likely the alternator brushes. Check their service length and replace if needed. Clean the surface of the rotor, on which the brushes make contact. The surface needs to be clean to not only work with the brushes, but to test in the next step. If not those, then test the resistance on the rotor. I can't remember what it needs to be off the top of my head, but that information can be found easily enough. In my case, there were some connections in the instrument cluster that needed to be resoldered, but the other stuff should be checked first. The bike will run without that light coming on with the key, but it won't charge.

Join advrider, as their airhead board is full of knowledge, and consider becoming a dues paying member of the Airheads BMW Club for the same reason.

Oh, yeah, and get a manual.

 

[theprep]

I'm originally from Miss. Good to see another vintage and café enthusiast. Jackson is full of nothing but squids, welcome aboard!

Sent from my Radar 4G using Board Express

 

[theprep]

Let me ad if the bike is above a 5, I'd keep it mostly stock. Too many classics getting butchered, as I did. Plus cafe is a bit played out in my opinion, not to mention it can get expensive.

Sent from my Radar 4G using Board Express

 

[henrybayuzick]

Yeah, it's the gen light. Check the bulb by taking off the pod cluster and switch it out for the oil light, reinstall and see if that changes. If it's not the bulb, it could be one of many things, and it'll take some good old fashioned troubleshooting to get to the root cause of the issue. If it's not the bulb, it's most likely the alternator brushes. Check their service length and replace if needed. Clean the surface of the rotor, on which the brushes make contact. The surface needs to be clean to not only work with the brushes, but to test in the next step. If not those, then test the resistance on the rotor. I can't remember what it needs to be off the top of my head, but that information can be found easily enough. In my case, there were some connections in the instrument cluster that needed to be resoldered, but the other stuff should be checked first. The bike will run without that light coming on with the key, but it won't charge.

Join advrider, as their airhead board is full of knowledge, and consider becoming a dues paying member of the Airheads BMW Club for the same reason.

Oh, yeah, and get a manual.

Okay, I took it apart and found some folded paper and scotch tape. Look at the attached images. I would also like to mention that this has been converted to a duel plugged boxer a long time ago. The person I bought it from said it may be a 6V system...not sure if that makes sense. Could that be why the light isn't on even though it's charging? Hard to say without really knowing what has been done. Already confused! There has definitely been some tampering with the inside of this cluster. It's very delicate.

I'd like to join Airheads BMW Club, but I'm confused how their "help" system works. You are referring to airheads.org, correct? They just list a few free forums to post in. I've also considered bmwmoa.org

 

[henrybayuzick]

Re: RE: BMW rider from Mississippi (pictures)

Let me ad if the bike is above a 5, I'd keep it mostly stock. Too many classics getting butchered, as I did. Plus cafe is a bit played out in my opinion, not to mention it can get expensive.

Sent from my Radar 4G using Board Express

Trust me, I'm pretty scared of cutting anything. Would ideally like to build one that I could reverse. I agree it is over played, but not in my area. All there is is loud Harleys. Just waiting for that inspiration moment where I decide what I want to do with it. Like I said, tasteful.

 

[cafematty]

There's a nice mod that replaces that gen lamp with a resistor so you don't need the bulb to be working properly to keep the charging system in order. Otherwise, it's never a bad idea to tuck a spare bulb somewhere. Are you having charging problems? Have you measured voltage at the battery with the bike running (at idle and then with a bit of throttle). You should be seeing 13+ volts when the system is working properly.

Believe me, I know all about getting ahold of a bike that someone else has gone through. Mine had so many missing parts and cut wires it was crazy.

 

[IndieSol]

I just mentioned the charge light as a "keep an eye on it" type of thing. He didn't mention having charging issues. It's something I dealt with on my R100 after riding it for a few months. It just stopped coming on with the key, and by the end of that day, I had to bump start the bike and barely made it home. Took a long time to trace the fault back to the instruments, as I had never done it before. But, hey, now I have a spare set of brushes!

I highly doubt it's a 6v charging system on it.

If it's modded, like Matty says, it's not a big deal. If yours is dual plugged, that may be the case. That instrument board looks pretty trashed though....

 

[henrybayuzick]

There's a nice mod that replaces that gen lamp with a resistor so you don't need the bulb to be working properly to keep the charging system in order. Otherwise, it's never a bad idea to tuck a spare bulb somewhere. Are you having charging problems? Have you measured voltage at the battery with the bike running (at idle and then with a bit of throttle). You should be seeing 13+ volts when the system is working properly.

Believe me, I know all about getting ahold of a bike that someone else has gone through. Mine had so many missing parts and cut wires it was crazy.

Matty,

You just replied to my email and accepted me into your facebook group!

