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Another year on an R27

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pmtremblay
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Another year on an R27

Post by pmtremblay »

Last May I rode a freshly recommissioned R27 on a Motogiro, a spirited 300 miles over two days through mountainous back roads. I wrote about it on this forum (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17519), and in the Summer 2022 VBMWMO magazine. The bike had only been on the road for a few months at the time, after sitting for almost 40 years. The little single was fairly well sorted and I was confident it’d finish the ride intact, but I had no idea how capable it would prove to be. What I’d expected to be a quirky toy had quickly become my favorite bike ever.
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I put another thousand miles on the R27 after the Motogiro when some some leaks began, and the main seal and pushrod seals needed to be replaced. The initial recommissioning work was limited, just to get it back on the road, when I was thinking it’d get ridden a few hundred miles a year. No engine or transmission work, only a new wiring harness, wheel bearings, tires, suspension and all the usual rubber parts.

The odometer said 10,000 miles when I got it, but I don’t know the history before about 1976, when it was last ridden regularly. It had a few oddball parts, like mismatched levers and a later-model throttle perch. It also had heavily ground down center stand feet, likely from vibrating at idle on concrete. All a little weird for the mileage - who knows if it was correct, or what it went through for those first 10 years?

I decided to do the right thing and get the engine rebuilt. I was fortunate to find a small shop not far away that could do the work, and even more fortunate that the only issues were a fairly full slinger and iffy bearings, all replaced along with the cam chain. Another few thousand dollars invested, and the bike has cost me well more than I could sell it for, but it’s been worth every penny. I’m not a rich guy, but I’m proud to know this R27 is ready for its second 60 years.

I got the bike back just in time for another Motogiro, this time in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. I loaded it on a borrowed trailer, and headed north out of Virginia.

Like a lot of you, I’m really interested in the bike’s history. While I’m missing about a decade of my bike’s story, thanks to the BMW archives and a faded dealer label, I know it’s beginning. Built in 1964, it was delivered to Butler & Smith in New York in early 1965. It’s titled as a ‘66, the year it was first sold and registered in New Jersey. On the front mudguard is a splotch of white, and if you squint just right you can see the name Hecky’s Cycle Shop. Some research shows this was a small Triumph and BMW dealer operating in Glendora, New Jersey, throughout the ‘60s, owned by a George Heck.

My route from Virginia to the Motogiro in Massachusetts would just happen to take me right past Glendora, and a 10 minute detour found me in front of a hairdresser’s at 1001 Black Horse Pike, a small white building that used to be Hecky’s. I don’t name vehicles. I know they are machines, and that their personalities are mostly carb tuning and imagination. But I have a good imagination, and I think my R27 appreciated the visit.
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Motogiros are loose competitions based on Italian races of the 1950s, limited to smaller displacement motorcycles from the late 1960s or earlier, with extra classes for sidecars and scooters. The big draw is that they cover hundreds of miles of the best (and worst) back roads, navigated with simple route sheets. I rode 400 miles in Massachusetts this year, including a few wrong turns. Between the tight roads, sketchy weather and long climbs, that’s about 12 hours of saddle time over two days.
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There were lots of Japanese bikes, capacity is maxed at 305cc so Honda Scramblers, Dreams and Super Hawks are popular choices. A few Italian bikes added some color, along with some Brits and one lone Italian-American Harley.
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Three other R27s competed as well, all shinier than my weathered bike. I was fortunate to ride alongside each of them several times over the weekend, and was impressed with how evenly matched we were for speed and gumption up the hills. There were some other German bikes too, including at least two NSUs, and while the displacement restrictions mostly limited BMW to the singles, the sidecar class had two more, a white 1960 R69 rig and a K-bike rig.
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Like last year’s event, the R27 ran flawlessly through pouring rain, over miles and miles of dirt roads, up steep climbs and down twisty descents. Frost heaves and potholes were the worst of the obstacles, violently bottoming out the front suspension a few times. The single never coughed or sputtered, it purred like a new bike with a few rattles, and finished as strong as it started. The engine rebuild was an absolute success.

Unlike last year’s event, I wasn’t surprised at how well it went, but I was still impressed! An oil change, a fresh rear tire, and a good cleaning and the bike is ready for more.
Patrick in Virginia
'66 R27
'22 G310R

Seek
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Re: Another year on an R27

Post by Seek »

Very nice story and pictures!

I like that Allstate bike. Never heard about that brand, but it seams to be made by Puch in Austria. Double piston two stroke, I guess?

