Idiot v. Motorbikes, Rounds 3, 4, and 5

[melville]

Mel, I was looking at your powercoated wheels. I am thinking of doing the same with my 79 RT snowflake wheels. Did do much prep work before sending them off to coated?

For the R100/7 I got the bearings out and just handed them to the powdercoating people, who sandblast and then powdercoat.

For the R100RS I did a lot of work deburring them, taking out the casting part lines as seen in this post:

I've been having too much fun riding this summer and have only been picking at the Elsa project for an hour or so every couple days. What I've been doing is de-burring the snowflakes. BMW left a lot of casting marks in the wheels and I've been smoothing them out. Things like this:



Become this with a bit of sanding:



And then there's the parting line on every spoke. I found it was easier to make tools than to use anything else I had on hand:



I have a few different shapes like that. A wooden paint stirrer is also great for getting into the acute corners. This is where it's going:



Just knocked down enough that there won't be a 'fin' poking out of the powdercoat. These should make it to the powdercoaters in the next couple weeks. Then to repack the hubs and get the slightly used tires mounted.

[SteveD]

@Ron Baker Ensure they know to not lay powder over the flat area for the brakes.

[melville]

Yes, always go over what needs to be masked off with the PC people! They should have wee rubber plugs also for things like threaded or spoke holes.

[Ron Baker]

Mel, which set of wheels came out best? The ones you prepped on the ones you didn’t. Also has the unprepped wheels powder coat held up as well as the others?

[melville]

I have yet to actually ride on the 'prepped' wheels as Elsa (R100RS) borrowed my /6 spoked wheels for a couple hundred miles of shakedown riding. Once I finish the '10 year refresh' (now the 13 year refresh!) on my /6 I'll be working on Elsa, full teardown for general leak-fixing and chassis bling-a-thon.

The prep was just a deburring and I expect no difference in durability once they're in use.

[Ron Baker]

Thanks for the info. By the way my 1st refresh was 22yrs in the making. Lol. Now that I’m retired I hope to do better on the Rt100

[melville]

Yeah, bit of a slow winter as far as bike progress goes. Ernst is still in pieces and Edgar has just been a local errand and day trip bike. This summer I should have HVAC in the big shop which will make life so much better in there.

Edgar was grounding (lightly) the sidestand in left turns. I had a look and it was being held out by a buggered centerstand spring. I pulled the centerstand as it seemed both springs were buggered and I only had one new spare. Some discoveries along the way, starting with one of the buggered springs:



Then the stand and hardware:



Those screws are SAE, look like 7/16-24, and those are not OEM bushings. I'm not the first one to touch this. Also, someone laid a weld bead on the curved part of the stand. Looks like a coldish weld that they left standing proud. But it doesn't continue all the way to the feet. So today's mission was to add some material to the feet.

A little surface prep:



Some ugly oxyacetylene welding:



Some clean-up:



I'm the guy who sat on Santa's knee and asked for a welder. Santa said, "I've seen your welds. You're getting a grinder for Christmas!"

Finally, some paint:



Done for today. I'll be making a modest parts order for Ernst soon and will also get some centerstand springs so I can remount the stand. It feels wrong to leave an Airhead on the sidestand, even if the rings are in great shape and there's no smoke out the left side on startup.

[SteveD]

I'm the guy who sat on Santa's knee and asked for a welder. Santa said, "I've seen your welds. You're getting a grinder for Christmas!"

Haha...made me laff!

Be mindful that adding height to the stand might add to any difficulty in hoiking it up. Might be less of a problem on an unfaired bike though. Good time to tidy up the top points of the stand too, if needed.

[melville]

I'm the guy who sat on Santa's knee and asked for a welder. Santa said, "I've seen your welds. You're getting a grinder for Christmas!"

Haha...made me laff!

Be mindful that adding height to the stand might add to any difficulty in hoiking it up. Might be less of a problem on an unfaired bike though. Good time to tidy up the top points of the stand too, if needed.

Top points on this one are great. I've added realistically maybe 1 or 2 mm to the feet so I don't expect any trouble even though Edgar's a full service touring machine with the big fairing and bags. Leaving swing dance class today one of my fellow students, an actual German gal, came over to appreciate das Deutsches Motorrad. I was doing fine with sidestand only but fairly soon it will be time for new tires.

I should have done the top points of Ernst, my naked R75/6. On the centerstand, both wheels are touching the ground and it will be even more so when he runs again as I've got longer shocks installed. I'll probably pull it and modify it the next time I have a batch of stuff to go to powdercoat.

[Tom H Ca]

On your R75/6, could the center stand be a ride off stand? I think made by Browns?

Tom