Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

All I know is, whatever bearing…. They all seem to spin the crank race / wear it out

I have experienced the same, sloppy piston clearance, and wide ring gaps and bad valve sealing will contribute to this. Buy the next size up piston rings, they have slightly more tension, and you can effectively gap them correctly. The correct size rings sometimes come out if the box with the gap to...

How many times are you kicking it for the compression test? You have to kick it over 5-6 times to reach max reading, the first kick is always a good indicator, but will. It give total reading. If it is that low after 5-6 kicks, then you are going in circles with the carbs, I went through the same th...

There is a small town in Oahu, Hawaiian islands called Wahiawa, it is a old place and has its moments of beauty. I acquired my first BMW 14 years ago, and it was pure serendipity that a friend of mine saw my bike and said ( in our local dialect/pidgin) “ you like those kine bikes?” , he then said “g...

Check this out, I saved these pics off of FB where I saw a European restorer using this actual roller, not barrel bearing. I messaged him and he mentioned he always built engines this way. He said this was the original design for the war time R75 engine and allows the crank to move in & out rear...

Make sure you are holding throttle wide open when doing your compression test. If you are, then that is low. Maybe a ball hone and new rings gapped correctly will remedy this , otherwise it may be bad valve sealing . Either way, that compression is low. If fouling plugs, more than likely rings or ex...

I think it may be your air filter “foam”. Try to source an original filter element or even try without the element to see if it improves. Everything else being OK, the filter foam can be quite restrictive.

I just looked at my carb body and I was incorrect, even on the older carbs turning mixture screw out DOES lean the carb out at idle….SO…. Your left carb has screw out much more than right side. Do a compression test, and are you 100% sure your timing is spot on? Retarded timing will make it idle wei...

Make sure your slide needle is in correct position. If you have correct carburetor then mixture screw out is rich. Plug fouling is too much oil or fuel….

Yes, but it is yellow metal safe, it meets or exceeds GL5 and MT-1 ratings