Encountering a Stripped Down R90S @ Matt's

Yesterday, when I arrived at Matt Parkhouse's place to have the carb body swapped on Brigitta, I found this at the end of Matt's driveway:

1977 R90S

A fellow airhead had Matt rebuild the engine's valves, pushrods and some other pieces. They had been puzzling over a swingarm assembly which would not come out easily. It turns out that somehow it had gotten damaged and the guy ended up buying a swingarm from Matt instead.

Here's some pictures I took of the R90S as she sat tied down in the trailer while Matt prepped to remount the engine onto the frame:

Headlight Bucket's Innards - Note the neat color coding

Master Cylinder which sits under the gas tank

Steering Damper, apparently these models could get a high speed wobble, end result was a redesign which extended the swingarm's length on later models, resulting in longer wheelbase which eliminated the wobbles.

Following shots show the engine block and its mounting back into the frame. The engine's front cover was removed and I also got some shots of the electronics therein. Cool stuff huh? My Brigitta is similar to a certain extent so I look upon all these photos as ready reference for when I decide to tackle certain jobs.

You can see the clutch plate above

Engine Block, back in the frame

Engine Front End

Almost ready to go home for further re-assembly

Another view of the engine's front end

Although tending to the other airhead's needs proved longer than 30 minutes as initially estimated by Matt, I did not mind. I learned a lot about how an engine block goes back onto a frame, saw the innards above, saw the spline that needed lubing every 15k sticking out the front of the transmission and where it goes into the engine block, learned the purposed of a steering damper on the /6 and /7 bikes, saw how a swingarm is put back onto the frame and asked and got questions answered by Matt as I thought of them.

I regret not learning my fellow airhead's name, he seemed a wealth of knowledge as well and he's apparently rebuilt other marque's bikes, bikes such as Norton Commandos and Triumph BSAs. This R90s he's restoring will probably be entered in a Concours in the future. Its his first BMW and he seemed quite enthused by the prospect.