Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

Is there any regular maintenance that has to be done to a magneto? i see these two access points which keep yelling at me to drop some oil in them or something.

Also, Do you guys have a pre-ride checklist for your bikes? I feel like as much as know my R11, I'm going to forget to check something because I'm not use to a bike this old.

Thanks,

Jason

You should fill one side (doesn't matter which) with motor oil until it overflows, every 1200 miles / 2000 km or so. I notice you have the front cover off. There should be a cotton wick in that cover that can transfer oil from the oil reservoir down to the gear/bushing on the generator shaft.

Thanks, Darryl. The pic is from before final assembly. I didn't restore the Mag, but am sure there is a wick in it. Surprisingly, I couldn't find anything in the handbook about filling it. I could have overlooked it in the translation process.

Thanks again.

No problem, happy to help.

Other than verifying oil, air pressure in tires, that kind of stuff, I don't think there's too much to do. Here are a couple suggestions from my experience riding an R52:

• If your R11 has the drive shaft brake, I'd look at it before starting off to make sure the lining isn't contaminated with any oil that might be misting out
• Verify the tightness of the nuts holding the handlebars to the top triple clamp
• Verify the tightness of the nuts clamping the front axle onto the forks
• Verify the tightness of the big nut holding the rear axle bearing on the left side of the frame