New R65 member; Berkeley Calif.

[montmil]

...Sears Roebuck did the same with Gilera, sold as Allstate, their in-house store brand for mowers, small cars in the post-war era, etc... Andrew

Not to overlook Sears' lovely Puch 125cc single and the Puch 250cc Twin -aka Twingle, as the cylinders shared a common combustion chamber- that carried the Allstate banner. Oh, and Sears' 50cc moped that I do not recall who provided but I cut my cycling teeth on the two-speeder. Also their Piaggio-built Vespa look-a-like; my Dad had one. I later rode a real Vespa GS in the early 60's.

The old Sears store on Ross Avenue in Dallas was often a family destination. I must have put several thousand miles on their display bikes parked adjacent the washing machines. Great days for a kid

Monte

[Altritter]

Not to overlook Sears' lovely Puch 125cc single and the Puch 250cc Twin -aka Twingle, as the cylinders shared a common combustion chamber- that carried the Allstate banner. Oh, and Sears' 50cc moped that I do not recall who provided but I cut my cycling teeth on the two-speeder. Also their Piaggio-built Vespa look-a-like; my Dad had one. I later rode a real Vespa GS in the early 60's.
 

And Montgomery Ward put its label in the late 50s on a Yamaha scoot that had a 4-cycle single about the size of a Cushman Road King (or Eagle—I forget which was smaller). I bought a new Wardaha with after-school earnings (mail order, express-shipped to the catalog order store) in high school & rode it hard until I t-boned a 4-wheeler that pulled out of a service station from behind a truck parked at the curb. It had a temperamental belt drive/centrifugal clutch transmission that needed considerable tinkering for optimum performance. My only complaint: the design was a really ugly— sloping, rounded rear cowl that made it look like a midget late-1940s Nash. Butt-ugly, painted red with a white longitudinal stripe on the top of the cowl. It was the only one in the city where I grew up, and I can't remember seeing more than one or two others anywhere, at any time.

[dav]

So you folks could go to a department store, pick up some new clothes, shoes, tv's, pillows, coffee table & A MOTORBIKE!!!

How did that work? like you stroll in walk up to the bike & roll it to the checkout? or did you have to order it & pick it up at another date?

[Darwin_R65]

I used to be in the airforce and we did a couple of exercises at Clark Air Base in the Phillipines.

They had a PX there that was the military equivalent of K-Mart.

Everything shipped from the States, and with a US Government discount on everything (this was to compensate paying the serviceman a pittance.)

You could buy groceries, tv's, CD's, Barbecues, Cars.

For us Australians it was odd seeing what we considered to be a KMart with a brand new Mustang on the floor being advertised.

But then this was an Airforce base that had 13 restaurants, and 26 takeaways. Tenpin bowling alley, and about 6 different boozers.

All went under when Mt Pinatubo blew it's top in 1991

John

[Andrew]

Average annual temp here in Berkeley/SF is 55* F. Basically the same as the surrounding Pacific Ocean and SF Bay, which drives local weather. Been raining a good amount lately, as is typical in January. That'll dry up by March/April, then it won't rain again til November.

Got the new shifter bolt and roller cage yesterday, along with a $25 oil filter(!), from SF BMW. Pressed out the old cage and will press in the new today. Will take pics.

Andrew

[Andrew]

I'm a military brat (USAF) and bought a lot of things at the PX, but never a motorcycle. Sears sold Allstate cars too. Yes, you could buy pretty much anything. Sears sold house kits in the early part of the 20th Century.
My dad bought his/my 1959 MGA Twin Cam new in the UK when we were stationed there 1975-1960, and it was all handled through the US Navy Exchange. Picked it up at University Motors though.
Andrew

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

There are less expensive sources for oil filters (Chicago BMW, for one).  It sounds like you got the "kit".  All I buy is a filter and a new big, white o-ring.  I reuse my metal shim.  I don't use the paper gasket.

[Andrew]

Yes, they sold me the "kit." In general I'm not crazy about buying at dealers of any kind, but I figure first time I should start off with the right thing, plus I was there for other items.
Andrew

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

There are a few sources that offer the microfice for our bikes, online.

My favorite is RealOEM - http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do?vin=6380675&kind=P&arch=0
That link is set up for my bikes serial number.  Just put your # in the field at the top, and have fun!

