New member in west Texas

Hello all,
Excited as hell to learn and get riding the 1984 R80RT I recently purchased. Lots of great roads and open space out here in west TX for the bike tourists amongst the MOA. As a National Park employee I recommend Big Bend and Fort Davis areas, White Sands in NM, Guadalupe NP, and connecting them all up on a bike.
Already got some basics in mind for maintenance and reading up on these forums and elsewhere, but if anyone is in my area (Marfa) who can offer guidance or advice in person that’d also be appreciated!
Learning what specific tip tricks are relevant to this model and year so help me out.
Y’all the best!
DTH

Welcome

We live in the Big Bend too.

53 miles south of Alpine on 118.

Welcome from the coast of Kansas. Not quite as remote as you and the Glaves, but still in part of what the misinformed call "fly-over country."

You are correct about the rideability of your part of the country. The southern half of Texas and all of New Mexico and Arizona are wonderful places to ride. I have lots of miles there. (or sMiles, as Voni calls them)

Welcome to the "cult "

Hello, my name is James Strickland. Your R80RT looks good and might have been owned by someone who cared about it. This is good. I am currently working up a 1985 R80RT. Mine was not shown much care in its recent history. Right now I am working on the front brakes. I would like to suggest that you look in to joining the Airheads Beemer Club. Have a look at this link from the home page. https://airheads.org/why-join Owning and riding an antique motorcycle is a joy and an exercise in continuous learning. Airheads will speak to you. There is much to know about these machines, yet they are pretty simple. Ask questions about everything. There a great many knowledgeable folks here on this forum.
Congratulations and welcome

Welcome to the BMW MOA! As I think you'll soon figure out, as good as the bikes are, the people who ride them are pretty special and will go a long ways to help a fellow rider.

RE: Newbie

James.A said:

Hello, my name is James Strickland. Your R80RT looks good and might have been owned by someone who cared about it. This is good. I am currently working up a 1985 R80RT. Mine was not shown much care in its recent history. Right now I am working on the front brakes. I would like to suggest that you look in to joining the Airheads Beemer Club. Have a look at this link from the home page. https://airheads.org/why-join Owning and riding an antique motorcycle is a joy and an exercise in continuous learning. Airheads will speak to you. There is much to know about these machines, yet they are pretty simple. Ask questions about everything. There a great many knowledgeable folks here on this forum.
Congratulations and welcome

Click to expand...

I would like to suggest that you look in to joining the Airheads Beemer Club.-----
Already joined! Trying to get access to as many resources as possible for the ride ahead. Quick question since you have a 1985 RT - what is the point of the pulse air system and can it be removed (or is it even worth removing, or better not removing?) Just trying to get my head around some systems.

DTH

YOFLACO said:

Quick question since you have a 1985 RT - what is the point of the pulse air system and can it be removed (or is it even worth removing, or better not removing?) Just trying to get my head around some systems.

DTH

Click to expand...

You will get varying answers about the pulse air system. The facts are that it has zero effect on the running of the engine. Yes, zero. It is on the motorcycle because "the solution to pollution is dilution." Early emissions controls measured various pollutants in parts per million at the tail pipe. What the pulse air system does is draw fresh air from the airbox and inject it directly into the exhaust stream downstream from the exhaust valve. Think about that. If we inject additional fresh air into the exhaust stream then when that exhaust stream is sampled for pollutants we have the same amount of pollutants but more air in the stream - thus fewer parts per million because we have more millions.

This is not as bad as the Volkswagen computer jimmied diesels but is a bit of a gimmick nonetheless. Exactly the same amount of pollution is probably being spewed but there is a maybe not to the story.

If there are "unburned hydrocarbon" particles in the exhaust which are still sufficiently hot that they can self-combust where new oxygen is injected then those unburned hydrocarbons may burn up inside the exhaust system and become lessened at the tailpipe. That is BMW's justification for the system.

But in any event all it does is suck fresh air from inside the airbox and inject it into the exhaust after the exhaust has passed the exhaust valve. It has zero impact on the running of the engine. Zero.

Welcome and I gotta say you lot have no idea about "remote"

YOFLACO said:

what is the point of the pulse air system and can it be removed (or is it even worth removing, or better not removing?)

Click to expand...

Snowbum has a write up here:

https://bmwmotorcycletech.info/pulseair.htm

For what it is worth, I did remove the pulse air system on my R80RT. I see it as reducing the opportunity for something that is not essential to go bad and create a problem in the future. Please read snowbums article linked above. Your 1983 bike falls in to the range of motors with the first generation of valve seats that were specified to compensate for un-leaded gasoline. In my opinion, If the pulse air system promotes combustion of un-burned fuel in the exhaust, that would cause more heat to be generated in the exhaust system and allow more heat to be retained in the exhaust port. Exhaust valves in 1980 to 84 motors have been known to deform over time and miles from the lack of heat transfer characteristics of the valve seat metallurgy in those motors.

