'54 radiator and swap meet

Finally found a company that had a radiator for the '54... Well, they had to build one custom for it, and it wasn't cheap.

Griffin radiator on left, stock on right

Very clean, very light, and from what I can tell very good quality. That being said, for the astronomical amount that I had to pay for that radiator, they should have included fan shroud brackets on the side and top and pre-drilled the mounting holes... But they didn't, so I did

I don't have the setup for welding aluminum right now, so I bought a piece of aluminum bar stock and cut, bent, and bolted it to make the side fan shroud brackets. Then I had to bend up a piece for the top to secure the top of the fan shroud. It's not the cleanest, but it works.

Behold its glory! All the holes I drilled and flange modifications worked perfectly, the problem was with the lower hose which was in the most inconvenient position in the hood. This hose took about 45 minutes to just to hook up, and left me with cut up hands and arms. My father-in-law came over to help and was actually the one to get it secured on with a combination of channel locks and brute force. Once that was out of the way, filled up the radiator and went to start the car, and it won't crank. So that's charging now, maybe I'll get it to turn over by midnight...

Oh well, at least the swap meet on Sunday wasn't a bust

For $15,900, this Ducati racer could be yours

I passed... But bought this box of goodies for $50

Well actually $100... The '45 Harley jockey shifter was $50, everything else in the box was another $50, and the MOA anonymous books were free. I appreciate the thought behind the book gift, but they're pretty much like old phone books...

It's difficult to make out the contents of the box, but it's all internals for an R69S (crankshaft, camshaft, NOS con-rod, one of the two pistons, valves, springs, oil slingers, timing gears, and this and that). Now for $50 that was a steal to me, but I didn't have anything to use it with at the time of purchase. Now, however, it looks like I'll be getting possession of a '59 R60 frame and engine case, so now that box just got interesting.

I had originally planned on building a conversion bike with my spare R90 parts, now I'm thinking R69S. Pretty psyched about this project, more to come later.

BMW / Avon Full Fairing (police?) for sale

comment with your email address and I'll get back to you, $500 $400, !SOLD! off to the West Coast

It came with my 75 R90/6 can be found in the microfiche as P/N 46 63 1 234 863 (can also be found on maxbmw under full fairing in diagram 46_0061). Comes with all lights and mounting brackets - it also comes with special crash bars that are required for the mounts. 

Ikon shocks

Seems like I've been on a spending spree lately... Can't find any replacement radiator for my wife's '54, so the only option left is having a custom one built. Griffin radiator is doing the work, should be a couple weeks for it to come in.

Then I treated myself to some new shocks. Wound up going with Ikons, essentially a modern take on the Koni sport shocks of old, and rebuildable to boot.

Bask in their magnificence

Look stock-ish on the bike, albeit missing the aluminum shroud on top. Plus they look like they dropped the stance an inch or so, but that might just be an illusion.

Won't have a chance to test ride it until this ice and snow clears up on the east coast, hopefully we miss the storm currently predicted for the weekend. There's not a lot you can do to adjust these, but more than the stock ones. Just sitting on the bike feels better though...