If you could, take a quick look at the picture I posted above. The inside of my cluster is mangled. There has been some major tinkering. I wasn't really planning on using the stock gauges, so maybe instead of trying to fix this mess, I should order some new gauges and start fresh. If that's the case, are there any write ups on how to add new gauges and still have the battery charge?

I noticed my headlight is getting a lot dimmer, and the high beam isn't working (it was 2 days ago), my first guess is that the battery is dying. Does this sound right?

Already loving all the help and quick replies. It's great.

Just about to pay to join bmwmoa.org. Worth it?

 

[cafematty]

I just mentioned the charge light as a "keep an eye on it" type of thing. He didn't mention having charging issues. It's something I dealt with on my R100 after riding it for a few months. It just stopped coming on with the key, and by the end of that day, I had to bump start the bike and barely made it home. Took a long time to trace the fault back to the instruments, as I had never done it before. But, hey, now I have a spare set of brushes!

I highly doubt it's a 6v charging system on it.

If it's modded, like Matty says, it's not a big deal. If yours is dual plugged, that may be the case. That instrument board looks pretty trashed though....

Ha.. Yeah if you weren't aware that the whole charging system hinged on a tiny bulb, it is certainly good to find out sooner than later.. Can save you a whole lot of headache. That's too is probably one of my first "airhead tips for first-time owners"... THAT DAMN BULB.

 

[henrybayuzick]

I just mentioned the charge light as a "keep an eye on it" type of thing. He didn't mention having charging issues. It's something I dealt with on my R100 after riding it for a few months. It just stopped coming on with the key, and by the end of that day, I had to bump start the bike and barely made it home. Took a long time to trace the fault back to the instruments, as I had never done it before. But, hey, now I have a spare set of brushes!

I highly doubt it's a 6v charging system on it.

If it's modded, like Matty says, it's not a big deal. If yours is dual plugged, that may be the case. That instrument board looks pretty trashed though....

It really is trashed. I swapped the turn signal bulb and the gen bulb (only two that are the same sizes) and now neither of them work. I don't think working with this instrument board is worth it. Like I said to Matty, maybe a good time to start with new gauges? That being said, haven't really found any yet. Any recommendations as to where to look?

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate it.

 

[cafematty]

Matty,

You just replied to my email and accepted me into your facebook group!

If you could, take a quick look at the picture I posted above. The inside of my cluster is mangled. There has been some major tinkering. I wasn't really planning on using the stock gauges, so maybe instead of trying to fix this mess, I should order some new gauges and start fresh. If that's the case, are there any write ups on how to add new gauges and still have the battery charge?

I noticed my headlight is getting a lot dimmer, and the high beam isn't working (it was 2 days ago), my first guess is that the battery is dying. Does this sound right?

Already loving all the help and quick replies. It's great.

Just about to pay to join bmwmoa.org. Worth it?

One thing you'll find is snowbum's site has a ridiculous amount of helpful stuff on it. You'll also found it's VERY verbose and requires a bit of reading, but it's good info. Dude is thorough..

Here's his writeup on eliminating the gen lamp.
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/genlampresistor.htm

If you kill your gauge cluster, you will have to do this. OR do what I did and replace your whole charging system (EnDuraLast is what I went with) which replaces that charging circuit as well as the old stator, rotor, regulator, and diode board with tasty new hardware.

You can run a digital gauge that can calculate your speed from a small magnet and sensor on the wheel and your revs from a small wire that wraps around your coil wire. I typically don't encourage people to molest Airheads, but those old clocks go for a nice penny on eBay.. haha.

 

[henrybayuzick]

One thing you'll find is snowbum's site has a ridiculous amount of helpful stuff on it. You'll also found it's VERY verbose and requires a bit of reading, but it's good info. Dude is thorough..

Here's his writeup on eliminating the gen lamp.
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/genlampresistor.htm

If you kill your gauge cluster, you will have to do this. OR do what I did and replace your whole charging system (EnDuraLast is what I went with) which replaces that charging circuit as well as the old stator, rotor, regulator, and diode board with tasty new hardware.

You can run a digital gauge that can calculate your speed from a small magnet and sensor on the wheel and your revs from a small wire that wraps around your coil wire. I typically don't encourage people to molest Airheads, but those old clocks go for a nice penny on eBay.. haha.

I've been reading through his site quite a bit. Haven't begun to try anything yet. I'm a little gun shy.

If I remember correctly, you don't have any gauges correct? Would be easy to do a speedo like this http://blitz-motorcycles.com/storage/bikes/bmwr100green/5.jpg using the existing hookup? and then using the gen mod?

You use the word molest, and so do a lot of other people, is it really that bad to make these custom? Is it because they are more rare in the U.S? I've been completely inspired by blog sites like 8negro.com and videos like this http://vimeo.com/49445992

Appreciate the response.