James.A said:

For what it is worth, I did remove the pulse air system on my R80RT. I see it as reducing the opportunity for something that is not essential to go bad and create a problem in the future. Please read snowbums article linked above. Your 1983 bike falls in to the range of motors with the first generation of valve seats that were specified to compensate for un-leaded gasoline. In my opinion, If the pulse air system promotes combustion of un-burned fuel in the exhaust, that would cause more heat to be generated in the exhaust system and allow more heat to be retained in the exhaust port. Exhaust valves in 1980 to 84 motors have been known to deform over time and miles from the lack of heat transfer characteristics of the valve seat metallurgy in those motors.

Click to expand...

Nice theory that Snowbum has but I don't see how physics allows it. The fresh cold air is injected downstream from the exhaust valve. The velocity of the moving exhaust flow of course carries the exhaust and fresh air rapidly away from the valve. The combustion, when it happens would be downstream from the valve in that nice blue pipe. I don't see the heat backing up to the valve. I might be wrong.

And yes, the seats on those years were a metallurgical disaster.

skibum69 said:

Welcome and I gotta say you lot have no idea about "remote"

Click to expand...

LOL...
Maybe not

Good looking bike

YOFLACO said:

Hello all,
Excited as hell to learn and get riding the 1984 R80RT I recently purchased. Lots of great roads and open space out here in west TX for the bike tourists amongst the MOA. As a National Park employee I recommend Big Bend and Fort Davis areas, White Sands in NM, Guadalupe NP, and connecting them all up on a bike.
Already got some basics in mind for maintenance and reading up on these forums and elsewhere, but if anyone is in my area (Marfa) who can offer guidance or advice in person that’d also be appreciated!
Learning what specific tip tricks are relevant to this model and year so help me out.
Y’all the best!
DTH

Click to expand...

Welcome, good looking bike !!

84 R80RT status update

Funny how reading back upon my original post (less than two months ago!) everything about my R80RT was so mysterious, and I so naive and clueless. FWIW- That pulse air system was VERY quickly removed after reading the articles, learning about it, how easily fixed it could be, etc.

That momentum carried into starting down a new path overhauling pretty much everything else on this bike simply because I like to learn, and also because it hadn't really been done in twelve years by PO. And, well coronavirus. Hard to be in lockdown without a project, right?

The BMW community here is invaluable, as well as the Airhead Beemer Club, and email list, and numerous youtube videos, and blog posts. Thanks everyone for contributing and being here. My first two months here have taught me so many skills I didn't think I'd ever undertake-- so my NEWBIE lesson to others new to BMW is dive in, buy some tools wrenches, read some articles and ask some questions-- we all must share this knowledge and learn it, relearn it, say it again, question it, etc. Paul- I appreciate your response to the Pulse Air question I posed. So silly a question in hindsight and so many would have ignored me, or did, but also many don't challenge Snowbum or think about it themselves, often myself included; BUT as I learn here and read and think through these systems in my mind I am seeing new things and having new ideas about where to go with updated technologies and components currently available. Many of his articles don't really factor in developments over the past five years of tech. I find this interesting fertile ground for a new wave of younger folks to address (I just turned 39 - and feel VERY young on these forums). Airheads are obviously being passed down, sold by owners of 25+ years to people like me (BMW NEWBIES), or collected by older folks with 3 or more bikes and sitting around not being ridden that much. The previous owner of this R80RT that I acquired hadn't touched it much in 12 years! I imagine it could easily be a 250,000 mile airhead had he just kept going. Happy to be the new owner! I don't want to butcher it, but at the same time of course I do. There are so many parts and tools available to customize anything nowadays. Why the hell not, right?! Is the R80RT really a novel piece of motorcycle history? Not really. I really want to turn this into a custom dual sport version, like the R80GS. Likely wont however, due to funds. So I DO want to make it a SWEET running touring/commuting bike for myself and hope to get over 150000 miles before I even THINK of selling it. Any advice or upgrade ideas please email me...

I've since discovered it did need valve seats and exhaust valve was recessed, though not deformed, as expected and as mentioned EVERYWHERE. So I sent the valve heads off and am brainstorming my next upgrades for another 800000000 sMiles.
Also, the rear wheel drive spline was worn VERY thin. That has been sent off along with rear wheel hub for servicing. Glad I looked. Check your bikes well all other newbies! READ snowbum and articles and blogs! LEARNING CAN BE FUN!
Also, needed new battery, new battery cables were installed, cleaned up some electrical connections, got a new starter relay, checked diode board, new spark plug wires and caps were installed (had 1K ohm Beru--- wrong resistance), coils checked out fine, rebuilt brake calipers, new brake pads, new tubes and tires, new brake hoses (were cracked and aged), rebuilt master cylinder, pulled off cylinder heads and pistons, and IM JUST GETTING STARTED! Going to have a long break in period ahead.
Very exciting and fun machines to wrench on, learn about, clean, make our own. Can now understand why some of you might have 4-5 airheads stashed away somewhere. But please do SELL MY YOUR R100GS already for these Big Bend NP roads! ready to trade for an RT? lets talk!
Thanks everyone for being so kind, patient, intelligent, and supportive. I really do think these are strange times we have been living in. I'm grateful to have a strange Airhead to learn about and occupy my mind. Nothing else to do but , and wrench on...