Scot
New member
You all have probably seen many of these restore threads. For better or worse here's the story of this /5. Just as a disclaimer some of this is a repost. Kind of a long story. I don't know if anybody cares to read it or not.
I have a 1973 R75/5 LWB. I inherited the bike from my brother, it hasn't seen the road since 1985. My brother bought the bike when he was in college and rode it a couple years until 85' when he decided to restore it.
The motor,transmission, differential, and rear hub were all sent to San Jose BMW for a complete overhaul. From top to bottom it looks like just about every internal piece was replaced (I have all the invoices from them and it goes on for pages). Also the heads were converted to dual plugs, flywheel lightened,Rockers changed to needle bearings, and everything was balanced.
At this time he also had them brace the swing arm. Lots of other parts were purchesed from them at this time, emblems, gaskets, lenses, Dyna III ignition system, wiring harnesses, ignition and electrical parts etc.. He had the frame powder coated, the tank and fenders beautifully painted and pin stripped, and the seat redone. He bought new fork tubes, springs and seals. He had the spoke rims restored. A Keihan exhaust system was purchased. He really spared no expense in the work and components he purchased. Everything else was torn down to it's smallest component.
Now the sad part is that my brother was getting sick and this was as far as he got. The bike than sat in his garage in this state for 16 years. He passed in 2001 and that was when I inherited the pile of parts. I wasn't sure if I had a whole bike at this point. The bike parts had been scattered from one end to the other of his garage/shop over the years. In the end this is what I ended up with.
Now I had all these parts boxed up and carefully wrapped up. Everything was stored away until about 2005 when I decided I wanted to finish the project that my brother began. He really liked this bike and so it meant something to me to work on it. He had all the BMW parts and repair manuals. So I carefully looked at each piece,bracket, bolt etc.. and matched it with the parts book. Than I compared what was in the parts book to what I had and determined what I was missing. So there, I was ready to start a journey.
Well I bought a bunch of fastners, shocks and and various other parts from Huckeys over the next year or so but I am sorry to say that life got in the way and I didn't finish what I started. So from sometime in 2006 till now the bike sat half built like this. It's not even as complete as it looks in this picture. At that time I was just trying to put the bike together.
Well forward to January 2012 and due to some life changes, I decided to clean out my garage, clear some space and have a new invigorated attitude. This time around I am trying to restore the bike rather than just put it back together. I back tracked quite a bit and went through everything again. This time every part down to the last washer has been gone through (so far). The main thing I have left that is not apparent here is I need to take the front forks apart again. I don't know what happened the first time but they aren't right. Lots of little things to do though also. Not in a hurry, just enjoying myself.
Since I restarted this project I have taken detailed pictures of each step. I have tons of detailed pictures
Thats pretty much where I am to date. I will post more as my project progresses.
I have a 1973 R75/5 LWB. I inherited the bike from my brother, it hasn't seen the road since 1985. My brother bought the bike when he was in college and rode it a couple years until 85' when he decided to restore it.
The motor,transmission, differential, and rear hub were all sent to San Jose BMW for a complete overhaul. From top to bottom it looks like just about every internal piece was replaced (I have all the invoices from them and it goes on for pages). Also the heads were converted to dual plugs, flywheel lightened,Rockers changed to needle bearings, and everything was balanced.
At this time he also had them brace the swing arm. Lots of other parts were purchesed from them at this time, emblems, gaskets, lenses, Dyna III ignition system, wiring harnesses, ignition and electrical parts etc.. He had the frame powder coated, the tank and fenders beautifully painted and pin stripped, and the seat redone. He bought new fork tubes, springs and seals. He had the spoke rims restored. A Keihan exhaust system was purchased. He really spared no expense in the work and components he purchased. Everything else was torn down to it's smallest component.
Now the sad part is that my brother was getting sick and this was as far as he got. The bike than sat in his garage in this state for 16 years. He passed in 2001 and that was when I inherited the pile of parts. I wasn't sure if I had a whole bike at this point. The bike parts had been scattered from one end to the other of his garage/shop over the years. In the end this is what I ended up with.
Now I had all these parts boxed up and carefully wrapped up. Everything was stored away until about 2005 when I decided I wanted to finish the project that my brother began. He really liked this bike and so it meant something to me to work on it. He had all the BMW parts and repair manuals. So I carefully looked at each piece,bracket, bolt etc.. and matched it with the parts book. Than I compared what was in the parts book to what I had and determined what I was missing. So there, I was ready to start a journey.
Well I bought a bunch of fastners, shocks and and various other parts from Huckeys over the next year or so but I am sorry to say that life got in the way and I didn't finish what I started. So from sometime in 2006 till now the bike sat half built like this. It's not even as complete as it looks in this picture. At that time I was just trying to put the bike together.
Well forward to January 2012 and due to some life changes, I decided to clean out my garage, clear some space and have a new invigorated attitude. This time around I am trying to restore the bike rather than just put it back together. I back tracked quite a bit and went through everything again. This time every part down to the last washer has been gone through (so far). The main thing I have left that is not apparent here is I need to take the front forks apart again. I don't know what happened the first time but they aren't right. Lots of little things to do though also. Not in a hurry, just enjoying myself.
Since I restarted this project I have taken detailed pictures of each step. I have tons of detailed pictures
Thats pretty much where I am to date. I will post more as my project progresses.
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