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Brake Light Mod

While working on the bike I had noted the rear brake light isn’t standard and just an old Britax one from a trailer. Even worse the bulb holder isn’t properly seated so it rests against the lens and is starting to make a mess of it. I looked into buying an original(ish) one but they aren’t cheap for the whole unit and as the rear mudguard has been cut I doubt it would fit anyway. There is LED kit for it but again that would end up with me spending almost £101.40 for a rear brake light.

So I asked if anyone had tried to make one and I got told it isn’t worth the effort etc. That lead me to think OK, I will just buy a tidy looking cheap one from China to replace the one I have and for £3.50, I did. It arrived and was much smaller than I would have preferred.

Sod it I thought, let us have a go at making one. I dug out some LEDs I had bought for a project and set to the task of making an insert to hold the LEDs. A bit of measurement here and some Illustrator there I had a fairly good idea of what I was after, I did design it to have even more LEDs but I only had 20 so had to reduce it down a bit.

I am able to cheat a little as I have a Chinese 40W laser cutter and some Perspex that can be used. It took 3 runs to cut all the way through but it is a nice neat cut and does the job.

The LEDs aren’t standard shape therefore I used a hotglue gun to stick them in place. Its not neat but this is more a proof of concept.

Now time to tidy the wiring up.

Then add pick which ones I wanted to use for standard tail and brake.

I soldered the wires and then used some Wago connectors to go on the end. They have a nice latching system and it means easy removal if it doesn’t work. They are also rated enough for the task I want.

A quick fit to the bike, and time to test.

Then fitted its even better.

FYI the LEDs I had have all got little resistors so they run fine on 12V. I may have another go with a neater solution later. I could possibly use some of the LED strips you can buy.

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My Location History 2019

While looking about on Reddit today I spotted an interesting post and it made me want to look at my own Google Location History as a heat map. I downloaded my history from Google and fed it into here, https://locationhistoryvisualizer.com/heatmap/

Below is a general map it produces based upon the 2,782,249 datapoints I added.

But if you zoom into the map you can get a bit more detail. I did this but I had to use photoshop to stitch the tiles together but that was quite therapeutic for me. (link to imgur file if it is easier)

This then leads me on to think, I need to do more exploring of the UK. My challenge for 2020 is to get some colour into those places in the UK I haven’t taken a smartphone with GPS before.

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Phone Holder – Quad Lock

With the new bike, I am searching for a navigation solution. The KLR has the Garmin Zumo550 but there is an issue with the cradle and I can’t seem to find any other ones about. I might be tempted by newer satellite navigation devices but its a big spend for a something I just for use on the bike. I use Waze on the phone when driving the car and at work so I started to look at a way to hold the phone on the bike.

With the Black Friday deals the other day I spotted a deal on the Quad Lock phone holders. The system they use has been recommended to me via several friends so I took the opportunity to order one. It isn’t cheap but it is rare to find something to mount a mobile phone to the handlebars of a motorcycle securely.

They make holders for quite a few different phones but my Note8 is no longer on the list so I opted for the universal fit, but somehow I managed to click something wrong so I ended up with the case for a Note9 which fits close enough to be happy.

Fitting is rather straight forward and I do like that they have some thread lock type stuff on the bolts to reduce the risk of the bolts coming out/loose. This kit comes with all the bits and tools for fitting it, even different rubber things for going over the bars. The hardest bit was finding a location where the phone wouldn’t fowl the screen etc. I haven’t been for a ride yet to test it as it was dark by the time I was done.

I have somewhere in a storage box a 12V to USB (fast charge) that I will fit on the bike at a later date so that I can charge it as I ride along.

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Inspection of the altenator

While looking about the Matchless it was noted some of the wires on the alternator looked a little cracked. Well, the wire has died, in places, the insulation has gone hard and cracks upon flexing.

A quick search on Vehicle Wiring Products website and I have ordered a length or two of 3 core wire. Plus some crimp on 4.7mm Bullet connectors. I may well be able to unsolder the old ones but I don’t want to make the assumption I can.

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5 years later

Many years ago I broke the Matchless on the way home from a weekend in Wales. The piston crown came off and bounced around the top of the engine, this meant the engine needed to be stripped down to find all the bits in the bottom.

This didn’t take very long but as we have a collection of bikes and some rather repair intensive 4×4 vehicles (Land Rovers) the Matchless was left at the wayside. I am reluctant to take on the task of rebuilding it as I didn’t take it apart and many of the parts have been sat on the bench alongside the AJS parts that were gradually going back together ready to go into the AJS.

