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My BMW R80ST normally looks like the photo below left. At the moment however it looks like the picture below right.
The reason for this is the clutch. When I last started the BMW I decided to put it in gear while sat on it in the garage, it went into gear no problem unfortunately the clutch didn't disengage the drive. It had jammed and me and the Beemer nearly demolished the garage door.
When you do a bike clutch they are normally easi peazi. Drain the oil, undo the clutch casing screws, take off the case and there's the clutch. Take out the clutch retaining bolts usually four or six, and it all comes apart 1/2 an hour tops, as in the photo of the GT380 clutch on the right.
On the BMW however you have to drain the gearbox, drive shaft and bevel box of oil. Take off the tank, the air filter box, the rear shock absorber, the battery & battery box, the left hand carburettor, the rear wheel, the swing arm and last but not least the gearbox. Oh I forgot one thing, the exhaust that comes off as well.
The following photo's show the stages you go through to get to the clutch.
Left & right: Swing arm and gearbox still in.
On these two swing arm is gone just the gearbox left in. You can see the effects of nearly 26yrs of use.
Gearbox out and clutch exposed ready to strip.
Battery box
Swing arm with drive shaft, bevel housing & rear brake.
Swing arm & rear brake pedal re-painted.
It was at this point I got carried away as usual. I decided to remove the complete rear sub frame and everything attached to it. Thats how the bike ended up looking like the photo on the left and the second photo on the page.
Above: Sub frame looking tired an weary.
Left: Cleaned treated and re-painted.
Swing arm back in and looking abit happier than it did when I took it out.
For years I've been complaning that the BMW seat was to high, when your less than 5 foot 6" tall with an inside leg measurment of 31" and the seat height is 33" the maths don't add up. The answer was a shorter rear mono shock, but I couldnt justify the cost of replacing something that was working fine, until I needed to. On Christmas day my son gave me a present which was a rear mono shock specially made to be an inch shorter than the original. It's made by an english company called Hagon, and the quality is far superior to the Betor shock I was riding with.
Monoshock back on, sexy or what?
Sub frame back on, just the mudguard & exhaust left.
Exhaust and mudguard back on
Been waiting for a bit of decent weather to test ride the ST, with new Clutch and rear shock. Got out on it today just a short trip over the moors into Yorkshire and back round again. Clutch and shock working perfectly, I thought lowering the back end might effect the handling but it hasn't.
