Mid-South ride, eat, and meet

barryg said:

The tranny, that was another story. I was riding the bike right up to disassembly. Took the tranny out. When I shook it around, it was clanging and banging, Oh my gosh, what is this. This ain't good.

Click to expand...

Loaded the cripple sounding tranny in a box and headed over to Leo's shop.. Over at Leo's, I set it up on the counter. Leo, looked over; What's it doing. I picked it up and shook it around. Bang and clang. Leo said open the drain plug and shake it around. Did that and a good size piece of metal fell out. Leo picked it up, yes it's a broken off gear dog. I picked the tranny back up and shook it. More bang and clang. Leo said something to the effect, this ain't good. Leo explained to me the weaknesses of the early 5-speed gear box. What? I thought Airheads were bullet proof, perfect, simple by choice, the best. Well, not so much the '74 5 speed. Leo handed me one of his Airhead parts book. Pointed out the schematic of the cluster gear, the Brits call it the layshaft.

'74 /6 Kickstart Tranny


This is a current pic of the 5-speed tranny.


This is the tranny from the story.

At the end of the work day, Leo came over and flipped the tranny around on the table and gave it a stern look. Barry, this ain't good, just giving you a heads up. I know Leo, this is a disaster. Leo ambled over to one of his many big tool boxes and rummaged thru it. He pulled out a monster tool bar. Got his small gas torch out. We gotta heat up the back of the case. This is like safe cracking. Leo, pulled the kick start off and set it aside. Removed all the bolts. Started heating the back of the case. As he heated up the case, he was on the phone the whole time. Multi tasking. Finally he leaned over and spit on the case. It slightly sizzled. More heat to the case. Another telephone call. That phone never stopped ringing. Leo leaned over and spit on the case again. It really sizzled. He spit on it in several places, they all sizzled real good. Time to pull it off, and see the damage. Motorcycle surgery. I put on my surgical mask and gloves as I took off my stethoscope. A little humour to lighten up this super serious medical, I mean motorcycle service.

Leo took the nut off. As he kept the heat on the case. He smacked the back with a dead blow hammer. Off came the back separating from the housing. The suspense was deafening. Leo looked over at me and saw the pain on my face. Barry, get a hold of yourself, we're going to fix this gearbox. I'm sorry Leo, this wasn't part of the plan. I was riding this bike right up to the time of the dissasembly. He started pulling the guts out. The shims he put together with a tie wrap. That's important Barry, keeping them shims together. Watching Leo was like watching a surgeon. He took out he selector mechanism. He reached in and pulled out more of the shifting parts and gears. He then reached in and pulled out the 2nd broken dog. Here's that part making all the noise. I picked up that dog and the first broken dog in my hand. And started to inspect them. 2 broke dogs. Leo, finally pulled out the wreaked cluster gear.

Broken Cluster Gear




Doom, Dispair, and Agony on me. You want to see a grown man cry. I felt like Snoppy sitting out on his dog box crying all night. Wah, Wah, Wah.

I had a price book/parts book from Bob's BMW that everybody got in the mail back in the day before computers. I had looked that catalog thru and thru for many years. Studied all them parts and prices. I saw that part under the transmission section. It was available, but I think it was like $500 bucks 25/30 years ago. I told myself; I hope I never run into that, 'Gear From Hell'. My luck I did. I think Leo had an article/ tech brochure on that tranny and the reasons for it being a weak troublesome transmission. Read it and was totally disgusted with BMW. How can you build something like this and pawn it off to your customers.

Leo got on the telephone and called around and found a good used one. I approved it. Sad face and all. Leo gave me some more good advice. Barry, we got this tranny opened up. We need to upgrade it with the shift kit and replace the weak spring with the new and improved selector spring that always breaks. Again I approved the purchase. It was time to do it.

The transmission parts came in and Leo put it back together. Was there for the reassemble. Watching Leo work is like watching, a watch repairman. Leo is so skilled. He handles all the pieces and skillfully moves them around to the proper location, slowly, methodically, technically. It's fun to watch. Shimmed it all end and sealed it up. He has an air powered mechanism that turns the in put shaft mechanism. He ran the gears through their paces. Worked and shifted smoothly. It's good to go. Barry, when you and Vernon get the chassis up and rolling, bring it over and we'll finish the bike here in my shop. Yea. Thx Leo. I really can't thank you enough. I had been down over a year, no riding. I could start to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

While I was over Leo's, I was looking thru all his BMW tech manuals, he has a quite extensive catalog of books, broshures, articles, tech manuals. One of them had a good tech article on making the tool to open up a BMW airhead transmission. Leo had the BMW oem tool. I borrowed the prints. And made my own personal tool. Worked like a champ.w

It was raining.


Tool worked like a champ. I've opened up a few transmissions with it. And used it to button them back up.

Medical Implant Tools


I was a tool maker making a medical implant tools in the past.
Start with a stainless square block and machine both sides to the proper size and use. Very complex.

Motorcycle Tools, Medical Tools. The first tool I made in machine shop school was a hammer. Just like almost everyone else in machine shop tech school. If I run across my hammer I'll post a pic.

Back over at Vernon's garage, we got he bike back to a rolling chassis. Peter had done all the frame painting the seat was recovered. Vernon and I put the rolling chassis together. Loaded it up and hauled it to Leo's.
Leo had put the engine back together; we put a new clutch in and bolted up the rebuilt tranny. A buddy of Leo painted the tank, fenders, sidecovers. Can't remember who done the pin stripes. Leo will remember.

