BMW R65 Restoration - Part 8 - The End & Cutting Losses

 Greetings friends,

This is the conclusion of my series of posts documenting the restoration of my BMW R65. For the previous post in this series, click here.

This post is a conclusion for this project and a discussion of why I've decided to end this project now rather than to sink more time and money into it. This project has been a lot of fun and a huge learning experience but the knowledge I've gained has made me realize I went about some things in ways that weren't proper for the project in general. I'll discuss that here a little bit.

For starters, I have decided to keep the engine that I bought for the bike. It's a 1978 R100RS engine, and I see some potential to use it for another project later on or to fully rebuild as a functional display piece. I did some work on it during this project, including replacing the starter motor, voltage reducer, and updating the air intake. Some of the older electronics like the diodes will ne replacing, but modern reproductions are readily available and I will update that once I have a chance to rebuild the engine in the future.

One of the major factors in deciding to stop this project is damage to the frame that was sustained before I purchased it. I was initially under the impression that only the forks had been damaged when purchasing the frame, but it turns the steering column was also damaged and misaligned, which after having experience riding other motorcycles made me realize that it wouldn't be very safe to ride if I followed through with the full restoration.

Finally, there were just a number of other shortcuts I took that in hindsight were shortsighted. I cheaped out on the throttle body, handlebars, some components of the ignition system, and in the end didn't want to spend more money to correct those mistakes.

I've since sold nearly all the parts for the bike and luckily recouped the majority of my expenses. That's the great thing about vintage vehicles, people are always looking for parts!

I hope to have a similar project in the future with a more complete vintage BMW Boxer, and to rebuild the engine I have when time and funds allow. Thanks to everyone who followed along with these posts, and look out for the other stuff I'm working on!

Thanks for reading,

Juju