1979 R65 Part 1

[wilcom]

Howdy folks
 
 George the Deli guy and I got to talk'n about motorcycles one day during lunch.  He mentioned that his wife had one of those  "BMW"  bikes and he had been trying to sell it.  He said he almost had it sold to a Fireman's son for $1000 but the battery wouldn't take a charge after 10 years and he couldn't start it.  
 
I had been riding BMW's since I found out they didn't leak oil like my old Nortons, back in the 70 . I was" between" BMW's at the time and he had my FULL attention.  
 
George's wife had purchased the bike new and rode it  6,000 miles while in college. When she married George and raised a family  she  stored it away in her garage. That was in 1986.  It was 1996 so the bike had been setting there for 10 years behind a stack of family garage stuff, seeing the sun only when someone opened the door so she could peer out. I asked if I could come over and take a look after he closed his shop.............
 
When I got there I saw a 1979 Champagne silver R65 setting there covered in dust. I looked thru the dust and there was not a mar on the bike. Tires flat and 6K miles and change showing on the odometer. I bought it on the spot for a $1000 and trailered it home the next day.
 
I put on new tires  a fresh battery and changed the fluids. I checked the bowls and there wasn't anything nasty in there , no sediment or varnish, she may have drained the gas when she parked it. I filled the tank, turned on the petcock and hit the button..............
 
She started like she had been put away the day before , not 10 years before!!!!.  With that success I turned her off and did a minor tune, points, plugs, valves and timing. Got back out on the road and did about 10-20 miles to see what might fall off after 10 years on the blocks....nothing did.  Over the next couple thousand miles some rubber things gave up, fork seals, master cylinder, carb diaphragms.
 

[wilcom]

 
Over the next 5 years that R65 and I scooted off to Canada, up and down the West coast and went over every high pass in Colorado............. and THEN........financial disaster struck.  
 
In 2002  the IRS folks were waiting in the wings with yellow tape to put around my house if I didn't come up with a specific sum for them to feast on.............. Yep, you guessed it! That R65, was one of the few things that I could convert into the liquid funds that those folks so desired. My baby, the one I saved up for a Hannigan fairing to adorn her with, the one that had gotten me all over the western US and back was about to be HISTORY................. I placed an attractive price on her (only slightly more than I had paid for the Hannigan the year before) and off she went with new owners.
 
That was a sad day.
 
The Sun arose again on my little Empire(very little) and things got better. Flash forward to 2010
 
There I was in my garage staring at the 1999 Buell M2 , the 2009 Buell XB12R, and the 1980 R65. I had tried to replace MY R65 with the 1980 R65 , but it had never really worked out, it JUST WASN'T MY R65.
 
I went over to my PC and got on my yahoo account and searched for the emails of the transaction when I sold the 79'.  Luckily I never toss an email so I had the address of the buyer. I composed a short note after a brief reintroduction..........." Still got my "baby"? Want to sell her? How much...........Joe"
 
Two days later I got a reply..............Baby is COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
The bike only has a few thousand more miles than when we parted company. The new owner had felt a notchiness in the transmission while moving the back wheel and had the tranny rebuilt. Other than a few cob webs and a couple of niks she was the same as when she left me at 20K miles. I consummated the sale on the spot and will be picking her up in a week or so.
 
Sorry for the long read , but R65's just breed so much excitement , I had to tell somebody!!!
 

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

What a nice, and familiar story!

I sold my baby, once, in a fit of despair.  Really long story, but I thought I was done.

I, too, was fortunate that the fellow I sold it to was not thrilled with his purchase, and was happy to sell it back to me for the same price!

[Lucky_Lou]

Best of luck with the reunion.........try not to go too far on the first date.Champagne my kinda colour
Lou

[wilcom]

She was Champagne for a few years. I ordered a Hannigan fairing for her and with it coming in Black gelcoat I painted the bike black at that time. She looked just like yours in her Pre-hannigan days. I had a screen very similar to yours before I went to the dark side and painted her.