Wrench'n Ride'n

Alan Moll posted a comment to this article... The petite MZ... I thought it was worth a post of it's own. So over the Allan.... Alan Moll said... Hi there, I have the 04 RT 125 and love it to pieces, the latter part of that sentence becoming more true every day it seems. I don't know or claim to know much about bikes so if you could give me some pointers to hitting higher speeds with my bike that would be great! The real question I want to ask is where I could find a manual for the bike or at least an engine layout and or diagram? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated if someone could e-mail me at alanmoll@aol.com and I will also check back here for answers... To be helpful as well, I've never had problems with the bike and it's great fun to zip around the city with reasonable power and great handling, the bike goes surprisingly far over considering it's weight and appearance. I would recommend this bike but have had problems around Norwic...

Over at the ADV Forums there is a thread about Cafe Racer BMWs . Most if not all of the bikes shown in this thread are outstanding. However this one jumped right out at me and floored me with its beautiful flowing lines. How well the faring matches the the tank. How the single seat just sets it all off. This one is owned by Nestor Blotting. Lets see what he has to say about how he put this together.... G'day Folks, Here's a picture of mine. It's a 1983 BMW R100RS. It has a Ducati SS fairing, Darmah fairing mount, caferace.com seat, Raask reasets, stainless pipes and Tingate clip ons. It's not a show bike and gets ridden a lot. I love it. I've never managed to get the rear disk working properly with the rearsets. I had to bleed the line with a pump but the lever ratio seems wrong as the brake doesn't bite hard. Any ideas out there? Cheers for now,

Great video from the BMW Berlin Motorcycle plant. Here we see how they make Oilhead Boxers. GS and S models.

I love my BMW. More than any other bike I have owned. This doesn’t mean that it is not without its blemishes. Take the hair trigger sidestand. Known to fold up when an Alpaca herder in the Andres sneezes and the bike is in Australia. Many a BMW owner has found their bike on its side on the ground. Fairing broken. The sidestand has folded up into the raised position. Why? Because it likes to. Once the smallest amount of weigh transfers off the side stand it will fly up. Also if you have an RT type fairing as mine does you can not put the stand down when sitting on the seat. Well I can’t with my short legs. I have to clamber off the bike while holding it up right and then use centre stand. I don’t trust the sidestand. This Video shows how vicious the original sidestand is. Click on the play button. That all changed yesterday. I fitted a SureFoot sidestand . Moto-Bins in the UK supply these. They are of a very sturdy construction. Comes with full fitting instructions and 2 new...

You may have read my ride report Visit the SpottedQuoll....& what 'LT' means.... , and seen the photos. Here are the rest of Eve's great photos from this ride.

BMW have a great site dedicated to videos of their products. This one features some great 2 up riding footage of their R1200RT through Norway.

Another beautiful old BM outfit from eBay. This time from the UK. 1961 BMW R60 & STEIB 501 ADULT SIDECAR. This one did not meet the reserve and only got has high as $4,745.70 AUD. TWO OWNERS FROM NEW. 47000 Miles. MATCHING NUMBERS, FULL HISTORY, ORIGINAL BUFF LOG BOOK. GROUND UP RESTORATION IN 1992 PROFESSIONLY REBUILT WITH PHOTO BOOK-HISTORY. MANY SHOW WINS & IN A1 CONDITION . DRY STORED FOR THE LAST EIGHT YEARS, BUT RUN & MAINTAINED. VERY RARE CLASSIC COMBINATION.

Over in the ADV forums a gentleman from the Blue Mountains here in NSW as selling this original BMW tank bag. It has had all the leather straps replaced. It has the original rain cover. He had had it for a number of years and had not used it. For $40 how could I say no. So through emails we arranged that I would pick it up. It is the middle of winter here and I had to ride up into the Blue Mountains to collect it at 7am. I was that keen to get this tank bag. Only one slight problem and this is not the fault of the bag or the seller. The strap that has a hole to go over the end of the top frame rail will not stay on. Even with the tool box in position. I assume this is because my tank is bigger than the one the tank bag had been made for? No great drama I have used the straps off my Oxford Tank Bag to hold this leather strap in place. The Oxford Tank Bag was too big and it fouled the handle bar switches.

This 1965 R60/2 and Steib sidecar sold on eBay today for $17,000 AUD. What a stunning outfit. Looks like it could have been ridden away when it was paid for. Hope the new owner uses it on the road too and doesn't leave it sitting in a garage all the time. Here is the sellers blurb about it... R60/2 (r60 stroke 2) with Steib S500 sidecar currently registered. A rare opportunity to purchase or invest in one with the lot. The bike is a 1965 R60/2 ( matching frame and engine numbers 627688 ) 53,300 miles with a Steib S 500 (VIN 37827) that comes with a lot of desirable features of that period such as the following 6 gallon tank with top toolbox and roundells that fit behind the tank badge Factory 12 volt electrics. Bar end blinkers . Full stainless steel exhaust system. Large capacity Bowman sump . Finned exhaust nuts . Rare sidecar gearbox, low 1st and 2nd with normal 3rd and 4th for highway speeds. Pagusa solo seat with Denfield breadloaf seat. New shocks front and rear with sid...

I was going through the blog this evening and I have found that heaps of images are not there. Reason being is that one of the servers I have them up on has been closed. I was not told. So I will have to spend some time putting the images elsewhere and reload them to this blog. Sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused.