Hi all,
My name's Thomas. I recently acquired a 1978 R100RS that has been neglected, modified, restored, and very loved (in that order, seemingly) over the years. I've been interested in air-cooled BMWs for years, and am so excited to finally have one. I'm certain I'll have lots of questions, some of which may be hard to answer immediately given the mods, but I wanted to type up an introductory post. I live in the DC area and I hope that once events start up again that I get to meet you all before too long.
See you on the roads!
-Thomas
Welcome Aboard !
You'll grow to love your Airhead in a very short time. They are amazing bikes, and have the habit of bouncing right back even after long storage or abuse.
► First thing you'll want to do is contact your local Airhead Club director, what we call an "Air Marshal". Get on his contact list so your can go to the next Tech Day. At the Tech Day you'll make some new local Airhead friends and they'll be working on some bikes. You can get a good taste of what's involved and all the local inside knowledge about who keeps the tools, which store has the best parts availability in your locale, etc.
► Like a lot of Airheads, your bike possibly sat for a long while. The following article contains a list of the top 80% of the trouble spots that repeatedly develop during storage. It may take a while to check all these, but you've got all winter. If you have any questions, we're always here to help...
► Lastly, only because of the date of your bike, there was a recall (way back when) on the front wheel. Your bike should NOT have a 1979 date code on the front snowflake mag. Hopefully it was replaced back then, and now show a much later date code. But, like my 1979, not every wheel was replaced. For your own safety, please check this date code.
The date of mfg is cast into one side of the snowflake front wheel
Hope to see you on the road ! Regards.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
@wobbly Hi Richard, thanks for the useful information! I'll spend some time this evening devouring that topic's contents. I have the joys of unknown modifications and a few incomplete changes (The replacement of the Bings with Dell'orto PHM38s is great and all, and I don't mind conical filters, but I wouldn't have minded the airbox not just being removed, but replaced with something to seal off the rear of the block). There's going to be a lot of time spent this winter going on short rides and diagnosing problems as they arise. I already had the turn signals go out on a ride! (There's a joke in here about BMW owners not using their indicators, I know.)
I'll reach out to an Air Marshal, and I'll go out and give the front wheel a second glance. When I looked, it appeared to have the extra "webbing" indicating it was a replacement, but I'll go look for that manufacture date. Thank you so much for looking out for me!
See you on the road,
-Thomas
Looking out for each other is really what defines "community". Welcome to the ABC.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
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