Sunday, June 23, 2013

When the cat's away...

Witold's off to decompress for a week, but there is much to do on Marcolino's Beemer, so we broke into his garage Witold graciously gave us the keys so we could go ahead with the rebuild.
The R45 got an upgraded clutch off an R80, with many new parts including the friction plate and a full set of stretch bolts, generously supplied by Brian.

Marco fits his new clutch like a boss (it's the thing that looks a bit like a miniature Large Hadron Collider), I kid you not, this thing weighs about a third of the original R45's clutch.
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Just one of the many neat details to be found around the bike. This one is inside the gearbox; and speaking of gearbox, time to get it back on the bike. Now, this is easy enough, though it did take us a few tries to get it right, nice and snug.

Below, you can see the difference between the old 18" front wheel and the new 19" one. You can also see that the bigger wheel has reinforced webbing, making it a stronger item.


We went on to refit the swingarm, which pivots on cup-and-cone type bearings with a couple of adjusters and locknuts, an excellent arrangement. The driveshaft links up to the gearbox with four of the aforementioned stretchbolts, then a rubber gaiter, a couple of clips and you're done. No messy chain, no fiddly adjustments... and the whole thing is lighter than a set of chain and sprockets anyway.

With that 19 incher at the front, the compact Beemer is starting to look like one tough b**ch. Can't wait to see this back on the road. Oh, and it's getting a double disc brake at the front too!

Yes, I know I looked tired (felt it too), but nothing better to unwind than a nighttime cruise on the Rising Star.


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