First thought, best thought

[Birdo]

Some things you just have to learn by experience, and you can't learn them any other way.

After a long hiatus from riding, my re-introduction came about 12 years ago on an R65. Since then I've owned many BMWs (airhead, oilhead, K bike, F bike), fire-breathing liter Japanese sportbikes, and a couple of dual-purpose bikes.

The more bikes I ride, the more I come to love and respect the smaller BMW airheads. They seem to be able to do a little of everything, from grocery shopping to touring to Jeep trails like the one we rode today. (I started out on a Ducati Multistrada 620, and ended up switching bikes with my husband. His R75/6 was far better behaved in the rough stuff.)

We recently brought a 1986 R65 (monolever) into our herd. I have a feeling it will become my daily rider, as soon we nurse it through the cleaning, maintenance, and repairs it needs to recover from the heavy dose of neglect it received from the DPO.

Feels like coming home. I can't wait to get the R65 on the road!

Birdo

[SCJJR65]

Welcome to our little corner of the BMW kingdom, Birdo!  The '86 model is a really well thought out bike.  It's a shame that BMW only let it run another year before pulling the plug on production altogether.

We hope to hear about the "restoration" of your R65 (and hopefully see some photos along the way)!  

[Birdo]

I've posted some photos here: http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z190/ricobirdo/R65/

We bought the bike from the original owner. It looks like he hadn't washed it in years. One of the forks is leaking, the timing chain was so loose that it was noisy, the rear subframe was broken right next to one of the welds, there's a spacer missing from the rear shock mount, and we found an assortment of loose fasteners in various locations. Yet the DPO spent big bucks on an OEM battery...go figure.

Poor thing! Glad we rescued it.

Birdo