Tires and Soda Blasting

Today I put on 2 new Heidenau tires using my Harbor Freight tire changer and a Mojo Lever.  These went on pretty damn easy, which was a nice surprise. 

I also soda blasted both wheels, the final drive, the front brake hub, and all the engine covers.

Really all I have left mechanically is to finish the wiring and put on new brake shoe liners.  Then I'll button it all up and see if it goes.  I'll probably not break it down for paint until the end of the summer.

I got my tank back from the radiator shop, I wanted them to braze the crossover tubes shut.  I told them to red kote it while they were at it, just one less thing I'd have to do.  But, they forgot to braze the holes!  I could have red koted it myself, all I really wanted was to have the holes filed.  It'll go back tomorrow.

I'm also waiting on some stainless headers from Epco.  He really takes his sweet time.

Battery Box, etc

I altered the stock battery plate into more of a box to fit the LiFePO4 battery and reused the stock battery strap.  I also mounted the reg/rec using the bottom fender mount and swapped out a fuse box for the small junction box that lives behind the battery.  That should be the last alteration.

EDIT: this spot for the reg/rec ended up not working out. Because the bike was on its center stand, I didn't realize until later that this placement interfered with the stand.

Unrelated to wiring, I stripped the old tires off and hopefully will have some time tomorrow to soda blast the wheels and put on the new rubber.  Once I finish hooking up the wiring and get the wheels back on, we should be pretty much ready to roll.

How to get a motorcycle title in Pennsylvania

Woo Hoo!  The order came in the mail recognizing my ownership of the bike!  I can send that to PennDOT with a check and they'll issue me a title.  I mentioned earlier that I had bought the project sans title and I knew it would be difficult to get one in Pa. but I felt it would be worth the hassle. 

My first attempt was to go through one of these places that gets you a title from another state that you can transfer to your state.  This all sounds pretty shady, but I didn't know what else to do.  I first tried Broadway Title, but they wouldn't work with a bike as old as Ava.  I then contacted International Title Service, which I know people have used in the past.  This was back in November of last year.  We'll, after I sent him my money, I started reading more recent reviews of the joint and it became apparent that he just steals money now (the rumor is, when his parents ran the business it was legit, but the son is a thief).  And, that's what happened to me.  In January he told me that all the paperwork was filed, but it's now four months later and he won't return any of my emails.  I can't think of a way to recoup the money that won't cost me more than I sent him, so I am $275 poorer but richer for the experience.  Moral = don't use ITS to try and get a title!

I then did some research and found out that, in Pennsylvania, you can petition your local Court of Common Pleas to grant you ownership of a vehicle you bought without a title.  It's called either "Petition for Involuntary Transfer of Title" or "Petition for Declaration of Ownership."  Here's what you do:

1.  Send PennDOT a form DL-135 (Request for Vehicle Information).  You'll send them $10 for a certified response.  Fill out sections A, C, D, & F.  In C, I only had the VIN, so that's all I put there.  In D, you want a current title history.  In F, I checked option 4.  PennDot had no record of the bike, so that's what my response letter said.

2. Draft up a Petition for Declaration of Ownership.  Here's 3 packets with petition forms and civil cover sheets (don't forget to fill out both the local civil cover sheet and the Pa. Supreme Court civil cover sheet).  Just follow the instructions - it doesn't matter if you're not in one of these three counties, it should all be the same (I'm in Chester County).  To get your county's civil cover sheet, google their website:

Lancaster County Packet
Dauphin County Packet
Erie County Packet

Here's also the PennDot fact sheet on the process.

3.  Go to your local Court of Common Pleas prothonotary's office, file the petition with the response to your DL-135 and bill of sale as exhibits.  This will cost you about $130 in filing fees.  Depending on the court, you may get a court date right then (I did) or you might have to get one later.  Then follow the notice requirements in the packets.  If you didn't get a court date when you filed your petition, you'll have to send notice to potentially interested parties twice.  Because there was no record of previous owners of the bike, I didn't really have anyone to send notice to except the gent from whom I bought the bike.

4.  Go to your court hearing, explain the situation to the judge, give him any green return receipt cards you have from sending out notices (you'll read about that in the packets), and if all goes well, he'll sign your order.

5.  5/19/12 UPDATE:  I got my title in the mail today!  After you get your court order, go to a title place and fill out and sign form MV-1 (Application for Certificate of Title).  Have them notarize it.  Then I sent to Penndot copies of the MV-1, my court order, bill of sale, and a VIN rubbing with a check for 6% of the sales price (sales tax) plus $22.50 for the title fee. It took about two weeks

Coil Mounts

The headlight is officially finished.  I got my speedo back from North Hollywood (looks great).  Strung it up with ba7 LED indicator lights and wired it in.  I know I've talked a lot about the headlight, but it really is the nerve center.  Everything else will just plug into it.

I also made 4 threaded bungs for the coil and for the starter and horn relays and welded them in.  So I can cross that off my list.  I didn't have an 6mm bolts for the relay bungs, so I just have them taped on right now.  I won't trust the plastic mount tab alone, so I've put a small neoprene pad under each relay (for cushion - I'll also use rubber washers when bolting it on) and I'll throw a wire tire around each one after I bolt them on.

My court date is coming up in a week or so on my petition for ownership (in order to get a Pa title) - hopefully all will go well!

