Hi All (new member)

[pruttel]

Hi!

New member here, located in the Netherlands. A few months ago I became the proud owner of a '81 R65 that my dad found tucked away in some farmer's shed:

[imagine picture #1 here]

(Sorry, I'm not allowed to post pics or links until I hit the 2 posts mark!)

It was using up space so he was willing to part with it for for a few euros.
First thing was give it a cleaning, turned out that the seat was a nice *ahem* brown color:

[image picture #2 here]

It has done some 19.000 km. It doesn't ride at the moment, battery is missing and some other small things that I have to fix. Oh, missing keys also make it pretty much unrideable
After I get it up and running, I'm not sure where to go, I've been pondering making a cafe racer out of it, but I'm not sure yet.

A few more pics here: [imagine link ;]

Greetings,
  Iwan

[montmil]

Welcome, Iwan

Nice find on the 1981 R65. Yours is the first model year to have the electronic ignition.

Looks as if you have a bit of work but even without keys, you can change all the fluids, do a spline lube job and clean, clean, clean.

Tires are probably very questionable and will need replacing before you ride the bike any further than you'd be willing to push it.

In the FAQ's Section, there's a downloadable R65 owners manual that will be quite helpful.

So... post a couple more "blah blah" and let us see some photos. About 600 pixel width works well for forum photo posts.

Monte

[pruttel]

Hi monte, thanks.

Found the manual. Also, I got a Haynes from ePay.

I put the link into the homepage field of my profile so anyone should be able to follow the 'WWW' button!

I.

[pruttel]

Ok here we go:

This is the state we found it in:



After some cleaning:


(Yeah, there's a kittie hidden behind the front wheel)

A few more here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~iheskamp/brommer/

[montmil]

Wow! What a difference a bath makes.

ou may want to run the VIN numbers through this A&S BMW site. http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do?vin=6387284&part=&kind=P&arch=0

You have some differences in your bike that may mean it's older than a 1981. Flat top Bing carbs were used only for the first couple years in the R65 production run. Also, I've not seen an R65 with a kick starter! That just means I've never seen one. The older style air box is, in my opinion, better looking than the black and flat air filter sandwich offered on most R65s.

You may have a points ignition. Remove the front engine cover -5mm allen screw, IIRC- and check the ignition trigger "bean can" area. There may be a condenser attached. When you get a battery in the bike, always remember to disconnect the negative battery cable before reomoving the front cover. Good opportunity for the metal cover to contact hot electrical terminals on the diode board. Think $$$$ and oops.

Good job on the photos. We really do love seeing them. As your site administrator and grand pobah Justin will say, "If we can't see the bike, it doesn't exist." I've tried that with my ex-wife. No joy.

Monte

[Barry]

Welcome

Monte has it right. Your bike may have been registered 81 but I think you will find the manufacturing date is earlier. That brown seat together with the flat top bings, choke lever location and air-filter housing are a dead give away. You'll have points ignition too. Nothing wrong with any of that except I couldn't live with the brown seat so I replaced the cover with a black one.

I'm jealous of your kick start. Nice to have it as a backup.

[ladybug]

Welcome Iwan
What an improvement you have made.
Ladyblue

[dav]

Welcome aboard mate.

Love the before & after pics you have done a steller job of bringing her back to life, great job [smiley=thumbsup.gif].

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Welcome to the farm!  Was that a chicken farmer your dad bought the bike from?  Great job removing all of the feathers and quano from the bike.  Almost looks like an R75 engine with the flat top carbs, the air box and the kick start.  Either something of that ilk or a previous owner installed an early model transmission.

Either way, you got questions, we got answers.

[darrylri]

The round brake reservoir is also from the 79-80 models.

Before you go for a ride, zip tie the sidepanels in place even if you have new rubber grommets, or you'll lose them.

[pruttel]

Thanks all for the nice welcome!

Your knowledge shows: it turns out that it was registered march '80 and produced may '79.

That shed indeed housed a number of chickens, but also some pigs in the other corner. They surely could've done a better job at putting it away than just put it there without any preparation!

Ok, now off to do some reading :)

[montmil]

Iwan,

What with your bike spending all those years with farm animals, I wouldn't be surprises if you find a cozy, little nest built by mice inside the air box and filter. You would not be the first.

Monte

[nhmaf]

Welcome !

As other have pointed out, your bike may well be a pre-81 model year manufactured bike, but it is still a wonderful motor bike and is already cleaning up nicely!     Yours also has the kickstarter transmission which is quite rare - at least on this side of the pond!

Pace yourself, and as others suggest, while cleaning out all the nooks and crannies you can take assessment of the condition of the various bits and prioritize what items need to be tackled first.   We are all willing to help out a fellow R65-er!

There are numerous sources of information on the internet.  Also, there are a number of books - some of which are no longer in print but which can still be found.  Do you have any BMW-related manuals, or the service manuals by Clymer or Haynes, or others?  

It is a journey - and it can be alot of fun (and sometimes frustrating - I won't kid you) but all in all it is very rewarding to fix up and ride a motorcycle which will perform well for many years with proper maintenance, and you can learn how to do practically any level of wrneching on these bikes yourself, and not need expensive computer diagnostics equipment to do it!

Enjoy!

[trolle]

Welcome to the asylum. As you soon will realize the sane people on this forum are few and very far apart, whereas the number of nerds, singleminded old farts and other strange creatures is very high. And then there are the Texans who are a breed apart. We have two things in common though, which are a good knowledge of the quirks of the r65, and a great admiration for a very good motorcycle.

Do not hesitate to ask if you run into problems you cannot solve by your self or if you just want to save time. Probably there isn't a problem with the r65 which hasn't been described and solved in this forum. The hardest work may be finding it among the very large number of postings, but even this work is often lightened by some of the Gods.

greetings from a precipitating north

[aussie]

Hi Iwan - welcome from Australia. As has been said before...what a difference a bath makes! I too like the kick start - makes it stand out from the crowd. I tend to agree with Barry...I'd ditch (well put into storage really) the brown seat cover and go for a black one.

Cheers