Loose ends

The Hypermotard is at its final stages of the rebuild. There are still some things to sort out but the end is in sight. 

I'm very pleased at how this bike turns out and am anxious to take it for a spin.  

Before it was taken apart I haven't properly ridden it. The only times I did was at the guy who sold it to me to take it for a test drive. And the time I drove it home after I bought it. 

Engine swap?

Some articles ago I introduced the BMW E30 316i (Dreier) I bought last January. I explicitly said there wouldn't be any modifications to the car this year. This might not go as planned and there might just be a engine swap on the way. 

The current engine is a 1767cc M10 Jetronic engine and produces about 100hp.

A friend told me he found a BMW engine in a barn at his father-in-laws house. This corky engine might not look much at first sight. But there was a little surprise in store.

It appears that it was completely rebuild and has some high compression pistons fitted. Also it has a higher capacity of about 2 liters. Unfortunately not all parts are a straightforward swap. So we sourced another M10 Jetronic engine to use all the necessary parts from. 

Against me saying otherwise I have another project to work on this year. Luckily the friend who found the engine is very involved and is looking into all the aspects of this swap. 

Run-in

For the paint on the engine of the Hypermotard to cure it was necessary to get it at working temperature. So on an average sunday I rolled the bike out of the garage and started her up. As expected the engine ran beautifully but I had to leave it stationary outside of the garage as it wasn't drivable yet. Some neighbors passed by and complemented the bike on the nice note from the exhaust. Eventually the bike got at working temperature and let it cool off again. I repeated this several times as it was instructed by the paint company. This will benefit the end result and should give a lasting and durable coat of paint. 


After I stored the bike back in the garage again I went to my father who lives nearby. I didn't had to tell him what I was doing that afternoon. Perhaps he ran into some of the neighbors and spoken to them? He didn't speak to anyone... ...he gruffly remarked that he could clearly hear the bike run from inside his house. Perhaps I do need to fit Db-killers on this bike?

Another tank

To have some styling options we bought another tank for the CX500. The original paint was already partially removed but I sandblasted the tank completely. When sandblasting the texture of the surface does get a bit rough. This would be beneficial if we were to paint the tank. But this is not what we intend to do.

The current plan is to sand it down, polish it and have a matt black stripe run down the middle of the tank. To have some idea of what it will look like I've taken some pictures with the original and the sandblasted one.

The difference in appearance of the bike is very profound. It looks like a completely different bike altogether. You can clearly see the shape of the grey tank whereas the black tank tends to blend in with the rest of the frame/bike. 

The seat has gotten its final shape but it obviously needs to be upholstered. Be reassured that this isn't the color it's going to have when we are finished. 

It's alive

After lots of fussing around with the wiring I finally got everything in place to accommodate the air box and fuel tank. Also the wiring behind the headlight in between the front shocks took some time to figure out. 

But eventually the air box is back on with all wires running nicely around. 

And the fuel tank is on too. I even tried to start it up again; It fired right up at first attempt. The engine sounds nice and strong but I just let it run for about half a minute. There needs to be some things to be in place first like the air filter before it can be run in properly.

I've also put the front fender, brakes and exhaust back on. The brakes became a custom job and I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. 

There is still a lot of buttoning up to be done but I think it will be drivable in a week or two. 

The Louwman Museum

Today we went to the Louwman Museum which is situated in The Hague, The Netherlands. It's a privately owned collection of cars, motorcycles and related items. There was also a temporary exhibit of the pre-World War II racing era (1934-1939) of Mercedes Benz. I will let the photographs speak for themselves. 

The standard collection captures the automotive history from the very first cars right up to recent years perfectly. There are some very rare cars on display, some of which are never restored. All vehicles where very nicely lit and some were set in a background that was really complementary to the overall atmosphere.

In between the majority of cars there were also some motorcycles scattered around the museum. Some of them you see here.

There was also a large collection of miniatures and other collectable memorabilia on display. All of which is related to automotive history. 

It was a very worthy visit and can recommend it convincingly.