Some of the online dealers also have this, and you can order parts directly from the fiche.

[Andrew]

Thanks for the link.

Did the shifter bushing and bolt yesterday. Put the roller cage in the freezer for a bit, then used my Harbor Freight press to push it in place. Assembled, it's much better, though still has more slop than I'd expect. I'll look at the fiche to see if there's supposed to be a thin shim washer in there somewhere; my bike doesn't have one, and the bikebandit blowup of this assembly doesn't show one.

Here's pics of old and new. If someone wants the old bolt and bushing, I'm happy to mail for cost of shipping.

Andrew

[Yikes]

I'd like to take you up on your bolt 'n bushing offer, Andrew.  I'll PM you my info.  Thanks!

John

[not-so-fast-ed]

If you haven't already done the oil filter & Oil change, be sure the large flat steel washer goes in before the big rubber "O" ring.  They call the "O" ring the "$2000 'O' ring" when it's installed incorrectly.  There are articles about it in several areas that you might want to search the forum about.  Measuring depth of the housing lip to determine the number of shims and if you really need the paper gasket is also covered somewhere.
When I did my first oil change I asked my neighbor (who has a lot more recent BMW experience) if there was anything I should look for.  He advised me to put it back the way it came apart.   Yup, you guessed it, it had been installed wrong by the PO.....   Big puddle of oil turned out to be cheaper than rebuilding the engine.  I called him back and had him walk me through it "of course the washer goes in first, didn't I tell you that?"  It's also a good idea to see if there is a small "O" ring lodged in the filter housing from previous filters.  Pulled mine out with a coat hanger.

Good luck & keep us posted.

Ed

[proctorls]

Re the sloppy shift linkage:  I had the same issue on my LS.  In fact, when I checked the shifters on a number of other airheads, I found the same thing, and worse.  I don't know how much of the bad reputation these gearboxes have is due to this slop, but it certainly can't be helping.  The problem, it seems to me, is that BMW has specified a too-narrow needle cartridge for the shifter.  On first taking it apart, I thought, "Oh, good, those clever German engineers put a serious bearing in a vital spot.  I'll just replace my worn bearing, and I'll have a  slick-shifting Beemer. (An oxymoron, I learned)
Fully half of the available bearing area is taken up with seals.  I thought of eliminating the seals and installing two bearings end-to-end, but two didn't quite fit.  I ended up adding a brass shim (about .020" thick) on either end of the shaft.  You may have to play with the thicknesses.  Eliminating the end play helped quite a bit.
I'm still looking for a needle cartridge that is longer than the OEM part.  It might involve boring out the lever, or turning down (or shimming) the bolt, and maybe some o-ring grooves.

Steve

[Altritter]

Sears sold Allstate cars too.

Yeah. If my memory is still accurate, the Allstate was a re-branded Henry J.

[caci]

Re the sloppy shift linkage:  I had the same issue on my LS.  In fact, when I checked the shifters on a number of other airheads, I found the same thing, and worse.  I don't know how much of the bad reputation these gearboxes have is due to this slop, but it certainly can't be helping.  The problem, it seems to me, is that BMW has specified a too-narrow needle cartridge for the shifter.  On first taking it apart, I thought, "Oh, good, those clever German engineers put a serious bearing in a vital spot.  I'll just replace my worn bearing, and I'll have a  slick-shifting Beemer. (An oxymoron, I learned)
Fully half of the available bearing area is taken up with seals.  I thought of eliminating the seals and installing two bearings end-to-end, but two didn't quite fit.  I ended up adding a brass shim (about .020" thick) on either end of the shaft.  You may have to play with the thicknesses.  Eliminating the end play helped quite a bit.
I'm still looking for a needle cartridge that is longer than the OEM part.  It might involve boring out the lever, or turning down (or shimming) the bolt, and maybe some o-ring grooves.

Steve

I've been told that you can turn the shoulder back (the small one behind the threads on the shaft of the screw) to a minimum, non binding clearance & this will reduce much of the slop/flop.

I already took mine apart, pressed out the bearing, and cleaned & lubed the needles.  This alone did not make much difference and when I get the bike back next week, I'll trim the bolt.

Also, my bolt seemed to have been loctite-ed and that would probably be a good idea for reassembly.

Thanks,
Chris