Oh, I had my front end apart and I'm not so sure it's bent after all - it'd be nice to save that cash!  Front wheel will get a clean up, new brake shoes, and a new tire.  Some PO already put stainless spokes on it!

Taillight wiring

I put together my LED taillight tonight.  Total cost was about $30.

I reused the stock lens, trim ring, and reflector, but I dremeled out the reflector so that I could snugly fit a Radiantz 1.85" LED puck ($25) inside.  I also dug up a white LED cluster ($5) for the tag light that I had laying around from an old project.  Then I used a little bit of epoxy putty to fix the LED puck in place.  The puck already had super strong adhesive on the back, so I just used that to hold the tag light in place.

I try to use these LED pucks on all my bikes - they are by far the brightest LED brake lights I've encountered, and I've tried a lot of them.

Headlight Wiring

Here's the headlight all organized.  The signal indicator is now my start button and I used an HD barrel key style ignition switch attached to a heavily modified aluminum spacer that Rocky Point Cycle sells for their ignition switch conversion.  I talked to Bill at Rocky Point and he's a very cool dude who knows his stuff.  Seriously, the conversation was a highlight of the week. I'm also very tempted by his Mikuni conversion - I like those carbs, they've always worked well for me.

The fuses (marked 1 through 4) are in, but I haven't yet plugged in the relays for the headlight.  Once I have the speedo back, I can finish it up!

Done and To Do

I'll admit, I'm not as far along as I would like, but I've amassed pretty much all the parts I'll need.  Now it's just a matter of spending time in the garage.  I've also been working simultaneously on a '75 CB550 cafe racer, so I've been splitting my time.

Things Done:

-I ordered new stainless header pipes from Epco.
-I'm trying desperately to get a title (I bought it with a bill of sale).  Pennsylvania is not an easy state in which to get a title!  My current plan (I'll describe more about my failures and how this plan goes in the future) is to petition the court for a declaration of ownership.
-Speedo/tach is out being rebuilt by North Hollywood.
-I've rewired the headlight (pics to come)
-I've got all the electrical components ready all the way down to the connectors I like to use.
-I've got new tires and tubes waiting along with a bunch of small parts from Benchmark Works.
-I bought a 12 cell Ballistic Lithium Iron battery.  These things are tiny and weigh nothing!  It'll fit perfect where the stock /2 battery went, but I'm still going to weld up a small battery box.
-Fixed some small dents in the tank

Things to Do:

-Get the front end straightened.  I've got 2 forks but both are tweeked.  One of them has to be sent off to California for straightening.  I'll try to get this organized this weekend.
-Make the battery box
-Change the tires
-Weld on the coil brackets
-Strip the bike down, sandblast the frame and paint it, and soda blast the engine
-Clean the carburetors.
-Get the tank boiled out, the cross-over tubes brazed shut, and then Redkote it.
-dimple the frame so I can get to the 3rd oil filter cover bolt (I'll do a whole post on this too).

The engine was supposedly rebuilt about 5 years ago, so we'll see how well that was done.  I'm hoping it fires up and goes!

I think that more or less gets me up to speed.

Electrics

One of the main things that needed to be done was the electrics.  I like to wire my bikes from scratch, so I came up with my own wiring diagram based on the components I wanted to use, which includes an Electrosport reg/rec, a kz440 coil, and lots of ATM fuses.  I'm using the stock taillight housing but I'm gutting it and putting in a Radiantz 1.85" LED cluster.  I've used these before and they're bright as hell.

Here are my diagrams (updated 5/17/16):

My main bike-building background is chopping up 70's Japanese bikes which are cheap and plentiful, so I'm usually not so concerned with modifying stock parts or tossing them all together, but these beemer parts seem to be made of gold so I choked a bit when I started altering the headlight bucket (a '73 r75/5 bucket, which came with the project).  I first gutted the headlight and put in an R65 H4 reflector and lens.  I also took out the stock ignition switch and dremeled out the key way so that I could use a Harley style barrel key switch.  I'm not using turn signals so I decided to put a momentary button in the turn indicator hole for the starter.  I had to dremel that out a few mm's as well, but I think it will all look pretty trick when it's done.  The speedometer is out for repair at North Hollywood Speedometer and when that gets back, I'll post a pick of the whole set up.

Intro

I've been wanting to document the progression of my BMW /2 conversion project, but it's taken me a little while to get organized.  Last November I bought a 1966 R50/2 roller with a 1974 R90/6 engine.  I named her Ava.  While some of the conversion had already been done (like the adapter plate for the final drive, the re-working of the seat mount, and a second petcock bung), she still needed a lot to be road worthy.

I had been looking for either a decent /2 roller to start a conversion project or a completed conversion for a couple years, but the completed bikes were outside of my price range and collecting all of the necessary parts was daunting.  Then I saw a craigslist add for this unfinished project - she was perfect.  She fit my budget, had all the major parts, and was within driving distance.  I like to build bikes rather than just ride them and I'm not sure how comfortable I would have been on someone else's completed custom bike. I'm so psyched about this bike - she's a keeper!

Here's how I bought her (this is a mock up, everything is finger tight)

She also came with lots of extra parts (including a Brock Downey swing arm and wheel, extra pipes and mufflers, a couple of Flander's sidestands, and an extra Earles fork)!