ON looking for tech articles

[Lukengruven]

..... and perhaps our new editor should consider a reprint of those [past articles].......just for the members out there who still care about and love the airheads of yesteryear.

I, for one, enjoy airhead tech articles of any type, and, as I have gone thru some old ('80's) BMW ON issues, I know there are many many tech articles that many of us coul benefit from.

[kbasa]

Isn't Matt Parkhouse coming up with Keep 'em Flyin' every month?

I learn all kinds of stuff from there.

[JUNKLE]

At the risk of showing my ignorance, is there a way to get a listing of airheads articles in back issues? Perhaps printed in one of the upcoming ON's (unless it already exists and I'm just too stupid to find it). Maybe try to figure out the ones that have been the most popular and try to get permission to reprint some of them? The basic info should be the same the only differences might be where to buy some of the parts.

j

[blake]

oh how i love comments like this.
when was the last time you submitted anything to the magazine? i haven't in a couple of years, but i have at some point. i dont think you have a leg to stand on complaining about content if you haven't been submitting articles.
i'll not go into the rest of your broadly painted comments.

have fun reading your 20 year old mags and thinking about how good the ol' days were.

Dr. Curve, sir.....

I think you are correct in your assessment that the mag has changed. I've found little of interest in the issues since the change in editors and the effort to increase the direction of our organization toward the internet. In fact, I am considering not renewing my subscription or renewing my membership: there is nothing in the last few issues of MOA that I find of interest. The mag is just too bland and slick: can you conceive of a column now that Higdon, "Lucifer", Cwi or Sancken would be published without being censored?

Naw.....the mag is too slick: extolling the new bikes that a vast majority of us cannot afford nor choose to ride; pages of tours that only a very few can afford to take and not a word about major problems with the new bikes. Nope.....it's become a brochure for BMWNA, advertisers and politically correct constipated "leaders".

Brody, Higdon, Susan, Phatt, where are you when we need you. Y'all made me mad, you encouraged me, you outraged me, you disgusted me, you made me laugh and made me think from a different perspective and you made me look forward to another issue of the mag.

Hell, Curve, write some articles.....maybe the new board of censors will print them without editing, but I doubt it.

budamy, waiting for the next issue of Airheads and rereading all my back issues of BMWMOA from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Anachronism #72297

[knary]

Anyone in Portland have a broken fiberglass piece? I am pretty good working with this stuff. I could write up an article on the repair.
PM me

-late reply-
Bob,
I've got a big hammer. We could work something out.

[sumran]

Many of us are thrilled that there still is such a interest in the older airhead bikes. No one is saying that they should be out there running around with all the big boys.......but still......in their day.....they could rock. I did write several articles about building up these old engines and perhaps our new editor should consider a reprint of these.......just for the members out there who still care about and love the airheads of yesteryear. If the editor would like I can forward the original version of the HOT ROD piece I published as it answers so many questions about getting more from the pre 85 bikes.

It would great to see that article or any other info you could provide. I'm new to BMW's but it didn't take long to figure out that you have a lot of good things to share. I'm just down the road from you in Gainesville and bought my bike in Tallahassee. I understand I just missed you at the winter rally for the Jacksonville club. I hope I get a chance to hear you at some point in the near future. I would especially appreciate your insight on which modifications you would make first on a stock machine.

[Polarbear]

There are quite a few of us out here, riding older R bikes with 30-40 years experience, wrenching on them all that time ,etc and a ton of data from us older riders indeed. So much to talk about and I find it fascinating to read. Mr.Parkhouse has done a great job and I hope he continue's, but I can understand an urge to build more material from knowledgable resources, riders from the past,etc..Mat and I are of the same age group and he has my respect, taking the time and effort for the magazine and membership. Others preceeded him like Oak and others. Paul Glaves is yet another, bringing the newer machinery into perspective. I believe the Airheads have life beyond us, probably moreso than much of the newer bikes today, simply because of their craftsmanship, materials and the real fine ART of building bikes that stood out "bigtime". BMW had this in the Airheads lifespan of 70 years and I am not sure it will return, so here's to keeping the old ones alive and wrote about in our 'ON magazine for years and years. There are those of us in large numbers, riding older R bikes and extremely happy about it. I have newer also, but absolutely none have brought the same level of pleasure as riding a classic/vintage Beemer!

[medieval]

Know a lot about Airhead tech?
Plan on wrenching this winter?
Enjoy writing?

The Owners News is looking for technically proficient people who know how to wrench to share their knowledge. If you are interested in writing one or more technical articles and explaining anything from simple maintenance to complex repairs, please e-mail mandy@bmwmoa.org. Please be prepared to submit photos of your project, and captions explaining what is in the pictures.

