1971 BMW R75/5
The Curry Toaster
This bike is yet another Bavarian must have when it comes to two wheeled vintage air cooled motoring. This particular bike has lived a hard life and has come to a home that will see that this bike never has to suffer again. This is a true numbers matching “Curry Toaster”, Curry coming from the paint color and the toaster coming from the chrome side plates on the gas tank. This bike when I had purchased it had over 70,000 miles on it so I felt it appropriate to give the bike a complete mechanical overhaul where needed.
This started with completely rebuilding the front forks with all new seals and springs, then moved on to the headlight bucket where I repaired the tach/speedo and all the instrument lighting. Next came the motor which I pulled apart and replaced all the push rod tube seals, head-gasket, honed the cylinders, installed new rings and cleaned the valves. The original piston and cylinder walls are in good shape so they will serve on for another 70,000 miles. Then it was on to the carburetors where they were completely rebuilt with all new internals and I even went through the effort to machine in new VTO ports on the carbs so they can be balanced with a Harmonizer. Then all the original 1971 brakes were replaced with new modern shoes both front and rear, and the front axle and rear splines were cleaned and repacked with grease. Lastly, all the fluids were dropped and replaced with new oil to make sure all the insides were nice and lubricated. Fork, engine, transmission, rear axle, and final drive all received new oil.
So far the bike has been running well and should serve as my daily driver for the foreseeable future.