Getting to Work .
Page 1: February - May 2006 | Page 2:August 2006 - June 2007 | Page 3: September 2007- current

February 2006....

Fortunately my engine has recently been rebuilt, so my current plans for the next three months are:
check & replace contol cables as necessary
repair or replace clutch lever
replace wiring as necessary
Chrome plating for handlebar, risers, control levers
Repair & chrome (or replace) exhaust
build new seats for car
Replace rear fender with original
new seals for forward shocks
strip & repaint gas tank

Depending on what else I find, this should get it on the road for the season. Next winter will see a complete paint & chrome job. Note that I definitely want to keep the bike as original as possible, so the chrome will be kept to a minimum: basically just highlights. As for the paint, it's like my bud John says..."any color for a bike is fine, as long as its black".

So I'll update this page as repairs go forward.

April 2006....

Hurry up and wait...that's the motto in BG. I've spent the days that are warm enough in the garage doing general tune up stuff; new plugs, oil change, cleaning off the grime, whatever possible while I search for parts and a plating shop. We had a new seat made for the sidecar and I've pulled the exhaust: I'm hoping this week to fab out a new one from stainless but getting ahold of my friend's friend's uncle Ivan who seems to be the only guy in Varna who actually knows someone with a pipe bender and flaring machine...it's an exercise in patience.
The bike, as usual, may be a M72 but it's cobbled from parts off god knows how many machines. The rear fender appears to be off an old BMW R71, nobody knows what the sidecar fender is off of, gas tank is from a K750. The tank is currently at a body shop (Thanks Tiho!) but it has so much filler that calling it a "tank" seems innapropriate. Hopefully I'll find a better one soon.
For the rear fender Kracy sorted me an original plate bracket, tail lamp and pull bar. That insane aluminum bracket is gone, but since the lower fender is shorter than the original it ain't quite right yet.
With the tank and exhaust off, I realized that there was just so much surface rust that a complete teardown would be necessary for cleaning. Time for drastic measures. I bought two cans of gloss black spray paint and went to town. Rust, dirt, everything...it's now gloss black ;) Not good, but until the full strip and repaint next winter at least it's not going to get worse.
I've vowed not to tear it down any further until I'm SURE I can actually get the chrome work done. But maybe next week....
Pics will come as soon as it warms up again. April 8 today and still feels like winter here.

May 2006...

Well, we've experienced massive service failure. Unable to find the plating shop (there isn't really a phone book here) and frustrated by the quality of workmanship I've found, we gave up on the idea of getting the exhaust fabricated and ordered one from Leszek at the Oldtimer Garage in Poland. It isn't an exact copy of the original, and there was a bit of tweaking involved to mount it: the new set didn't have the forward mounting tabs which should fit the front foot pegs, and the alignment of the right side pipe was such that it has to mount on the outside of the rear shock rather than the inside: this caused a small problem as the outside surface is rounded and of course the mount tab is flat. The solution was a longer mounting bolt with a spacer, but it took a bit of running around to sort it. Anyhow, it's certainly made a difference:

As you can see I haven't been completely idle but the battle against rust continues. The touch up paint has made a big improvement but it's a temporary measure and the thin coats I've put on certainly won't last long. But it might turn some heads for a couple of months, which right now is all I'm looking for. There are a few parts like the foot shift rocker that are going to need a better solution: I picked up a bottle of bluing compound that should get them black again (after some serious muscle with the wirebrush) and last a bit longer than paint, which wouldn't stand a chance. I'll be bluing the head bolts as well to get some contrast between them and the aluminum cylinder heads.
I haven't shown any of it here because I couldn't get good photos at the garage, but I also pulled the risers and bars. I have to say this about Russian nickel plating, they lay it on thick! I took a rotary brass wirebrush to the risers and stripped off the surface rust, and the plating is still good enough to get by. The handlebars were stripped and painted for now although they'll be powder coated along with the frame later on.
A month or so ago I bought a full set of cables off of E-Bay which supposedly fit the bike...well, they don't. The speedometer cable will hopefully work although it's a bit longer, but nothing else in the package was even close to the configurations I need. This is a bit worrisome as the front brake cable isn't looking too good, but I think the other control cables are still ok. Another concern I've noticed is the return rate on the front brake actuator arm: it seems to have a tendancy to stick and the travel is minimal. There's no real way to check it though until I can get her on the road again, but I'm hoping a liberal application of WD-40 will help.
So, got the risers back on the bars with some careful tweaking, ran my cables back through & remounted the switch housing and accelerator, then put on a new set of grips.

The controls levers are pretty unique in that they run to the inside. There's a split brass plug that fits into the end of the bar which has an internal screw threading into a shim: in theory tightening the screw pulls the shim against the inside of the bar which holds the control lever mount in place. Unfortunately on the clutch the shim is worn so the lever rotates. Haven't figured out a fix for that one yet either, but I'm working on it. (this is an old pic BTW)

Squaring the risers & bars by eye has also proven to be a bit of a challenge since the headlight housing and front fender aren't quite square, and those are the only real references I have. Again, once I test drive her I should get that sorted.

The Saga of the Gas Tank (Petrol Resevoir)

As I mentioned earlier, the tank is off a K750. Apparently, sometime in its sad life it was used on something smaller (probably a MZ) and the forks beat the crap out of the front of the tank to the extent that both sides are crushed in for a couple of centimeters. Added to that are a couple of other big dents so basically it's a piece of junk. Still, it holds gas and a replacement isn't directly at hand yet so...eager to get out of the garage and on the street I took it to a local "bodyshop" to see if they could turn it over cheap and fast. No problem he tells me, three days. He'll do it free and if I like the work he'll give me a good price on the full paint job next winter. What's This? A REAL craftsman? I leave him the tank and skip merrily away thinking my problems are solved and I can get on with my other jobs.
So the next week I show up expecting to be dazzled. Sorry, the tank is in a nearby village and hasn't been delivered yet. Ok, shit happens. I give him another few days and go back. Still not delivered, but promises it will be here "tomorrow". My gut starts to cringe. The next weekend we call, and he says the tank is there. I breath a sigh of relief and head to the shop.
Yeah, it's there.
With a rough blodge of filler on it and not even sanded yet.
Now we're a week and a half into the job and there's about an hour's worth of work done, but he assures me it will be painted and ready in two more days. To make a long story short, this dragged on for a full month with constant promises of "tomorrow" until I finally got fed up and just went and got the damn thing.
Here's an example of what a Bulgarian Professional can do in a month's time:
Sorry for the rant but it gives you an idea of the frustration I'm up against. So the next job is sanding and painting this myself. Which, of course, I should have done in the first place ;)

We did get the seat built for the sidecar at least. I've also sorted a couple of authentic Brain Buckets to keep her legal...one on the left is a newer Soviet Army model, the one on the right is a Bulgarian Army helmet from the 2nd war. I've put new liners in both and I'm making modern straps for them for safety reasons, but seriously if I tip this thing over I don't think a helmet is gonna help...

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