My R65 Story

[RRDavis]

I bought my first R65 (and my first BMW) in August 2007.  The previous owner was a woman named Dorothy and she bought it new in 1982 from a dealer in Xenia, Ohio called Competition Accessories.  She rode it for a couple years while she had a mechanic install the engine from her R80/6 into the frame of a pre-1969 BMW with Earle's type forks creating what she called her "Conversion Bike".  There was something about this bike that allowed a low seat height which fit her better than the  /6 she rode before the R65.  After the "Conversion Bike was complete her husband rode the R65 for a couple years until he bought a R80.  The R 65 became their "third" bike and didn't get a lot of miles.  The mileage when I bought it was around 21,000.  I haven't changed it much.  I added a top box and did a lot of maintenance this winter.  Since the photo (I will try to attach) was made I cut about 6" off the windshield.  This seems like a great forum.  Hello to everyone.

[Justin B.]

Welcome!  You found a good looking bike and the seat looks kinda interesting as well.  Is it a two piece design?  Looks very comfortable...

[seniorchiefSS]

Nice looking bike. set up to do some serious touring. Congrats on scoring a nice rider.

[RRDavis]

There is a label on the seat that indicates it is a "Mayer Day-Long".  It is one piece, built on the original BMW seat pan.  It is comfortable.  The fairing is a Vetter Windjammer series 4.

[SCJJR65]

I'd like to off my own "welcome aboard" as well!   [smiley=thumbsup.gif]  Love that "Windjammer" fairing!!  I had a Vetter "Vindicator" fairing on "Bruno", an '81 R65, and my first BMW (pic below).  That fairing gave me perfect protection from the elements and let me ride it year round.  I only have a National Windshield "Plexi-Fairing 3" windshield on Britta now, but it protects about the same.  Your bike looks like it's set up for some serious mileage.  Hope you 'll get to put some on that bike!  

[not-so-fast-ed]

Good to have you aboard.  Lovely looking tourer!  I really envy you that "Day Long".  My skinny butt has gotten numb after just an hour's ride sometimes on my stock seat.    

[Ed Miller]

Nice looking bike!  How hard was it to trim the fairing down?  

[RRDavis]

It was easy.

I trimmed the windshield because when I rode to work in the early morning (Ohio humid summer) there were times when the windshield would "fog" (condensation).  I sat on the bike and experimented with masking tape to find the place where I could see the road about 20 to 30 feet ahead looking right over the top of the tape.  I measured the windshield width at that level and used a CAD program to draw a smooth curve that ended at the same width.  I printed the CAD drawing (one curved line) and cut the paper (with ordinary scissors) to the line.  I put wide masking tape on the windshield at the level where I planned to cut.  I taped the cut paper CAD drawing to the windshield and marked the curve on the wide masking tape with felt tip marker.  Then I carefully cut to the line with an ordinary jigsaw.  After I removed the tape I spent about 1 minute with sandpaper to smooth the edges.  This photo shows the shorter windshield although it is hard to see.  

[Ed Miller]

Cool!  Can you email me the cad curve?  As a .jpg or .gif file if that's possible.  I ask not because I can't see over the windshield, as I can, but because when I ride in the rain there's not enough wind to blow the rain off my helmet face shield.  RainX doesn't help.  In fact, sometimes the rain sits there long enough to start dripping down the inside of my face shield.  I hate when that happens.  Right now I extend my neck a couple of inches to get my face shield in the wind stream, or poke it out to the sides, but that gets old.  I do like how quiet it is now, though.  My Windjammer is an SS, there's a picture of it somewhere on the forum. It's not in as good of condition as yours.

[RRDavis]

Ed,

I saved the Turbocad version 6 file as a bitmap, opened the bitmap with Corel Draw version 9 and saved that as a .jpg.  The smoothness of the curve was lost.  I'm not sure how to save it as a .jpg and have the result be a nice smooth curve like I started with.

[Justin B.]

Can you save it as a .bmp file?

[Ed Miller]

...or I could just free hand it....  

[RRDavis]

Ed,

Now you have the right idea.  The CAD drawing is not the important part.
 
1. Decide where you want to cut.
2. Apply masking tape over the entire area where the cut will be and where the base of the jigsaw will rub on the windshield as you cut (the area below the cut line).
3. Draw a smooth curve on the masking tape.  You can use ordinary round house hold objects like pans, dishes, or cans to help draw the curves.  Use the top edge of the existing windshield as a general guide to finding the right objects to draw a good looking curve.  
4. Draw a short "practice" line an inch or two above the "real" line.
5. Cut for a few inches along the "practice" line to get a feel for how your saw will perform.  I used a 24 tooth per inch metal cutting blade in an ordinary Porter cable jigsaw.  Orbit set to zero.
6.  Cut on the "real" line.
7. May be a good idea to have a helper support the upper part of the windshield as you finish the cut so that it doesn't break off.
8. Remove the masking tape.
9. I sanded for about a minute with 80 grit sandpaper on a hand block to smooth and round the edges.

Good luck.