New R65 owner

[stockman]

Happy to have found this site. Just bought an 83 R65 with 14,300 miles. Rode it home about 60 miles . Made it despite some rain. Ran nice for something not used for 5 years. This weekend I will change all the fluids that I know how to do. Not sure of the tyranny but I,m sure someone will tell me. Was surprised to get the front brake bleeder open tonight .
The paint on the Tank is in great shape and the windshield is also nice. I'm looking forward to learning more and working on bringing this back to good order not perfect but fun to ride.
My other daily driver is the terrific Suzuki Vstrom 650. Love this machine.

[acruhl]

Windshield? Did it have some accessories?

What color?

If you don't mind me asking (if you do sorry...), what did you pay for it?

[montmil]

The gearbox fill opening is just above the shifter shaft. Remove the plug using a honkin' big Allen wrench -don't recall the size right now- then fill until the gear lube dribbles out the fill hole.

Some R65ers like synthetic gear lube and others stick with dino. Wait for it... some will chime in with good reasons for either.

Welcome to our expanding R65 group. This is rapidly become the epicenter of R65 knowledge, skill building and fun. We don't like no flamers 'round these parts as we've all been newbies before. [smiley=thumbup.gif]

Monte There Ain't No Dumb Questions Miller

[StanG]

Congrats on the new bike.  Post us a picture so we can all be envious.

[dav]

bet you were grinning from ear to ear on the ride home ....mate asap post some pics

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Welcome to the forum stockman.  

Not sure of the tyranny but I,m sure someone will tell me.  

 Like Monte says the tranny fill is right above the shift lever, however he neglected to tell you that the tranny drain is on the bottom of the tranny right in front of the swing arm.  A word to the wise, don't drain the tranny until you are sure you can get the filler hole open.  I had to use an 8mm ball end socket with a BA cheater bar to open mine.  

I've always admired the v-strom, send some pix of both bikes when you can.

[acruhl]

Some R65ers like synthetic gear lube and others stick with dino. Wait for it... some will chime in with good reasons for either.
[smiley=thumbup.gif]

Monte There Ain't No Dumb Questions Miller

On that, I saw in another post that putting in synthetic gear oil can cause the rubber pieces to seep. That right there negates any possible advantage that synthetic has in my mind. But the question is, if you change all the rubber parts, is it then OK to run synthetic? If that's the case, then it becomes a real synthetic vs. dino debate for me. It's probably not a big deal either way though...

[montmil]

One school of thought runs - The synthetic oil does such a good job at cleaning internals that some of the vintage seals in the airheads may begin to weep.

Another comment - ...switched back to dino after running the synthetic and the weepys stopped.

Personally, I run dino in the engine and shaft areas but synthetic in the gearbox. Anything to keep that traditionally clunky shifting Beemer box working as smoothly as possible. You really do have to train up your left foot.

Monte

[stockman]

Thanks for all the good information. I' sticking with conventional fluids . I change the brake fluid when I got home from work that helped the front brake. I will take some scotch bright to the rotor and clean it up a little. The fork seals are leaking as is the left rear shock. So I will have to do that as soon as I can. It rides a little wobbly I'm not sure if its the front forks or the type of tires or what.  The tires are a little dry and the rear is cupped on the left side some, but I'll let that go until I get the forks and shocks repaired. I've got a book coming from the library and a bid on one on e-bay . I'm being cheap.  What weight gear oil should I use 75-90 for both the rear and the tranny?  I Will get some pics up this week end.

[Bengt_Phorqs]

FWIW, consider discarding the rear shocks in the rebuild.  They never were very good even when new.  I bought some Hagon shocks and couldn't believe the difference when I installed them.  Much improved handling.

[stockman]

Can you tell me if I should buy the fork seals and brake pads from BMW or are they available aftermarket? Oh and here are some pictures .http://picasaweb.google.com/jimreinhardt/BMWR65#.
I've got all the fluids done and its running nice and shifting better. The rear end fluid was kind of red must have been moisture.Are you supposed to fill the rear thru the small level hole or the on on top forward of the vent?

[Bob_Roller]

Fork seals are most likely going to be a BMW parts source (dealer, or online),  you may be able to cross reference them to a non-BMW source, but it would take some work on your part .

Brake pads are available from a number of motorcycle parts stores and from different manufacturers .

The final drive is filled up to the point it starts running out of the small plug hole at the back of the final drive housing .

[stockman]

Bob, I knew to fill it up to the small hole in the back but is that also the traditional fill hole or do you use the one forward of the breather hole on top to fill? It  looks to be larger. It took a while to fill using the level hole and the piece of tubing I used was as big an O.D. as was the hole I.D. and I over filled it as it was plugged by the tube.

[Bob_Roller]

I use the top vent as the fill port, alot easier to get the gear lube in, than the small 'overflow' port .  .

[montmil]

Can you tell me if I should buy the fork seals and brake pads from BMW or are they available aftermarket?

Fork seals ought to be available through a local bearing supply house. Here's the size and, if needed, the BMW part number:
36x46x7.3/8.8      BMW #31 42 1 230 001
Take your removed seal with you to the bearing house. Usually, the seal's dimensions are cast onto the seal's face. Make sure you get the same size.

Unless you're running fork gaiters, I'd suggest ordering new felts, too. These are BMW specific parts. They fit inside the rubber lower slider caps and help keep junk out of the damper assembly... usually.

Monte