I have been a member of BMWMOA for less than two years. I joined when I got a 2003 R1150RS project tp offset my wintertime blues. It is done now and I am enjoying riding this fine bike.
Last Friday I stumbled across a low mileage 1975 R60/6 that has been sitting since the mid 80's. It doesn't run (yet) but I am savoring the prospect of a new project. First step was to find a repair manual ($10 + ship on ebay).
I passed on my back issues to a friend who has an R100GS, because, at that time I had no use for the info. Now that I have an airhead project I need all the info that I can get. I would be happy to buy a compilation of airhead articles from the MOA if they could be made available. PLEASE!!!
I have decided to build a cafe style tank and seat for the bike and intend to write an article on the project (if you are interested). Thank you, Bert

[YLLIB]

Hey hey Doc!! Remember when we started that big stir in the BMW Moaners News about running tubeless tires on mags that came with tubes? I think it was about 93??

About five years ago I hit TWO dear. I wasn't going quite as fast as you were but I was still hauling the mail and it was still a big ordeal. If I heard right I think we had some similar injuries but that is another subject for another time!!!!

Moaners News has changed for the worst! I miss Douglass! He ALWAYS remembered my name and we would sometimes go years between seeing each other.

Bless Parkhouse's soul but he wrenches like a hippie. We need a real GEARHEAD that can ride as well as he wrenches AND doesn't read like a Washington press release.

Have you been in touch with Chris?? Isn't it great!! Are the HP2 R1200S's "special" rods longer?? I helped Chris put long rods in the Silver Bullet. It WORKED!!

[bullshit]

Nuts. I studied a little on BMW's before buying my first one ever recently, a 1981 R100RT with 6500 miles. I settled on the airhead because I thought it would last longer than any of the new stuff. And here I thought I was buying a recent model! I have read thru all the airhead tech forum postings(from 2003--present). Doing that will give you a pretty good overview of the machines. And all the links provide a massive amout of wrenching info--especially snowbum's website--

http://home.jps.net/~snowbum/index.html

Anyway, happy wrenching. Maybe someday I'll get me one of them newfangled fast bikes.

[MISTERMO]

I'm new to the airhead fold, and never saw the Dr. Curve articles. I suspect there may be other new members who, like me, are trying to collect as much info as possible before they start wrenching their bikes.

I spend FAR too much time online these winter months trying to find, then learn what I need to know. If ON could create an "airhead corner", with reprints or whatever, I'd be glued.

[hoffmanswen]

Here's what I don't get. Mr. Parkhouse lives in Colorado Springs, but he doesn't often talk about carburetors--except when he's liberating drops of water from the main jet.

I've recently come into a reasonably sound R90/6 in mostly original condition. I'd like to share with the membership, if there's interest, the trials of bringing a 33 yr-old bike into synch with a world where the standard atmospheric pressure is 80% of what the bike was designed for(I live in Denver), where TEL is a thing of the past, and gasoline hasn't scored a 96 on the octane meter since the Carter administration.

But I'd hate to bore anyone.

[plaka]

Here's what I don't get. Mr. Parkhouse lives in Colorado Springs, but he doesn't often talk about carburetors--except when he's liberating drops of water from the main jet.

Matt rides a /5 and setting up those Bings for altitude takes less than 4 minutes. Not much meat for an article. If you throw in the bit about sucked choke cover gaskets and fixing a perforated diaphragm on the road you might get a bit more. Matt has a story about how he got hired on at Docs. It involves a rally in town and a lot of people stopping by the shop to have carbs adjusted for the altitude...you would have to ask him about it.

He has been under the weather and I am not sure when or what he is planning on writing at the moment.

[Kiltmeister]

Jim: You told me 2 years ago that you had an articile prepared for the ON about the R12S and I kept looking for it and it was a no show. How about submitting it again and see what happens.Always have enjoyed talking with you at the GMR.
The Kiltmeister

Many of us are thrilled that there still is such a interest in the older airhead bikes. No one is saying that they should be out there running around with all the big boys.......but still......in their day.....they could rock. I did write several articles about building up these old engines and perhaps our new editor should consider a reprint of these.......just for the members out there who still care about and love the airheads of yesteryear. If the editor would like I can forward the original version of the HOT ROD piece I published as it answers so many questions about getting more from the pre 85 bikes.

We are on down the line now. I have written a bit about modifications one might consider for the new R12S for instance......but no one from BMWON has stepped forward and ask for any articles of this type. I have felt that the direction of the magazine has change and that their is very little interest in what some might construe as politically incorrect writing about how to make them faster. Thoughts?

[rocketman]

Hey hey Doc!! Remember when we started that big stir in the BMW Moaners News about running tubeless tires on mags that came with tubes? I think it was about 93??

About five years ago I hit TWO dear. I wasn't going quite as fast as you were but I was still hauling the mail and it was still a big ordeal. If I heard right I think we had some similar injuries but that is another subject for another time!!!!

Moaners News has changed for the worst! I miss Douglass! He ALWAYS remembered my name and we would sometimes go years between seeing each other.

Bless Parkhouse's soul but he wrenches like a hippie. We need a real GEARHEAD that can ride as well as he wrenches AND doesn't read like a Washington press release.

Have you been in touch with Chris?? Isn't it great!! Are the HP2 R1200S's "special" rods longer?? I helped Chris put long rods in the Silver Bullet. It WORKED!!

I haven't a clue what that means, but it still struck my funny bone! Ha Ha!

RM