This has been my fifth total ground up restoration in just under five years.  With all of my other bikes (1976 Honda CB550F, 1968 R50/2, 1959 R26, 1976 R90S) my goal was to do as close to a Factory perfect restoration as I could.  I really wanted to do something different with this bike.  So I decided to build something special.  More of a Phactory perfect restoration!! :-)

 I started with color selection. I already had a black BMW and really didn't want another one.  I am not really a big fan of white, but in 1969 BMW offered at least five different colors!  The ubiquitous Avus Black, Dover White, Turf Green, a metallic Blue, and Granada Red.  Ah, Granada Red ... That was the color!  A friend of mine (Doug Morrison) has an original 1969 R69US in Granada Red and it is simply stunning!!  Plus, when he convinced me to paint mine Red, I decided to go for it!

 Now my bike is kinda weird to begin with so I just decided to elaborate on the theme.  It was built in the very last production run of /2's in 1969, and yes I do have the paperwork to prove it! :-)  It is an Earles fork bike but with no sidecar lugs.  It also has the US rear drive (27/8 vs. a 25/8).  It also sports all of the mandatory 1969 equipment, such as reflectors on the headlight ears and rear fender, and now the correct sticker on the rear fender.  The story I was told from the guy I bought it from, was that the original owner requested of his Dealer an Earles fork bike.  Now in late 68 and early 69, the majority of bikes in the showroom were US models.  My bike has all matching #'s and the front tag on the steering head reads R60, not R69US as is found on US models.  What I have here is a real live Factory Bitsa bike!!  I have talked to another person who has an exact bike like mine, so there are a couple of em out there!

 All of my travel to Europe in 96 really paid off, as I became a regular customer of Uli's in Frankfurt.  It was always interesting guessing if US Customs was going to stop me and inspect my suitcase.  You're only allowed $400.00 duty free and I generally exceeded that by about 400%! :-)  I picked up an NOS swinging pillion pad, plus a regular pillion pad and a narrow dual seat.  So I decided to run a Denfeld solo with the swinging pillion.  Looks cool, but no passengers!

 For my exhaust, I got a set of R50S headers (which I wrote about earlier in the year) plus a perfect pair of the Hoske Sport Mufflers shown in the Butler and Smith Accessory catalog.  I also picked up an NOS set of 50S valve covers, when I found that they would fit.  They definitely look way cool!!  I really wanted to run single handle bar risers also, as I think they are much prettier than the standard twin issue.  I was lucky enough to get an R27 top triple tree from Brian Curry.  Thanks Brian!  And for those wondering, the R27 top triple tree is a direct fit.  The R26 top triple also fits.  I was lucky enough to score a pair of matching headlight and taillight bezels, the ones with the eyebrow on the top!  I know they're not Factory, but they are really cool!

 The motor, transmission, and rear drive all came completely apart and was rebuilt by yours truly, under the watchful eye of my buddy Darrell Messerle.  Darrell used to be a Dealer in Illinois (Wood River Sports Center) and really knows these bikes inside and out.  He usually rebuilds them as I look on, but I wanted to take the lead and he let me.  I was lucky to find that the motor had a brand new crank and brand new 1st over pistons in it!  How lucky can ya get??

 It took a long time only working on the bike one night a week at his house, but now all of that hard work is paying off.  The bike fired on about the 8th kick and settled into a nice burble!  I let it warm up a little and took it for a short hop to get the internals up to temp.  I wanted to at least get the carbs to a point where it would idle and accept throttle willingly.  But while hooking up my carbstix, I realized that the right cylinder wasn't firing!  Damn! I tried everything.  Different carb, different coil, but nothing.  At that point I was hoping that my valves had just closed up and wasn't allowing any fuel into the cylinder.

 I let it sit overnight and checked it in the morning.  The heads and jugs did not need to be retorqued but the valves had closed up some.  There still seemed to be clearance on the affected cylinder, so I adjusted them back to spec.  I put the original carb and coil back where they belonged and fired it up.  Finally the right cylinder started firing!

 I let it warm up and tweaked the carbs to where it idled nicely, set the mixtures and the high speed sync.  After my short test ride the day before I knew that the front brake needed an adjustment and that also the handlebars needed a slight adjustment for comfort.  After all of this was done, it was time for a real road test.  I wanted to get the motor fully up to temp before I timed it.  Out on the road the bike felt great!  The new Koni shocks and sidecar springs give the bike a firm but comfortable ride.  I came back and put my timing light on it, to find that it was really close to where it should be.  A small tweak on the timing and I was off for a much longer ride!

 This is what I built this bike for!  Anyone who has a bike of this vintage knows what a pleasure they are to ride!  The relaxed gait and smooth quiet motor make for a very fun machine to tool around on.  Plus the funky looks really make you feel that you are riding something older than a 1969!   It's hard to believe that this bike was built the same year that Honda stunned the motorcycling world with their CB750K0.  So much for German stubbornness!

 So now I should be able to make the show on Sunday, and then I just plan on riding my "new" old bike.  It's been a long time in coming.  Now it's time for  my R65LS...

Cheers, Phactory Phil