This week my dad had the chance to spend a bit of time in the shed and managed to get a good part of the bike back together. Sadly he snapped a piston ring as it tried to refit the rebored barrel and new piston. These where originally for the AJS so had been fitted for that engine.

Sadly we pushed the kickstart over, on the engine a few times and there seems to be a lack of compression so we suspect that piston is also cracked, or the barrel.

I did make a gasket for the chaincase as that was another thing we needed to do. I used the old chaincase gasket as a template but I had to tape it down as its been in a folded state for a few years. It was then traced and cut out with a sharp knife.

The oil pipes need to be looked at as they seem to be a bit too loose and potentially could leak. I plan to source some clear pipe of a suitable diameter.

Another task is to resoldering the wires on the alternator as the 1960 wire insulation is starting to fail. I haven’t tried to do this yet as the parts need a clean before I tackle it with the soldering iron.

This meant today’s plan was to have a bit of a tidy up in the shed so I could get to the parts cleaner. But while at that I did some paint restoration, and with in keeping of the military treatment I didn’t go overboard on prep before painting. The parts were cleaned and just with a small brush and some enamel model paint I repainted a few parts that were originally painted red, though a slightly deeper red than I have applied.

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A few miles are done, the list is growing.

Now that the bike has an MOT etc I have been making use of the bike and visiting friends etc. During this time I have started making notes on things I would like to do to the bike.

The one thing that needs doing sooner rather than later is the front fork seals. The bike handles fine but it is weeping a little from the left hand fork leg even though the picture makes it look otherwise. This I plan to do a full clean and change of fluids. Partly thinking of fitting some new springs but as the bike hasn’t been used much it might be an unnecessary expense.

Other things such as the paint have taken a step forward. I met up with Craig of Buzzweld in Bristol and took his advice and purchased some very nice red and white colours that are RAL colours (RAL3020 Traffic Red & RAL9016 Traffic White) and not your mixed paints like I would get if I asked for a BMW Alpine Red or White, so I should get a stronger colour from them. But I will be using a paint they supply called PIO aka Plastics in One with only a bit of scotch bright it should go straight onto the platics and its flexible. Got a tin of back to do the seat as that could do with a bit fo a tidy up. But that might be a Xmas break type of project.

After visiting Buzzweld I then went over to Castle Coomb circuit and spoke to the people at Merlin Motorsport where I picked up some oil pipe and the connectors I need to change the pipes so I can hopefully get around the issues I have with the relocation kit I bought.

Other little things like a Surefoot side stand as I can’t get the stand down while sat on the bike, I am a little short and the bike is rather tall.

Plus looking for a new rear brake light as mine is melting, but to fit a pattern replacement could cost 50 to 100 pounds so thinking of alternatives.

But I did fit a part to the bike and that was the cruise control adjuster. Not 100% sure how to use it but might be handy if I ever make the mistake of going onto a motorway.

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Luggage

For a time I have been thinking of fitting some sort of luggage system to the BMW. It allows it to be a more practical bike. I am a fan of being able to ditch the bike kit and wander about the shop/town without getting a sweat on because of all the bike clobber.

Having asked a few places about pannier kits for the R100GS PD BMW I found not many sources of new kit. There were offerings from Motorworks but my eye was caught by a firm I saw many years ago at the Dirt Bike Show and that was Metal Mule. They thankfully still sell the pannier kits for both the BMW and the KLR. But I initially was a bit worried that the panniers and rails etc would come close to 2k for what I wanted. But after a bit of searching on the bay, I managed to find a pair of second-hand boxes for less than the cost of one box. Next thing I know, I have some panniers and a new set of rails on the way to me.

Fitting is fairly easy task but I did end up taking more of the bike apart than I wanted. Because the get the RH footpeg off I needed to remove the rear wheel. To get at the LH rear most bolt I needed to remove the mudguard.

In the process, I also managed to find another piece of the puzzle that is the history of this bike. Looks like it’s been down on the LH side hard enough to bend the rear subframe, bend the handlebars (in two directions) and snap part of the original pannier frame. I know this as the pannier frame rails matched up fine on the RH side but LH was a 2cm out of alignment. I managed to get it to work bu using a longer bolt and pulling it together that way.

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Bent Bars & More Light

Bars,

As I have been riding the bike I have taken notice of a few bent parts, especially on the left-hand side. One part is, of course, the handlebars.

