wollyjumperuk

Afternoon all, thank you for your interest - this is now sold!

If you are interested in her, please find the full advert on the for sale section of the forum and the auction on eBay via https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254655643986

Just realised I'd not popped the ebay link on here! She is for sale via https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254655643986

Would it make life easier if I said offers in the region of £3,000?

You could look at one now!

Welcome to the advert for my K75 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254655643986)with 37507 miles on her, I've just sat down to write this on returning from the MOT station where she passed with no advisories! The bike was sold to me a few years ago and during my ownership I have stripped back, extensively refurbished and rebuilt the bike, the details of this can be found on my blog: https://motorcycleprojects.wordpress.com/ To give you an idea of the work undertaken, the highlights are: Fixed and completely repainted bodywork, frame and components Progressive fork springs and fork service Headstock bearing replacement Mirror tethers (to stop you losing them if they get knocked off) Replacement battery 2 new tyres Spline lube service YSS rear shock Installation of clutch pushrod grease nipple Pannier liner bags Stainless steel nuts and bolts Service (bevel box, gearbox and engine oil, filter, etc.) Too many things to list really, using genuine BMW parts wherever possible and bar giving her a clean (which I will do before sale), she is good to go. To accompany all of this is a wad of receipts to evidence all of the work done. I'm really happy how the project has gone and I was planning on keeping the bike, but on going for a ride after the MOT I found the bike was not for me - a great distance or or motorway bike, but due to an impending child I doubt I will be able to go on many more motorcycle holidays with just my wife for company! So, grab yourself a bike that is in as good condition as I could get it with a few years efforts! Viewings are available but are subject to me being free, please contact me for details. Unfortunately these will have to be socially distanced and without test ride unless you can show fully comprehensive insurance to cover this - if you bin it down the road after all that work I doubt if anyone would be OK with that! As mentioned above, we are expecting a child at the moment and we are close to the due date, so please be patient with getting back to you on any questions, arranging viewings and collection. With all the work that has gone into this, I am looking to get around £3,000 for the bike - cash on collection N.B. Buyer to collect or I am happy to deliver the bike to you, but it will be at the cost of a van and fuel (so I can get home again), paid before the bike is delivered at an agreed rate.

With the MOT roadworthiness test identifying no issues at all, I was a happy chappy! With that done and the bike good to go she was given a good clean and taken for an extended ride. Although I was happy with the work done, she doesn’t suit how I ride, as you can imagine I was disappointed. So, the final news on the BMW K75RT Ultima is that she will be for sale just as soon as I’ve identified where I want to list her, totted up how much it’s cost (as I’ll list for that price, effectively the buyer will get the labour for free) and written an advert describing as much as I can of the work done. Watch out for the advert! In the meantime I would like to thank people and organisations who have been key in making the restoration/refurbishment possible and otherwise haven't had any thanks so far: Heritage Stickers (http://www.heritagestickers.eu/cat/) - especially for custom printing the paint code stickers for me, alongside all the others provided to finish the job off perfectly Brad Angove (https://www.youtube.com/user/BradAngove) - for really useful advice on spray/rattle can painting which really improved the finish I achieved over the last project Chris Harris (https://www.youtube.com/user/BavarianBomberWrench/videos) - for great step by step advice on how to pull various bits of the K75 apart and repair them! Particularly useful for making up studs to realign the gearbox when refitting, spline lubing and removing mirror glass without breaking it (still glad I got that perfect first time)! Shel Smith (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC78zPlzaTZI2WxAckclwIzQ) - for another source of great step-by step advice (with text explaining bits too!), particularly useful for gearbox and clutch adjustment and boot issues Online forums, such as themotorbikeforum and motobrick for advice in general Motorworks (https://www.motorworks.co.uk/vlive/Home/index.php) - for really accessible new and used genuine BMW parts, I try to avoid using pattern so these guys were really useful eBay and especially Kays Fastners selling via eBay - for all my stainless steel bolt needs! Halfords - for ease of access to paint, colour matched stuff there is great and is only down the road Last but by no means least - my long suffering, ever supportive wife!

