I could only afford half an E30

[Zachbox]

looking great man, one of these literally slipped between my fingers a few weeks ago. still sore about it

If you get the chance again, take it! It's such a fun bike to ride around!

looks great! but wont the battery get a little hot being so close to the exhaust?

A little ha. I've been checking it after rides just by putting the back of my hand on it and it seems fi

I've never been a huge bike guy if I'm being honest, but hot damn does this make me reconsider that. Beautiful work, absolutely stunning bike. That seat is a work of art.

I really appreciate it!

Serious bit of me this is. What an awesome looking bike

Thank you!
It's far from finished but I'm definitely stoked on the direction it's heading!

[Zachbox]

No real update but I did push it across the street while it was raining to take a photo. So I guess there's that.

[Beemernut]

Old BMW bikes are just the best that vintage can get. I'd love to own one of these one day.

[DawsonLiri]

Still much more progress than mine!

And manage to looks great at the same time

[Zachbox]

So I've decided to speed up the aging of my back and throw some clip on handle bars on the bike.



I don't know much about customizing things beyond basic bolt ons. So this part of the thread might be a painful for the next post or two seeing that there are a ton of aftermarket bike parts but none are built to fit my bike specifically. I've yet to do anything like this before so bare with me! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I decided to go with some Woodcraft 3 piece clip ons. I still haven't found a set of controls(throttle, light/horn switches, turn signals, master cylinder, ect.) that I'm 100% in love with so I'm going to just reuse the OEM BMW ones. Since they clamp on below the triple clamp and there isn't room since my stock headlight brackets are to long, I have to cut both of them to compensate for the clamp itself. Measure twice and cut once right? Well... I hope so.









I am semi familiar with band saws because my mom cuts up wood to Tole Art on and I once took a 5th grade woodworking class back in 2003. To increase my odds of perfection I decided to cut it on the ground while carefully holding it down with my foot...






After cutting the brackets I reinstalled everything I took of the oringal bars and slid my new grips on with a little help from some WD-40.







I still have a bit more to clean up but that is all next on the list.

[theseeker411]

Hell yeah! Woodcraft makes some quality stuff. Also I love those grips on my Scrambler, best damn upgrade I've ever done.

We still need to do a proper bike photoshoot soon.

[Benwalsh91]

this is soooo good. i would live a vintage BMW bike to go with my e30!

[Zachbox]

Hell yeah! Woodcraft makes some quality stuff. Also I love those grips on my Scrambler, best damn upgrade I've ever done.

We still need to do a proper bike photoshoot soon.

I just got done riding it a little for the first time and those grips are ammmazing. Honestly I thought they were just gonna be a gimmick but I figured whats $20 and I'm super glad I got them.
Come to So Cal Vintage and we can shoot!

this is soooo good. i would live a vintage BMW bike to go with my e30!

Thanks dude! So far I've had a blast with it and would encourage most to get one if the opportunity presents itself!

[Zachbox]

Since I lowered the headlight by cutting the bracket, it hit the middle triple clamp causing it point about 20 degrees up... which I'm sure you can imagine isn't very good for any sort of vehicle, nevertheless a motorcycle.
So like any sensible human being would do, I looked into getting a new headlight!

As I'm sure much of you know, German engineers like to build their products very integrated. Making some modifications more difficult than they should. Well my bike is no different. The fuse panel is located inside the headlight assembly.



And with my zero experience with wiring anything short of an aftermarket radio, I'm in over my head.
Since I'm "starting from scratch" per say in the experience department, I decided to just take the harness out as a whole instead of just cutting off what I don't need. I didn't want to cut or remove anything that I'd end up regretting later.



So now that the harness is completely out I can focus on getting a new headlight on it.
Aftermarket headlights are often a little gaudy for my taste. Especially on a older bike.

After doing some research, I found out that the new BMW R9T's headlight has a roundel insignia inside of it and new that was the one.
I matched that with some matching headlight brackets from Speed Moto Co.








Next, I have to get some sort of smaller bracket made to coverty wrap behind and below the headlight to attach it.
Of course I naturally came across "while I'm here I might as well replace this" multiple times so I have all new hand controls and shorter cables on their way!

[The Norwegian]

i like your head light brackets, looks real slick

[hdlmgargae]

I love this entire thread. Cannot wait to see more of it!

[Zachbox]

So the headlight and rewire gig didn't go exactly as I planned...

To attach the new BMW R9t headlight I was required to buy a different triple clamp that will be expensive and that has no guarantee of working even with modification. So to not further delay getting this thing back on the road I opted on buying a smaller headlight and tackle that project later.

I'll have to work on better headlight bracket spacers but these white ones will work for the time being.



Since I decided to delete a lot of the electronics on this bike I was able to clean up the bars significantly. No turn signal switches, horn buttons, wiring, or choke cable. Just clutch, front brake, and throttle. I also grabbed new fork stem hardware just to clean it up a little bit. As far as the levers, master cylinder, and throttle I went with Magura parts since they also made the OEM parts that were on the bike





I don't have a photo of them but I also grabbed two individual choke cables that sit an inch above each carb.

Looking into the two or three different options when it comes to rewiring an older bike, I decided to go with the MotoGadget M Unit Blue. This little device is basically a mini computer and can all be programmed via blue tooth with my phone. Part of the reason I went this route is due to not having any controls so it was nice to be able to set up certain things to be on with just the power of the ignition. The other part is I can use my phone as the key. The bike won't start unless I'm next to it.

Using a combination of the OEM diagram, a M Unit diagram that Revival Cycles created, and a bunch of YouTube videos to finally got the wiring all squared away. I won't bore you with the 200+ iPhone photos of that whole process due to them being confusing without any context of what you're looking at.






If anybody reading this ever builds a cafe'd BMW airhead, the charge light delete from Boxer Metal is a must. Due to not having an instrument cluster or a "charge" light that needs to remain illuminated at all times, the bikes charging system as a whole can fail due to the lack of resistance. Boxer Metal sells a handy little posi tip connector to keep everything still clean and simple.

Annyyy who.

I grabbed a bunch of wiring loom material to group multiple wires together and almost give it a newer OEM look.









Last but not least, the starter button. I routed it right next to one of the holes a stud from the gas tank is secured through. Once the tank is on, the button to start the bike will be completely hidden.

[The Norwegian]

I've bean waiting on an update on this thread to bad about the headlight and triple clamp the wiring looks really good

[Zachbox]

I've bean waiting on an update on this thread to bad about the headlight and triple clamp the wiring looks really good

I'm stoked you've been looking forward to it! It's been a blast working on it and I'm stoked to be able to share it. ha and yeahhh. the triple clamp situation will totally work out at some point I just gotta tackle some other things first before giving that any more attention.