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90 days beginning to end………tickled the Bings, six kicks and the old /2 fired right up

I had static timed the bike, once it was running again I got the old timing light out and the dynamic timing was spot on

Let it run for a few minutes, shut it down, gave it yet another “once over”, nothing blatant……both carbs had dripped a little fuel, but that’s normal with fresh washers, that’ll stop as things seat…….nothing that screamed “don’t ride it”, so on went the helmet and I headed down the road.

Ran like a champ, all lights work, horn toots, blinkers flash, brakes grab well, clutch grabs, tranny is like butter, and the damn thing just flat out rides great………..once it was up to temperature it had a slight stumble off idle, common for these old Bing carbs, the fix is 1/8 to 1/4 turn richer on the air/fuel mixture screw. Tomorrow I’ll set up a couple of fans, get the bike up to temp., and do some fine tuning of the Bings and do a “by ear” carb balance…….details to follow.

If you decide to purchase a vintage BMW /2 (slash two), this manual should be your starting point. The Series Land Rover crowd has what’s called the “Green Bible”……….it’s the go-to manual for all questions about Series Rovers, a tool that’s every bit as useful as an impact wrench or a quality set of Whitworth wrenches. What Barrington Motor Works has produced in this manual is without a doubt the most complete, concise, and informative restoration manual I have ever come across……….I now call it the “Gray Bible”. The amount of information here is staggering, yet so well edited and assembled that it seems when I want information at any stage of the R60 restoration I just reference the index, flip to the desired page and there it is……….no flipping through pages while the frustration builds. I’ve also found that many restoration techniques described in the manual transfer over to the Series Rover hobby.

These are “hot sheets” included with the Barrington Manual that act as check lists for critical assembly procedures………and how smart is this……they are laminated so you can use a grease pen……….wipe them clean when you’re finished and use them for the next restoration…….brilliant. Speaking of brilliant, the actual cover of the manual is also coated so that your greasy finger prints wipe right off!

Hot Sheets

So, if you’re on the hunt for a Vintage BMW /2 visit the Barrington Motor Works website and order a copy, there’s a very helpful section on what to look for when shopping for your new BMW to get you started on the right side of things.