Thankfully as a seasoned crasher of off-road bikes I can manage to ride most bikes with bent bars, I just take a few miles to adjust then I am fine. It was strange when I got off the BMW and took the KLR for a spin.

The search began for new bars and a visit to see JimJams down at Gossmotox in Yeovil had me testing handlebars. The closest being some Renthal Classic Desert Racer bars with the part number 666, but they would hit the tank etc. I went back onto the internet and asked about and Colt Self was nice enough to remind me about handlebar risers. So a bit of late-night searching got me a set of cheap 1″ & 2″ (25 & 50mm) to try and because I had already done a trip to Yeovil I ordered a set of bars, sorry Jeffers, I will bring cake down to apologise.

Eventually all the bits arrived and I started to get all the bits off. Which is a faff as there is just one screw that clamps the switch gear on then you need to slide it off. I swore a lot and even had to resort to a strop and a cup of tea. Because the bars I had tried only a week or two beforehand made it a very easy task to swap parts over, this time it was a complete nightmare which ended up with a bit of switch gear snapping.

I assembled the bars and went to start the bike only to find the indicator switch failed and now the light switch wasn’t working properly and was jammed. Some more tea later I decided to take apart the switches and thankfully I managed to rescue the very small ball bearing that had found itself where it shouldn’t be. Not many pictures sadly as I was now on a bit of a mission and I was worried I would lose bits if I stopped to take pictures.

Lights,

After a late-night ride home from a friends place, I noticed the BMW lights are very similar to my similarly aged KLR. Totally and utterly useless, I felt the Matchless with it 6V electrics built by the king of darkness (Lucas) had better vision. This I think is partly due to a bent headlight unit. An attempt to make some adjustments didn’t go to plan as the threads are rusted into the plastic. But as a stop-gap, for now, I decided to swap out the sidelight bulb for a LED unit, brighter but also less draw so won’t kill the bike if I am trying to get it started. But that had to be modified as for some reason the contacts on the bulb wouldn’t always make a good contact in the holder, so I laced a few strands of copper wire though the circuit board holes and that solved the problem.

The headlight has a H4 LED conversion bulb that I bought ages ago for not a lot of money and I have yet to test it at night but it may fair better than the old H4 that was in there. Otherwise it will end up with a Osram Night Breaker which is my choice of bulb these days.

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Let the Shake Down Test Commence

With the bike now running on both cylinders, I have now begun taking it out for short rides to get it warmed up and to make sure it won’t leave me at the side of the road miles from home.

First thoughts are the handlebars are rather bent so I took a trip to see Jeff & JimJams at Gossmotox.com to see if some Renthals would fit but after a bit of time faffing around we had tried a few different ones with the Classic Desert Racer 666 bars being the closest but sadly not enough height to avoid knocking into the screen and tank. So a bit more thinking is needed on that front.

But I did do a thing I have done to all my bikes, took it on a local byway to get its tyres dirty. This is a local byway near home which is an old Roman Road but its quite tame, enough that I have ridden a CBR600 along the byway with no issues.

Now I have managed to put 100 miles on it so when I got home I took the opportunity to do another oil change, the first being to remove the 8ltrs of petrol/oil mix. No filter change but just another swap with clean oil. But while I was there I decided to change the oils in the Bevel drive and Gearbox, thankfully it is the same oil I use on the Land Rover Defender. But it is horrible oil that has the ability to get on to everything and its stinks.

Now to take it for a longer ride as the weather is nice.

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Handguards and Mirrors

One of the items I bought early in this rebuild was a set of genuine BMW Handguards ( 71 60 2 315 860) as I could still buy new ones. These are manufactured by Acrebis and are the same shape as the old original ones so have the same 90s styling. Handguards aren’t required for riding but they do keep the cold air off your hands as well as rain. They also help protect your levers when riding on byways (yes I do plan to Greenlane it) from branches hitting them and causing it to either active the clutch, brake or worse both.

The kit is rather easy to fit and rather basic. But it does require the mirrors to be installed as they partly hold it in. So I bought some copies from M&P as I didn’t have any.

BMW Handguards parts diagram.

The Right Hand Side is held in place by the mirror mount and part 12 covers the brake reservoir and is held in place with two self-tapping screws. The Left Hand Side is held in by the mirror mount plus a bolt with a spacer which prevents it from interfering with the clutch cable.