New bike

[darrylri]

Well, I've managed to convince US Customs to let me have my new toy last week, and the California DMV to let me ride it on the street yesterday.

It's a 1928 BMW R52, 500cc and three speeds.

I bought it two years ago in Germany, rode it a bit last year in a rally and then disassembled the motor. The crank was rebuilt, new timing gears, 2nd over bore, new pistons and rings, new valves, had bronze valve guides added, had the Bosch D2A magneto R&Red, and now it starts and runs great.

After I got it home I was able to do some things that were inconvenient to get done in Germany, like rewiring the bike correctly, getting the controls set up, and fixing the front brake.

Anybody know of a 1928 California M/C license plate for sale?

[AdminGuy]

Good job Darryl - that's a beautiful bike. Nice to hear it's getting all "sorted out" also. Look forward to hearing some traveling adventure stories from the saddle.

[darrylri]

Yesterday I took the bike out to run some errands. I put about 60 kms on it (38 miles) and it ran great. I will put some more distance on it in the coming weeks to get the motor fully broken in.

While it was in germany, I was able to locate a specialist to rebuild the Bosch D2A magneto/generator - Bayrische Magnet Zuender in Odelshausen, Bavaria. I can now say that they did a great job. The motor fires easily and the generator keeps the battery charged, even when I was out riding for several hours with the headlight and tail light on.

I had the motor work done at Gaennsle, in Munich. They are a specialist shop, and BMW's own restoration work goes there. Needless to say, it wasn't cheap, but they rebuilt the pressed together crank, making new, slightly oversize crank pins, replacing the timing gears, fixing the timed breather that was really bunged up, and naturally replacing the main bearings. Oh, and they removed the tap that was broken off in one of the 6 holes in the flywheel, that is used to hold the automotive style dry clutch. They also bored the cylinders for new pistons and rings, got new valves, and installed valve guides into the cylinders.

I was able to buy a number of parts for the bike from Philipp Dreher of Dreher Oldtimerteile. He's an enthusiast himself, and the parts he has seem to be not only quite authentic looking, but very functional as well.

I bought a bunch of cloth covered wire from Rhode Island Wiring to make up a new wiring harness. Their product seems quite good, and I was able to get a variety of wire with color tracers that match the German DIN standard colors.