Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

I got to hand it to Cycle works they can come up with a working tool for less money than the BMW tools. I hear good things about them.

I lucked into acquiring a few BMW tools for very reasonable prices. If I hadn't, I would be shopping at Cycle works. St.

Ed Korn was the initial genius behind Cycleworks.

Unfortunately without Ed at the helm, Cycleworks is but a shadow of its former self. I still order from the new owner, Dan at Cycleworks but you really just send your money and hope for the best. If you have any issues, questions or complaints, you'll be waiting weeks if not months for a response.

I've ordered a relatively full compliment of cycleworks tools for my /2's and now for my R80 and to be fair, I've had mostly positive experiences. That said, any inquiries I've sent have gone unanswered. On my last order, I was shorted a tool and another (rather expensive tool) was unfinished and difficult to use without further work on my end. I sent 4 or 5 emails and left several voicemails over an 8 week period before I finally received a response. Dan finally sent a replacement and a refund for the missing tool promising to send one along when they're back in stock.

I would love to give nothing but positive feedback for cycleworks as I consider it an invaluable resource for guys like us, but unfortunately at this time I cannot. I have heard though that the current owner is maintaining Cycleworks as a side job and whether or not this is true I can't confirm but if so, I can at least understand the difficulty in keeping up with the volume. Either way, I'll likely continue being a customer until I've exhausted the need or found a better alternative. Just my $.02.

Slash;

One trick for installing bearing races is to put the race in the freezer overnight and warm the frame with a soldering torch or hot air gun (careful not to melt the paint). Thermal expansion/contraction will make the race a little smaller and the seat in the frame a little bigger. You do have to be quick when you slide it in.

Good luck.

Craig

Craig,

Good advice. I should have done that as I used the freezer trick to allow a very simple installation of the lower bearing on the triple tree. One thing is for sure, as my grandfather famously said, "do it once and you'll learn a few ways to do it better."

Chris

cbclemmens wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 03, 2022 11:12 am

One trick for installing bearing races is to put the race in the freezer overnight and warm the frame with a soldering torch or hot air gun (careful not to melt the paint). Thermal expansion/contraction will make the race a little smaller and the seat in the frame a little bigger. You do have to be quick when you slide it in.

Hmmm...seems like this would make it harder?

LOL, races in freezer shrink, frame head with heat expands, sort of like our little guys when they get hot or cold, oh, did I just write that? St.

FYI - Regarding CycleWorks - I ordered 1-8-2024 and received 1-25-2024. Still going strong.

I'm in the upper South Carolina area if anyone needs to borrow.

Kevin