That's the thing, they weren't 'squeaky' but 'creaky', like a door being slowly closed with rust hinges - it was odd. Swapping the pads seems to have done the trick though! To take the switch apart was a bit of an ordeal, but one I got the knack of it, it was OK. The way I did it was: > Put small cross/pozi screwdriver in vice point up > With a flat blade screwdriver ease the rocker part of the switch off > Put the switch body, rocker mounting side down, on the screwdriver in the vice, making sure the screwdriver goes through the same hole the lever of the switch would and sits against the black plastic backing on the far side of the slider > Use a pointy ended dentist tool or very small flat head screwdriver to get in to the back of the switch above each of the tabs and ease these > Apply gentle downward pressure on the switch body and work your way round the 4 tabs, a little at a time, easing the black section out - it might take a bit of time but best to take time and avoid damage It is a bit fiddly, your could always do with 2 extra hands, but don't go in too rough on it otherwise it'll break

With all of the individual components checked, it was time to go through and see if there were any issues following final assembly. First off, the small oil leak from the front of the engine, which was tracked back to the oil pressure sensor... ... to fix this the engine oil had to be drained back out before the sensor was removed and replaced with a new unit, but with me being far too clumsy, the wire fitting was broken off, so this was replaced, the connection remade and the rubber boot refitted, so job done. Next up was a troublesome front brake, it had bled fine but it was creaking when applied. I always start with the worst case and work back from there (sometimes to my benefit, sometimes not so much), so the front wheel had to come off... ... each disc was then removed and inspected in turn, but no warping or other issue, so everything was rebuilt and reassembled, but the creaking persisted. The calipers were next to be visually checked, but before I got too far into it, I can't say why but I decided to swap the 2 pads over in the right side caliper and on testing it, the creak had completely gone! I'll take that! I then wheeled the bike out of the garage to check nothing was fouling the steering, to which both the fuel and temperature gauge smacked the infill panel... ... so the mounts for the gauges and handlebar angle were played with until I had free turning bars and I was able to read the dials... ... but during this process, a wire become detached from the ABS switch, so this was soldered back into place... ... and the switch popped back into place. With that done, that allowed the bike to be run for a while, run it up and down the drive to clear the ABS check and that warning light stopped blinking, and used both brakes to clear that standard warning light too, everything was working lovely! Unfortunately after about 5 minutes of running the battery started hissing and as soon as I realised, the battery boiled over. As quickly as I could, it was bike off, grab the garden hose and hosed down the bike, partly to dilute off the battery acid and partly to cool everything down as I suspected fire was a possibility. Once everything had calmed down a bit, a pair of gloves went on and the battery was removed, thankfully no acid damage. On investigating the set up, and running the bike on a booster pack, there was no overcharging, so that pretty much ruled out the bike being at fault. The battery was topped up and charged but it failed to hold a charge and one cell was getting really warm, potentially indicating a dead or shorted cell. So a new battery was ordered to replace the failed unit, it was fairly elderly, so I'm not too worried. While I was waiting for the new battery, I got on with checking the other systems with the aid of a booster pack to run the electricals. I discovered that the windscreen only worked once after powering up then failed to respond to the switch, so this was popped out and it was clear that the common power supply had suffered during the playing around with the handlebars. So, with some blind disconnecting of connectors the wiring for the switch was taken out. This allowed the wiring to be unsoldered from the switch and both to be tested on the bench. The wiring had no breaks, and the switch was good for the lowering contacts... ... but when switched to the raising contacts there was no continuity. So the switch was disassembled to allow the contacts to be cleaned, and bent slightly back up, not so far as to stop the switch moving, but enough to ensure good contact. From here the switch was reassembled, electrically tested and found to be good, before put back into place on the bike and tested to make sure it was all good. The next item on the list was the OEM tool kit... ... which was in good order, with nothing missing, so it was put straight into the tail fairing. Lastly I ran through the bike to check as many bits as I could ahead of the MOT roadworthiness test here in the UK. It is rather handy the UK Government publish the test parameters online! Thankfully only a few bits to do, such as a red rear reflector... ... and onto adjusting the headlight aim. To do this I rolled the bike back so the bike was 3.8m from the back wall of the garage and measured the height of the centre of the headlight from the ground and marked this on the window frame as a reference. I was then able to adjust the headlight from being far too low, to just about right via the adjustment knob in the back, bottom right hand side of the headlight, while sat on the bike to s better level. Although I can test the brakes work, unfortunately I can't test brake efficiency or emissions before the test without specialist kit, so we'll have to see what comes back from the test on that. Either way, that's the bike as ready for the test as it can be, so it was booked in, just have to wait for the test now! As always, if you'd like further details, please see https://motorcycleprojects.wordpress.com/

