I completed assembling the bike from the frame through the gas cap and put together a write-up that shows the order in which I assembled it. You will find the write-up here:

• 00 BMW 1977 R100RS Assembling The Bike From the Frame Up

It includes assembly of the front forks, seat, fenders, battery box, installation of the handlebars and cables, and odds and ends that I felt were better covered in this write-up rather in a separate one following the parts fiche breakdown I use for cataloging my write-ups.  I include links to other write-ups where applicable to explain a particular procedure.

Here is a short video of a walk-around of the finished bike followed by some pictures.

Special Thanks to Those Who Helped Me

First of all, Tom Cutter at Rubber Chicken Racing Garage provided engine work, and transmission rebuild advice. And, bailed me out when a cir-clip came loose inside the transmission on my ride to the 40th anniversary rally in PA.

Dave Porter, at Old World Bikes, LTD, allowed me to use various tools in his shop as well as put up with me as a part time employee.

Clem Cykowski, previous owner of BMW of Denver, provided transmission rebuild tools and advice.

Matt Parkhouse, provided transmission advice and helped me source spare parts.

Norm Schwab, and the crew at Euro Motoelectrics, supplied the electrical parts.

Mike Galindo of Painkiller Customs, did the paint work while he had his shop in Golden, CO, and has since moved to Phoenix, AZ.

I just published two new write-ups; one on installing the fairing and the other on assembling the cowl and seat and installing them.  Here are links to them.

• 46 BMW 1977 R100RS Assemble Fairing, Dash, Instruments and Windscreen
• 52 BMW 1977 R100RS Assemble and Install Seat and Cowl

Next, I’m working on a write-up that shows how I assembled the bike starting with the frame through the gas cap.

Here are pictures of the final results.

A far cry from what I started with:

The wiring was in dire need of either replacement or refurbishment.

I have posted two write-ups. The first is about how I removed all the wiring and electrical components.

• 61 BMW 1977 R100RS Remove Wiring Harness, Instruments & Electrical Components

The second covers how I refurbished the wiring getting rid of grunge, green corrosion and repaired terminals, and then how I installed the main harness, sub-harness’ and electrical components.

• 61 BMW 1977 R100RS Refurbish and Install Wiring & Electrical Components

I also shot a video showing how I routed the wiring.

Previously, I removed the heads, cylinders, pistons, rings and connecting rods. I installed new rocker arm needle bearings to replace the broken bearing cages. I disassembled the heads and inspected the valves and seats. You can read how I did that work here.

• 11 BMW 1977 R100RS Remove Pistons, Connecting Rods & Inspect
• 11 BMW 1977 R100RS Replace Rocker Needle Bearings, Remove Valves & Inspect

You can read about how I did this work here:

• 11 BMW 1977 R100RS Install Connecting Rods and Assemble Top End

Top End Rebuild Work

I had the Nikasil cylinders replated and honed to match the new high compression (9.5:1) pistons. I had the connecting rods refurbished and I had the heads rebuilt. So now it’s time to put it all back together again.

The cylinders had the push rod tubes and the two short studs at the 12:00 and 6:00 position of the heads removed, so I also have to install them.

I started from this:

And finished with this:

I’ve posted a series of write-ups that cover rebuilding the front end of this bike.  You can find them here:

• 31 BMW 1977 R100RS Remove Front Forks, Handle Bars, Steering Stem, Fork Lock
• 31 BMW 1977 R100RS Replace Steering Head Bearings, Rebuild Front Forks
• 31 BMW 1977 R100RS Install Steering Stem, Front Forks and Toaster Tan Top Brace
• 34 BMW 1977 R100RS Rebuild and Restore Front Disk Brakes & Master Cylinder
• 36 BMW 1977 R100RS Wheel Bearings-Replace & Adjust Preload

These write-ups cover disassembly of the handlebars, forks, steering stem, steering damper and fork lock, rebuilding and restoring the wheels, wheel bearings, fork damper rods, fork sliders, steering stem bearings, fork lock, steering damper and installation of a new Toaster Tan top brace and steering stem “acorn” nut.

I also used Speigler braided steel brake hoses, stainless steel caliper brake lines from Rocky Point Cycle.

 

Here is what I started with.

 

And here is what I ended up with.