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)!