fredheiler@aol.com
Member
My first motorcycle was a 1967 R60/2, which I bought new from a long-gone motorcycle shop in Wilmington, DE, where I also met a guy who had bought the identical bike, only 11 serial numbers from mine. We became good friends, making bike trips with our girl friends, first to Montreal, then to Key West, FL. One day my buddy Ted borrowed my old Beetle to go pick up some bike parts. On his trip, he swerved to avoid a dog, rolled the car and was killed. Being a pallbearer at his funeral was one of those really anguished moments in my life. Since he totaled my car, his parents gave me his motorcycle, assuming I would sell it to buy a car.
I wanted more power than my R60, but in 1969, there were no Japanese superbikes, and Harley, Triumph and BSA weren't nearly as good as they are today. While working in the service department of a VW dealer, I had the idea that a Beetle engine would almost fit in a BMW bike -- same engine architecture and same crankshaft rotation. I decided to begin this wacky conversion project with Ted's bike, and continue riding mine. I cut, spread and rewelded the frame, also fabricating an adapter plate. To make a very long engineering story short, the bike was (and still is) wonderful -- really smooth and very strong.
My girl friend at the time had learned to ride my stock R60, so she asked to buy it. I agreed, and for decades, I regretted letting it go. I lost track of the girl, who moved overseas and left the bike here. Fast forward, my 32-year-old son Tim found the bike and tried to buy it a number of times. Earlier this year, the owner agreed to sell, so Tim rented a trailer, got five friends to help him winch out of a dank basement, and he surprised me with it one evening! I was blown away, but the R60 was in bad shape -- a rusty frame, and the engine was missing a cylinder and head.
I've spent the past few months joyfully restoring my original R60 -- stripping the frame, getting it powder-coated, replacing all its bearings and seals as well as rebuilding the engine and transmission. It'll be on the road in the next month or two. I still own the VW-powered machine, and I'll post photos of both bikes in the coming weeks.
I wanted more power than my R60, but in 1969, there were no Japanese superbikes, and Harley, Triumph and BSA weren't nearly as good as they are today. While working in the service department of a VW dealer, I had the idea that a Beetle engine would almost fit in a BMW bike -- same engine architecture and same crankshaft rotation. I decided to begin this wacky conversion project with Ted's bike, and continue riding mine. I cut, spread and rewelded the frame, also fabricating an adapter plate. To make a very long engineering story short, the bike was (and still is) wonderful -- really smooth and very strong.
My girl friend at the time had learned to ride my stock R60, so she asked to buy it. I agreed, and for decades, I regretted letting it go. I lost track of the girl, who moved overseas and left the bike here. Fast forward, my 32-year-old son Tim found the bike and tried to buy it a number of times. Earlier this year, the owner agreed to sell, so Tim rented a trailer, got five friends to help him winch out of a dank basement, and he surprised me with it one evening! I was blown away, but the R60 was in bad shape -- a rusty frame, and the engine was missing a cylinder and head.
I've spent the past few months joyfully restoring my original R60 -- stripping the frame, getting it powder-coated, replacing all its bearings and seals as well as rebuilding the engine and transmission. It'll be on the road in the next month or two. I still own the VW-powered machine, and I'll post photos of both bikes in the coming weeks.
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