Slowly coming together. Glacial progress. Leo worked me in around his regular work schedule.

I was getting excited. Starting to look like a cool motorcycle. YeeHaw!

Completed project. I can't explain how excited I was. I could'nt have been prouder, walking around that bike, it was really perfect. I had my BMW Eldorado.

At the end of the build, the bike was over at Leo's Garage. Leo was putting the finishing touches on the bike, fine tuning the carbs, making all the cable adjustments. Had that bike purring like a kitten. Make that a tiger. At the end of the session, it was late. He said Barry, bring your riding gear over tomorrow, your going for a ride, your test ride. Went home that night, couldn't hardly sleep. I had started the teardown almost a year and half earlier. Hadn't ridden in that time. Now it was time for my maiden ride. Anticipation, that song by Carly Simon. That's what it felt like.

Got over to Leo's garage, he had it sitting outside. Leo said, your excited, ain't Ya. Oh man am I. One of Leo's buddies was there. Gordon. Gordon had a new Harley Springer Softail. Leo said where you gonna ride. I'm taking the interstate loop around Memphis. I'm stopping half way around at my Biker Bar, The Filling Station. I'll have one cold, see my buds, then circle on back. OK, good, see Ya back in about 2 hours. Going out the door, Gordon said, I wanna go with Ya. Gordon, this my big moment, it's kinda of a personal thing, Man. I really want to go with Ya and have a beer. OK let's go. Started that bike up, it sounded good, but I had to listen to that Harley behind me. That bike rode like an absolute dream, Nirvana, I was a absolute one with the universe, it was the supreme ride, except for that infernal Harley. We pulled into the Biker bar parking lot. Pulled up and sidestands down. There were 4 or 5 Harley's outside as usual. They heard Gordon's Softail. 4 or 5 of them bikers came out and they stood around Gordon's new Hog, showering him with adulation. He was soaking it up. I stood over by my'new' Beemer', just totally amazed at how well it turned out and how well it ran. Time for beers, everybody was headed in, Gordon was the toast of the bar. I was last; just as I got to the door, the Biker in front of me, stopped, turned and said; your bikes pretty nice too, Man. Yeah, Yes it is.

Yes, I loved the look of my 'new' Beemer. Leo, is this the nicest R90/6 in Memphis? Oh, yes Barry, no doubt about it. Well, is it the nicest one in the Mid-South, all round here. West Ar., east Tn., north Miss., do ya really think it's the coolest one around here. Yes, Barry it is. Well, I just want to be sure. Leo, is it really.....BARRY! It's a nice bike! Then I'd look at Leo and he'd look at me frowning. Then I'd start laughing and He'd start laughing. Ah, the happy good old days. Leo, do ya think....SHUT UP!

I was down at the courthouse getting the bike registered and tagged. I was sitting in a long hallway, but I could see out the big double glass doors, full view of my 'New' BMW. A couple of Biker types walked up to my bike and started looking it over. They walked around it a couple times, got down low and really inspected it. I could tell by their mannerism's that they were fascinated with it. They walked away, then came back and looked some more. They looked around for the owner, me, but they hadn't called my name and I didn't want to lose my place in line. They meandered off. Yep, bike had the 'Look', no doubt about it.

It wasn't long and I was back to real riding. I needed to carry stuff. So I pulled out a set of Wixoms and mounted them up.



I hated losing the naked bike look, but I needed to carry stuff.

When I get to studying the pics, I start seeing some of the small things. Back before the resto, I finished off the oem side stand. Wore out the pivot pin, bent the stem leg, bent the foot. I completely removed the whole apparatus, installed the Brown. During the resto we removed the Brown and restored the oem stand. Bored out the frame and Sidestand hole for a bigger pivot pin. Leo heated the Sidestand leg and bent it back to proper shape. He also reconfigered the stand to not self retract. I'm long legged so I can reach the stand, no problem. Another little thing I noticed was that I just had the left mirror attached for the test ride. It's the little things that make life interesting. Oh, actually we did not bore out the hole in frame or the Sidestand. We used a on size ream to get the true concentric holes. Just machinist jargon.

Some where along the way I changed out the Wixoms and went back to Krausers. Can't remember my thing on that. We have a local motorcycle windshield company. Back in the day called Cyclear. A buddy of mine owns it, Allen Muller. Allen was the rider of Leo Goff's record setting Norton drag bike. Anyway I'd go out there and see Allen. First thing outta his mouth, how's Leo, doing, havn't seen him in a while. Well, Allen, he's a little bigger now, than when Ya'll were racing. I here ya, Leo never missed a meal. Barry, we've gotta a room full of seconds, we don't ship out. Most of them I, can't even find the defect. Go back and get a few of them and come back and see me. I found the room and went thru several different rows. Picked out several different sizes. I looked them over pretty close, I could'nt find anything wrong with them. Carried them all back up to Allen's office. He was on the phone, he said when you have a business, the phone never stops ringing. Yep, I know how that is. Let's head over to the hard ware dept.. He looked at my selection of shields, and started digging thru the parts bin. He loaded up a boxful of the stuff. Where's your bike? Which one do Ya wanted mount right now. I showed him the one. Good choice, one of my favorites. He held it up over the headlite bucket and handlebars. Grabbed a handful of hardware and started mounting it up. Barry, these windshields are a universal fit, so you have spend a little bit of time getting it all adjusted and cinched down.