With the bike done, just need to finish off by completing the luggage, starting with the top box, which was popped onto the bench… … and dismantled, ready for checking over and cleaning up. On inspection I was quite lucky with this one, as nothing needed replacing. Each piece was cleaned up with muc-off motorcycle cleaner, dried off and reassembled… … including the underside foam strips to protect the luggage rack and at this point the catch on the inside of the top box was adjusted to ensure a good fit when closed, rather than the rattle I got from the loose initial fit – I doubt the seal will work with the lid bouncing around as the catch wasn’t holding it tight. I wasn’t happy with the finish of the box once cleaned and reassembled, there were a lot of shallow scratches and a couple of really quite deep gouges. I don’t want to ‘erase’ the history of the bike, but I do want it to have a fairly tidy finish. With that in mind, I gave the areas of lighter scratches a sanding with 1000 grit wet and dry paper, with a few sprays of water to smooth the finish as much as possible. In addition to this I rubbed the top box very sparingly with linseed oil via a lint-free cloth to bring back the original finish, starting on the right (showing the contrast below)… … before finishing off both the remainder of the plastic box and the rubber back rest. Once that was done, the top box mounting plate was checked over before being fitted to the bike… … which required the luggage rack bolts to be eased off and the mounting plate slid into place up and under the top rail of the rack before being pulled back towards the rear of the bike and located. Which allowed the top box to be mounted… … finishing that box off and allowed me to move onto the panniers. After inspection a few issues were found, so I set about sorting those out. First of these was the opening strap on one was broken off, so a new one was fitted. I then moved onto the hinge, which had taken a little more wear than was normal, due to the strap being broken… … so these were replaced by driving the old hinges off and the new ones tapped into place with a copper-hide and a small block of wood, in a controlled manner so that nothing was damaged. While I was in there, a new bungee strap for this pannier was ordered and fitted as the old one was a bit shot. Next up were the ‘touring’ badges, which had seen better days, so the first had been eased out with a car trim removal tool and the recess scraped clean of adhesive, before the second was fitted… … which made much more of a difference to the look of both panniers than I expected. The only job remaining was the bump strip on the bottom of one of the panniers… … so this was removed and the mating face cleaned up and a new one ordered. Unfortunately the only one available was from Italy, took a while to arrive and cost a fair amount to import to the UK, but it’s got to be done! With the panniers back in one piece they were also given the sandpaper and very sparing linseed oil treatment… ... which bought them up really nicely, allowing these to be mounted to the bike and allowed the pannier liner bags to be fitted… ... finishing up that job, so it's just down to the check over and fixing any snagging issues. As always, if you'd like further details, please see https://motorcycleprojects.wordpress.com/

Hey Ian, I would have done exactly the same as you, bar I would have given the mirrors a clean down with cellulose thinners before any paint then used a tac-cloth - saying that, the finish looks good! I would agree, don't touch them, don't be tempted to check if they are smooth for at least 24 hours (and keep any dust away from them, as it'll stick!). The paint will possibly be soft for up to a week, so best to leave them somewhere and forget about them until a week has passed. I find the finish is dependant mostly on the surface preparation, then how you sprayed the paint and how long you left between coats - I found Brad Angove (https://www.youtube.com/user/BradAngove) really useful on youtube. Chris

I just find it easier to go step by step, otherwise I would get confused! Get something as good as it's going to be before moving on. I had the gearbox apart as there was a bit of resistance to some gear changes, but that turned out to just be a much needed gearbox oil change! THe engine was good before I started, so that just had a going over and a service to check as much as I could without significant disassembly. I've pretty much put everything I did on this thread if you want to take a look, the additional bits with a few more photos and explanation are on my blog (linked below) I have been following the restoration but don't remember much or anything about engine/gearbox but I may have just forgot about it I've just had a look and your right, I completely failed to post about it, possibly because my hands were so covered in oil and grease handling the camera would have been tricky! I've done all this solo so some bits may have been missed due to this. To be honest, there wasn't much to say bar the engine had a check over and the gearbox had new oil (after the clutch pushrod seal was sorted).

I just find it easier to go step by step, otherwise I would get confused! Get something as good as it's going to be before moving on. I had the gearbox apart as there was a bit of resistance to some gear changes, but that turned out to just be a much needed gearbox oil change! THe engine was good before I started, so that just had a going over and a service to check as much as I could without significant disassembly. I've pretty much put everything I did on this thread if you want to take a look, the additional bits with a few more photos and explanation are on my blog (linked below)

I can't ever profess to this being better than new, I would settle with as good as I could make it - I am sure someone with more skill would have done better, but if I don't like the way something has turned out I tend to strip it back and start again, up to a point at least!

Not quite there yet, I've got some touch up bits I need to do (bits I'm not completely happy with that I've become mildly obsessed by really, when you live with a restoration for 2 years, there will always be a bit of paint you've managed to ding here and there!), a few finishing touches here and there (like the fairing infills and the black plastic bits, I need to figure out how they can look better), a very small oil leak from the oil pressure sensor (which looks to be a common fault, so I have a new one of them to go on), and of course the luggage that has so far been gathering dust and holding other bits awaiting addition to the bike. Once all that is done, then the MOT, tax and insurance so I can take her for a good ride - I hope that I get on with her and she isn't a disappointment after all the effort, but if I don't then I'll look to move her on probably at no more than she has cost me to do, so someone will get a solid bike without the cost of the labour (or the time) to do her up.