Pokey
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Re: Another year on an R27

Post by Pokey »

Thanks really enjoyed the ride along sounds like a great time. The stop at the old bike shop was great. I often see old repurposed buildings and think how they looked back in the day. My Dad 96 now was a bike rider in his early years. I can remember visiting some of his old friends that had bike shops. Made a big impression on me. Thanks for posting. Ron

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Re: Another year on an R27

Post by jgreen »

What a great post! Thank you for the pictures, and isn't history fun? Every old bike is like a mystery...

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pmtremblay
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Fathers Day ride

Post by pmtremblay »

I had such a great ride today. I headed west from home towards Farmville, a nice college town, for lunch. It's a good destination because I can get there mostly on narrow, no-painted-lines backroads, and maybe see a dozen other vehicles. Just how I like it. The bike was running so well and is such a pleasure to ride, I ate lunch quick to get back on the road. The weather was almost perfect, and I saw lots of wildlife. At one point a small black bear was in the road about 25 yards ahead, but it scurried off quickly. Lots of gentle hills, 35 mph curves, sections of full canopy followed by sweeping fields, and one five mile stretch of dirt and gravel. So good. Total for the day was 251 miles over six and a half hours of ride time.

In what may be a first, I got home and couldn't find anything wrong with the bike. In the year and a half/3,500 miles I've had it running, I've returned with a missing, loose or broken: coil, condenser (twice), voltage regulator, front axle pinch bolt, exhaust manifold nut, muffler silent block bolt, both bolts on top of the carb plunger, big nut on the top of the carb slide, carb-to-air-box rubber boot, pushrod tube seals (two sets), rear brake switch, and a rear gas tank bolt. It's a testament to the bike that it has always come home under it's own power.

But now that the engine has been rebuilt, the old parts have died off, and I've gotten better at keeping up with the rest, it's running as good as it has in 50 years.

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I added the vintage plate this week. Virginia lets you use an original plate if the date matches the title. We need a VBMWMO license plate topper.

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Alternate forms of transportation.

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251 miles today, 1,220 since March for the year.

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Patrick in Virginia
'66 R27
'22 G310R

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Re: Another year on an R27

Post by Dover Rider »

Thanks for the great story Patrick ! Makes me want to get mine out of the garage. I seem to always defer to the 69s or the Norton. I really appreciate stories like this. Chris Shea in Seattle had the right idea with posts of bikes on the job.

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pmtremblay
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Re: Another year on an R27

Post by pmtremblay »

Off to another motorcycle fest today, the Virginia Moto Classic in Richmond. Very much a hipster vibe, but some cool bikes. For BMW, there were a few /5s, some later airheads, and maybe four or five pre-70s. I met a guy I follow on Instagram, @welltraveledbmw. He has an R50/2 that’s been in his family for 57 years, complete with awesome parking and other official decals from when it lived in Hawaii. I hopefully talked him into joining VBMWMO.

After an hour or so I’d caught up with a few friends, had a good BBQ sandwich, and had seen all I needed to see, so it was back on the road. The event was about 25 miles from home by big roads, I took the 45 mile route up and the 90 mile long way back. The R27 ran terrific, and came home intact once again.
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Patrick in Virginia
'66 R27
'22 G310R

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Flx48
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Re: Another year on an R27

Post by Flx48 »

To continue on from Patrick Tremblay's spring Motogiro reporting-

The two-day Fall '23 USCRA Motogiro was held in the Madison County, VA foothills this past weekend, under the shadow of the Shenandoah Nat'l Park.

With a field of sixty-some bikes and riders, vintage BMWs were represented by three; a black R27, (Turner Wharton) a white R27, (Will Paley) and the white R69 sidecar rig.
Those three bikes, along with an NSU Max, (Bruce Wharton) an H-D Sprint, (Rick Bell) and a Moto Guzzi Aroni (Dave Roper) made up Team MotoPaleo.

Team MotoPaleo's combined low scores were enough to take the coveted 1st Place Team award, with the Sprint taking 2nd in the very competitive 250 Class, and the R69 1st in the Sidecar Class.
(the sidecar win was a bit hollow as there were just two entries this Giro, and the other rig (an H-D) DNFed at the end of the first day; this was unlike previous Giros, such as our win earlier this year at the Spring '23 MotoGiro in the Berkshires of MA, where there were 10-12 sidecar class entries)

The route sheets took the bikes over a mix of roads; just a few miles of state highways, a lot of paved county roads that were continuously windy and up/down hill and dale through both farm country and forest, challenging switchbacks, a low water crossing, and a healthy portion of blind cornered dirt roads that included idling through a contingent of 25 or so mounted horses crossing the road in the middle of a fox hunt, and a final section routed up the mountain to the Skyline Drive and back.

All in all, a really enjoyable combination, testing the endurance of both bike and rider, along with great roads, great scenery, and great company.
Best-
George
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