Smudgemo
Intermodal Man of Mystery
Just kidding. I did get smaller, but not much lighter. Last summer I happened on a fella who had a '92 K75 RT that had been sitting in his garage for nearly twenty years. Second-owner, apparently on the verge of a retirement tour from Oakland up into Canada, around the Great Lakes, and back south to head home via Route 66. But - he broke a bolt in the oil pan (more on that shortly) which caused a change of plans. Not sure of the exact path, but he ended up buying a Valkyrie for his trip, which sounded like it was a fantastic journey.
One morning I was helping my wife with something for her work about 20 miles from home, and across the street I noticed a moto-tow pickup and an Indian ready to be moto-towed, so I wandered over to watch and say hi. Got to talking with these two fellas, mention my bike is a BMW, and the homeowner says his other one is too. K75 to be exact, which was cool because I have wanted one on and off for the last ten years as a project. I was a little disappointed that it was an RT because I really wanted the S model, but boy it was in good shape and only had 19k on the odometer. I wasn't sure he wanted to sell, so I played it cool and made sure my wife wouldn't divorce me over another project (spoiler alert - she told me to buy it.) I got his number and said to give some thought to selling it. His wife was bugging him to clean out the garage, after all...
I still wasn't sure I wanted an RT, so I was patient and made sure to give it some thought. It was probably ten days later I texted him asking if I could swing by and talk price. I was thinking $500 because everything made of rubber should be replaced, and by my back-of-the-envelope math suggested I'd probably invest as much as it was worth with my free labor, so I let him tell me what he was thinking, and he said $500. Deal.
A few days later, and I'm there with my old BMW picking up an even older BMW.
Pretty easy project, and I think I figured out what happened. The oil filter is behind a cover in the oil pan, and one of the bolts was broken off. I'm guessing an oil leak developed in that cover, just like it did for me, and someone tried to tighten it up a little too much - snap. Luckily I have a milling machine and a set of left-hand drill bits, although in reality a drill press or maybe even a hand drill would have worked. Nothing was seized. Turns out, I developed the same leak when I had it running, and it got progressively worse where I decided to change the oil well-before I normally would. This time a bit of Hondabond says no more leaks. Weird design, for sure.
Anyhoo, I got the clock working, the engine running, added an aux fuse box, wired the headlight to run via relays, lubed the clutch splines, replaced all the rubber, new exhaust-valve shims, the whole nine yards. Darn thing fired up as easy as the Honda ST/CB/CB projects did. Shoot, I even got the ABS working properly - something the PO said the dealer failed to do for him. Yay me!
And now I have myself a really nice bike that one doesn't see very often. I haven't ridden it very far yet, and no way does it replace the GS, but it sure seems to run well and I hear reliability is a given.
One morning I was helping my wife with something for her work about 20 miles from home, and across the street I noticed a moto-tow pickup and an Indian ready to be moto-towed, so I wandered over to watch and say hi. Got to talking with these two fellas, mention my bike is a BMW, and the homeowner says his other one is too. K75 to be exact, which was cool because I have wanted one on and off for the last ten years as a project. I was a little disappointed that it was an RT because I really wanted the S model, but boy it was in good shape and only had 19k on the odometer. I wasn't sure he wanted to sell, so I played it cool and made sure my wife wouldn't divorce me over another project (spoiler alert - she told me to buy it.) I got his number and said to give some thought to selling it. His wife was bugging him to clean out the garage, after all...
I still wasn't sure I wanted an RT, so I was patient and made sure to give it some thought. It was probably ten days later I texted him asking if I could swing by and talk price. I was thinking $500 because everything made of rubber should be replaced, and by my back-of-the-envelope math suggested I'd probably invest as much as it was worth with my free labor, so I let him tell me what he was thinking, and he said $500. Deal.
A few days later, and I'm there with my old BMW picking up an even older BMW.
Pretty easy project, and I think I figured out what happened. The oil filter is behind a cover in the oil pan, and one of the bolts was broken off. I'm guessing an oil leak developed in that cover, just like it did for me, and someone tried to tighten it up a little too much - snap. Luckily I have a milling machine and a set of left-hand drill bits, although in reality a drill press or maybe even a hand drill would have worked. Nothing was seized. Turns out, I developed the same leak when I had it running, and it got progressively worse where I decided to change the oil well-before I normally would. This time a bit of Hondabond says no more leaks. Weird design, for sure.
Anyhoo, I got the clock working, the engine running, added an aux fuse box, wired the headlight to run via relays, lubed the clutch splines, replaced all the rubber, new exhaust-valve shims, the whole nine yards. Darn thing fired up as easy as the Honda ST/CB/CB projects did. Shoot, I even got the ABS working properly - something the PO said the dealer failed to do for him. Yay me!
And now I have myself a really nice bike that one doesn't see very often. I haven't ridden it very far yet, and no way does it replace the GS, but it sure seems to run well and I hear reliability is a given.
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