A couple of years back I bought a R60/5 BMW motorcycle it was a bit sad but had very low milage otherwise time and ill-use had worked it’s inevitable toll on it.

This was another of my “Sight unseen” buys that generally don’t go that well, but it’s a motorbike so how hard can it be? Well a fare bit harder than I thought but I’m nearly there.

In the late 60s BMW was at a cross road they had been making very expensive motorcycles for the gentry and they had at last started making sizable profits from selling cars so did they need the motorcycles anymore? Also the Japanese were starting to make an impact so things had to change if the motorcycle business was to continue so they built the /5 range in 500cc, 600cc and 750cc with a common crank which was like a car crank with plain bearings not the built up type with roller bearings like before, the conrods were borrowed from a BMW car, the camshaft was moved to below the crank, it was a completely different motor to previous models (apart from being horizontally opposed) but it was cheaper to build , maintain and it had a reasonable amount of grunt for the time. The frame borrowed elements from the Norton Featherbed and it formed the basis for the next 20 years of BMW motorcycles. It was no longer the bike that ended up with a sidecar due the the earlier bikes having Earls Forks as now they had telescopic forks like everyone else. Anyway the long and the short of it was they were very successful and BMW are still making horizontally opposed twins even though like Porsche they tried other configurations but their customers would have none of it.

Anyway back to the bike, it needed:

• New rims (dented) and spokes (rusted)
• New oil seals for engine, gearbox and final drive, anyone would think it was British as everything leaked.
• Carby rebuild kits
• Handlebars (rusty and bent)
• Fork gaiters (holey)
• Wheel, head stem, and swingarm bearings
• Throttle, clutch and brake Cables
• Seat cover
• Exhaust pipes and mufflers
• Headlamp rim (see pic)
• Clean up and paint pitted surfaces
• Fit electronic Ignition
• Buy lots of special tools as most of the seals will not come out without them.

So I think I have done my last order for stuff, February looks like a good month to finish.