Found a GN400 engine

So that's what I'm going to do:Use that engine.

the SP engine is worthless. For some magic reason the exhaust valve has hit the piston (only just, but I presume the valve will be bent). I don't know why, I checked the position of the camshaft more than twice, it was fine. Tension on the cam chain was also fine. It's a mystery for me, but I'm really glad I can get this engine out. 

Besides the piston hitting the valve it also turned out that the oil breather is clogged up and I already knew that the clutch isn't 100%. Heap of junk.

And yet another fantastic BMW R65 caferacer on ADV

Yep, ADV rider is one of my favorite sites. Not only because of the excellent ride reports and photo's, but also because of their excellent 'old's cool' section. So many interesting things to see there. Shmerel's BMW caferacer for example. Not only a stunning bike, but look at that enormous attention to detail!!

As always you can find ADV rider here and the build thread here.

Some very nice Beemer cafe's

via El Cuervo Blogcafe

Made some pics to help the sale

It's for sale (the Suzuki)

Did some minor work on the Suzuki yesterday and tried to go for a ride. It started, died, started again,m died again and then lost all compression. No weird noises, but just no compression anymore. No patience anymore either.

I tried to put this bike together as good as I can. For the insiders: that means no dztn's ;)). But yesterday I realized again that I just don't enjoy working on this bike anymore and that was the whole point of this bike: enjoying the build. I don't particularly enjoy riding it either, with my 2 meters en nearly 100kg's I'm just to big for this little bike. So I'm going cut my losses and sell it. So if anyone's interested, it's really cheap ;).

It also means that I'm looking for a new project, so if anyone has a dirt cheap, next to free, project bike waiting in his or her shed to be remodeled with an angle grinder: Please contact me.

In the mean time I'll just bore you guys with some more pics of the BMW. Some guy gave me some really good tips on how to get the photo's looking better with the free program Gimp. So I tried it out on a few older shots.

And again back again

Yup, been away again. This time it was a holiday. Spend a week on Texel, one of the Dutch barrier islands in the wadden sea. Lot's of nature, which is rare in this overcrowded country, and a beautiful mountain bike track. Really enjoyed myself.

Bike building to resume shortly.

So this is what it looks like now....

It actually rides a little better with less weight on the front wheel (the other handlebar had a more forward and lower position, causing the rider to lean on them). Still having problems with the engine dying after a few minutes though.

Loosing my patience....

I'm starting to get REALLY annoyed with the Suzuki. Anybody want to buy it?

This is why. I've been posting for months now that there are only minor things to do. And there are, but each time there are new, really annoying, minor things to do. Lately the bike has begun with stalling after 10 minutes or so and I can kick all I want: No spark, no life. I basically replaced the whole ignition, but no joy. Each time I change something (spark plug, spark plug cap, some wires, the coil, the wire between the coil and the spark plug, the ignition, all that) I seem to get a bit further so each time I have to walk further back home.

Also spend over 10 minutes to get the new grips on, they were really tight. It took just ONE kick for the left grip to come of, causing me to drop the bike and bend the handlebar. Exit handlebar. Now it's got normal clip-ons. Doesn't look nearly as good. Wanted to take a picture of it, but the bike died after 200 meters.

So now I've got a bike that I don't like to see or ride anymore. Even if I can get the problem above solved there's already a new one coming up: The bike started refusing to go to second gear.

I guess it's one of those days......

P.S.: Anybody in the Netherlands know a new ultra-low budget project for me?

Where the magic happens

The velocity stack offers a nice view on the inside of the carb. The ignition key is just behind the engine on the right side of the bike.

Been having a lot of problems with the Suzuki lately. It was hard to start and stalled before the engine even got up to temperature and it was impossible to get it started after that. Got it a lot better today. The spark plug cap was faulty and there are some minor other problems. It's always this part of the build that I hate most. The bike is nearly finished, but it's still a lot more work than you think and this one is a fighter.....

Cool blog

A blog especially dedicated to BMW caferacers. It's worth checking out:

http://cafebeemers.blogspot.com/

back again

Been to Denmark (beautiful country, really nice people and the home of the Wrench Monkeys) for my study the last week or so. Learned a lot, had a lot of fun with my fellow students, but haven't been able to do anything on the bikes of course.

Hopefully I'll have some time for the bikes again tomorrow. So to get in the right mood:

Ride report: read it.

To get back to my last post: ADV rider is an fabulous site. I it really is. I just came across this rider report.

Read it. Seriously. Start at the first page and just start reading, it is absolutely EPIC (I hate that word, but it's by far the best word to describe that journey).

Another great BMW in the making

Check out this beauty:

The bike is being build by adv member sparkymoto. You can read and follow the build thread here.