Today was the day! The first start of the rebuilt ’84 R65. I knew I had taken care with every step of the build but still half expected it to not start. Or blow up. But everything seems to have gone smoothly.
For the first start-up I followed a break in procedure outlined by Snowbum on bmwmotorcycletech.info. This involves cranking the engine on the starter with no fuel in the carbs to prime the oil pump. The engine is cranked until the oil pressure light goes out. Then the engine is started with light “choke” and throttle applied to about 3000rpm and held there for 15 seconds. This is followed but another 30-60 seconds at about 4000rpm. Then the engine is shut off and after a brief check for obvious leaks, a test ride of about 30mins undertaken.
After the test ride the idle adjust and mixture screws are tweaked to get the best lean idle- around 800-1000rpm is a good idle speed to keep oil moving through the heads. I will write another post on the details of adjusting the idle and syncing the carbs at a later date.
The bike ran smoothly and strong, no backfiring, no smoke and idle was smooth at the lights. I gave it some generous throttle during the test ride and backed off every-now and then. I didn’t give it full throttle- will wait for a few 1000kms for that. All the electrics worked spot on and the bike handled well! Overall a success.
