1984 R65 twin shock strip down and rebuild

[MatthewH]

Hi all.   I've been lurking on this board asking various random questions about bits from an R65 I've owned for nearly two years, but I've not got properly started on it until now.  This is a former cafe racer project left unfinished by the previous owner which I bought in October 2011 with a view to continuing that theme.  At some point I decided that cafe racer was a bit hackneyed, done-before and no longer interesting so I sold all of the cafe racer bits and bobs and have been left with this project bike.  A blank canvas.  Gone is the cafe racer style seat hump, the pod filters, the Acewell speedometer, daft clip-ons etc etc.  It is now back to something approaching normality.  This is what I am left with.

[MatthewH]

The pictures definitely flatter it.  Up close there is plenty of surface rust on the frame and it looks generally very shabby.  The plan is to strip it down to frame and component parts, likely keeping the engine intact which I understand was in good order before it was laid up.  When I started it for the first time in probably nearly two years it fired up on the fourth attempt, hence the temporaryl fuel tank. Rather smoky from the left hand exhaust, but otherwise revved freely, albeit *seriously* loudly - not a lot of baffling in those Megaton exhausts, a relic of its cafe racer past.  

Tomorrow I will start and run in one more time before tearing it down.    

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Congratulations!  You may be able to pop that dent in the tank out with compressed air/suction cup.

[livingdeadhead]

weld some bolts onto the dent and slide hammer it out!