pmdave
11-27-2004, 08:19 PM
A few years ago, as my R100 sidecar rig was having an electrical fit, I decided what I really needed was a more powerful, more reliable machine for sidecar work, and I eventually built a fast, swoopy K1 outfit.
Fast forward a couple of years, and the K started to drip a little oil out the weep hole in the clutch housing. The drip got drippier, and the clutch started to slip. What it needed was to yank out the transmission and replace whatever seals were not doing the job. But holy cow, we're talking a major job here, starting with pulling the subframe, which comes after yanking off about 20 pieces of fragile plastic, supporting the bike without a centerstand, and removing the sidecar. Then it's only another day or two of gradually removing parts to get down into the guts of the bike.
By coincidence, my old airhead is coming home. I gave it to my son, who enjoyed it in the WA DC area, but he just can't maintain it through the winters, and is giving it back.
Now that I have some experience wrenching on the K1 vs wrenching on the airhead, the simplicity of the airhead is more impressive than ever. With the airhead, I did a transmission swap/clutch job in my son's garage with only a handful of tools, and even with pulling the sump to check the screen and pickup bolts, it only took me a couple of days.
So, while we can't expect BMW to go back in time, it's no wonder so many of us keep our old airheads "flying".
pmdave :thumb
Fast forward a couple of years, and the K started to drip a little oil out the weep hole in the clutch housing. The drip got drippier, and the clutch started to slip. What it needed was to yank out the transmission and replace whatever seals were not doing the job. But holy cow, we're talking a major job here, starting with pulling the subframe, which comes after yanking off about 20 pieces of fragile plastic, supporting the bike without a centerstand, and removing the sidecar. Then it's only another day or two of gradually removing parts to get down into the guts of the bike.
By coincidence, my old airhead is coming home. I gave it to my son, who enjoyed it in the WA DC area, but he just can't maintain it through the winters, and is giving it back.
Now that I have some experience wrenching on the K1 vs wrenching on the airhead, the simplicity of the airhead is more impressive than ever. With the airhead, I did a transmission swap/clutch job in my son's garage with only a handful of tools, and even with pulling the sump to check the screen and pickup bolts, it only took me a couple of days.
So, while we can't expect BMW to go back in time, it's no wonder so many of us keep our old airheads "flying".
pmdave :thumb