My Very First motorcycle

[Barry]

The Gas tank is loose. Any good diagrams for removing and re-securing it?  

There can't be many easier tanks to remove than ours:-

Disconnect the fuel line.

Flip the bale wire up at the back

Pull the tank backwards to release it from the front rubber buffer
and off it comes. With practice 60 secs tops and most of that is the fuel line.

If the tank is loose you probably have some of the rubber bits missing. Rear ones should be glued to the tank not the frame.

[pcarrick]

Thank you. Found the bale and off she came. Yep, missing rubber bits. Found rubber pipe insulation at Lowes hardware supply,which is a close replacement to the bit of rubber that WAS THERE!.....; {.
Now she starts by full choke when very cold outside(<40 F) and then I reduce to half choke and she just purrs so sweet. I should probably install a fuel line filter. What size is the question. Why they don't fit them at the factory is curious to me (?).

[steve hawkins]

You should have a filter inside the tank, as the top part of the tap.  You will need to empty the tank and drop the tap to see if yours is still intact.  You do not need two.

Rev. Light

[Barry]

The long fine mesh filter that drops over the fuel tap straws is missing on mine if I ever had one but I do have the smaller inner filter that fits inside the bottom of the fuel tap.

Aftermarket in line filters can in general look distinctly non stock if not ugly. As long as I continue to have no problems with the current set up that's a good enough reason for me not to fit one.

[pcarrick]

O.K.! Good. I'll give a look in the daylight.Thanks, Steve..I Agree, Barry, the after-market filters are clumsy-ugly..I'll go for the tap filter. I was tickled to discover tonight that a full-face helmet fits in the hard bags on the bike(!). Apparently back in the good old 80's BMW wasn't concerned about theft. No way to lock the hard bags to(or shut) either on or off the bike.
Is it that way with others of the vintage?

[Barry]

I have the original set of BMW luggage that was supplied with the bike from new. The lids on the cases definitely lock. Haven't had the frames fitted for a while now so I'm not certain but I don't think the cases lock to the frames on the bike.

[pcarrick]

Hi Barry: my hard bags have no provision for locking either to frames or securing contents. Still perplexed by that..

[Melena]

Hi Lowlander,

I've got a great mechanic here in Santa Rosa.  He rebuilt the upper end of my R65 after it sucked a valve        But now my bike runs better than when I got it.  It even starts easily when cold now.      

You can e-mail me or PM me.  Maybe I can help you out a bit on the little stuff that you are having trouble with, like those bags.  Mine lock to the frame and the cases lock.  But I still put a tie down strap around the case and frame just to make sure.  

We'll have to compare them next to each other.  Mine's an '83 also.  

Cheers!