Classic BMW Mailing lists

[Sparkplug]

1967R69S I will post pics so far the only issues are drippy Bings and a non speed-o-gesser (milage works fine)

[Duane Ausherman]

The speedometers used in the /2 should be quite accurate. Far better than the later /5. Drippy Bings can be fixed.

[chasbmw]

how do you fix a drippy Bing on a 1958 r50? (early type float bowl tickler)

All advice welcome


Im told that the new blue plastic coil made by Emerald isle and sold by Rick in the US and Motorworks in the UK, works very well, much better than the repro coils coming out of the Motherland.

Can anyone confirm?

[chasbmw]

how do you fix a drippy Bing on a 1958 r50? (early type float bowl tickler)

All advice welcome

this is for my new to me R50, a very different riding experience than my later airheads.


Im told that the new blue plastic coil made by Emerald isle and sold by Rick in the US and Motorworks in the UK, works very well, much better than the repro coils coming out of the Motherland.

Can anyone confirm?

[Kurt in S.A.]

As for the drippy carb, I think the standard fix is to use a dowel with some grinding compound, maybe even some toothpaste and get the seat as smooth as possible. The other fix I believe is to convert to the new lever top carbs.

New coils...Rick? Do you mean Vech (name is Vechorik)? I bought the new coil from Vech when I thought my R69S original coil was failing on me...I was having trouble getting the bike to start when the engine was warm. Even after the new coil, I was still having trouble...I had a friend take a shot and he showed me that my bike was overly rich and we figured out what it needed in order to start warm. Now no problems. I doubt the coil was the issue. That said, the coil is a great replacement, went in well. The early version only had a single ground wire, the new version has two so works better. A good investment I felt. Mine is not blue...it is black.

Kurt in S.A.

[Duane Ausherman]

I would estimate that 95% of everything that you could want to know is already available on-line. Be careful though, the only qualification to post is a computer. Not all posters have real world experience.

Look how many people that I have fooled:-)

[chasbmw]

Thanks Kurt

Rick Jones of Motorad electric


I have not had a chance to get the bike properly hot yet, which is when I'm told any issues with the coil will show up.

[Duane Ausherman]

Generally speaking, that is true. While owners saw a typical failure, there were a very few that were unrelated and quite hard to diagnose.

I would chose to stay within towing distance for those first few rides.

[Rob]

My first ex-wife's bike was a R60US.
Besides being a terrible handler at highway speed (no internet back then), it would be very hard to start when up to temp.
We could push-start it just fine, and the dealer that sold it to us never seemed to have a problem starting it, but he also had an easy 100 lbs on either one of us.
I don't know if the additional torque behind his leg made the difference, or not. But you definitely were not starting this bike by hand.

It is a shame that my dealer was so bad that he didn't know about the coil. I didn't learn about it until joining Airheads (probably), long after the bike was gone.

I never did test for an overly rich condition. I was young and pretty inexperienced in the toolkit dept. Apparently my dealer did not check it, either. This was around 1982 or so.

[Duane Ausherman]

Once in proper tune, it is easy to start a BMW twin by hand. In fact that was a common test of the tuning. Once the tech finished the tuning procedure, with the bike still on the work stand, he would start it by hand. Usually we would wear a glove on the right hand for starting the R69S, but not on the other models.