My /5 rebuild intro.

Discuss all things 1970 & later Airheads right here.
Post Reply
x1Buellist
Posts: 103
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:11 pm
Location: Fairfield,CA

My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by x1Buellist »

Hi everyone. I have been making progress on my /5 and thought I would gather a few pictures and tell you the story about it. Kind of a long story. I don't know if anybody cares to read it or not.
I have a 1973 R75/5 LWB. I inherited the bike from my brother, it hasn't seen the road since 1985. My brother bought the bike when he was in college and rode it a couple years until 85' when he decided to restore it.
The motor was sent to San Jose BMW for a complete engine overhaul. From top to bottom it looks like just about every piece was replaced (I have all the invoices from them and it goes on for pages). Also the heads were converted to dual plugs, flywheel lightened,Rockers changed to needle bearings, and everything was balanced. He had them rebuild the transmission and clutch, the Final drive was rebuilt and resplined, and a new drive spline was installed on the rear hub.
At this time he also had them brace the swing arm. Lots of other parts were purchesed from them at this time, emblems, gaskets, lenses, Dyna III ignition system, wiring harnesses, ignition and electrical parts etc.. He had the frame powder coated, the tank and fenders beautifully painted and pin stripped, and the seat redone. He bought new fork tubes, springs and seals. He had the spoke rims restored. A Keihan exhaust system was purchased. He really spared no expense in the work and components he purchased. Everything else was torn down to it's smallest component.
Now the sad part is that my brother was getting sick and this was as far as he got. The bike than sat in his garage in this state for 16 years. He passed in 2001 and that was when I inherited the pile of parts. I wasn't sure if I had a whole bike at this point. The bike parts had been scattered from one end to the other of his garage/shop over the years. Intermingled with tons of other mechanical stuff. I carefully judged what came out of the shop trying to determine what was a part that belonged to the bike and what wasn't along with what tools were specail BMW tools and what wasn't. In the end this is what I ended up with.
Parts800.JPG
Parts800.JPG (190.28 KiB) Viewed 3484 times
Now I had all these parts boxed up and carefully wrapped up. I than put them up in my rafters. I wasn't ready to start a project like this. Thats where they sayed for about 4 years. In 2005 I decided I wanted to finish the project that my brother began. He really liked this bike and so it meant something to me to work on it. He had all the BMW parts nad repair manuals. So I carefully looked at each piece,bracket, bolt etc.. and matched it with the parts book. Than I compared what was in the parts book to what I had and determined what I was missing. Nothing large but a lot of small items along with some things that had not been resored or were to far gone to restore. So there, I was ready to start a journey. I had always been into hot rod cars but had never put together a bike like this from a pile of parts.
Frame800.jpg
Frame800.jpg (210.99 KiB) Viewed 3484 times
cont.
73' R75/5 LWB
x1Buellist
Posts: 103
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:11 pm
Location: Fairfield,CA

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by x1Buellist »

Well I bought a bunch of fastners, shocks and and various other small parts from Huckeys over the next year or so but I am sorry to say that life got in the way and I didn't finish what I started. So from sometime in 1986 till now the bike sat half built like this. It's not even as complete as it looks in this picture. Lots of things are not installed.
tank&seat800.jpg
tank&seat800.jpg (219.89 KiB) Viewed 3483 times
Well forward to January 2012 and due to some life changes, I decided to clean out my garage, clear some space and have a new invigorated attitude. I have made some progress and am reading everything i can about the next steps I will be taking in assembling the rest of the bike. Here is where I am today. Next step will probably be completeing the Dyna ignition installation.
OnTheLift750.jpg
OnTheLift750.jpg (236.12 KiB) Viewed 3483 times
73' R75/5 LWB
x1Buellist
Posts: 103
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:11 pm
Location: Fairfield,CA

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by x1Buellist »

I started out years ago wanting to do a 100% restoration. Now I am thinking about making changes. Nothing permanently changing the bike but maybe either going with the cafe hump, seat and bars etc.. or maybe the police solo seat and utility trunk. I have bought the utility box from BMW so I am leaning towards that look. I won't be using it for more than just riding around locally or maybe now and than down the interstate to work.So I don't need utilitarian storage. Just a fun bike with a unique look.
I am thinking maybe something similar to this styling as far as the seat, trunk and bags , this is the utility box I bought. Or just a police solo seat without the box since I am not sure whether I like the style or not.
1973R755specialbig.jpg
1973R755specialbig.jpg (100.25 KiB) Viewed 3483 times
The other option I am thinking about is something similar to this seat/hump style. I know it's not the same model bike but the style of the seat and hump is what I am thinking about.
Peter_Herbert.jpg
Peter_Herbert.jpg (217.6 KiB) Viewed 3483 times
Anyway, if anybody is still reading. This is my fun project and these are the ideas I have bouncing around in my head. Any comments are encouraged. :)
73' R75/5 LWB
Unclviny
Posts: 507
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2010 2:58 am
Location: Houston, Texas
Contact:

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by Unclviny »

I have that same-bike and I love it! it's the convergence of "old-bike-looks" with "modern" equipment (an electric starter mainly).

Vince
http://www.vinceandersononline.com
1973-1/2 BMW R75/5 (LWB)
1971 Norton Commando
1952 Triumph TRW
1936 BMW R2
x1Buellist
Posts: 103
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:11 pm
Location: Fairfield,CA

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by x1Buellist »

Looking on the net for a police solo seat. Do you know if the solo seat was made for a LWB bike?
73' R75/5 LWB
Unclviny
Posts: 507
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2010 2:58 am
Location: Houston, Texas
Contact:

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by Unclviny »

I'm looking at sending my stock-seat to Sargeant for a rebuild with some of that "super-duper" foam they offer. I like the stock-look but my Butt does not like the stock-foam!

Vince
http://www.vinceandersononline.com
1973-1/2 BMW R75/5 (LWB)
1971 Norton Commando
1952 Triumph TRW
1936 BMW R2
x1Buellist
Posts: 103
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:11 pm
Location: Fairfield,CA

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by x1Buellist »

Well I took a few steps backwards in my project to get certain things how I want them. Heres a pic of my progress forwards (or backwards depending on how you look at it).
2-4-12.jpg
2-4-12.jpg (183.3 KiB) Viewed 3392 times
73' R75/5 LWB
Deleted User 62

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by Deleted User 62 »

x1Buellist wrote:Looking on the net for a police solo seat. Do you know if the solo seat was made for a LWB bike?
It's not the frame that determines the seat you need, it's the tank. A tank like the one in your bottom photo requires a shorter seat, and /5 or /6 solo seat will fit all the earlier style tanks.
Chuey
Posts: 7632
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:56 pm

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by Chuey »

I read your story and think you'll have a nice bike any way you make it up. With all that freshly refinished stuff it would be very tempting to do it up very close to stock.

Chuey
x1Buellist
Posts: 103
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:11 pm
Location: Fairfield,CA

Re: My /5 rebuild intro.

Post by x1Buellist »

Chuey wrote:I read your story and think you'll have a nice bike any way you make it up. With all that freshly refinished stuff it would be very tempting to do it up very close to stock.

Chuey
I agree, it looks like I am going stock with euro bars and solo police seat for now. I had bought the police radio box but didn't realize I would need the brackets to mount it and the fiche shows a crazy amount of bracketry to get it done. Maybe I'll just sell the radio box and stick with some kind of minimalist aluminum rack on the fender . I have read about these racks but haven't actually seen one on a /5.
73' R75/5 LWB
Post Reply