I think we should start a "did ya know" session. Try to stick to facts, and we'll see how long the thread runs for. I'll start it off - Did ya know that K1200 crankshafts can be reground (undersize) and new bearings fitted ? The K100 crank though, is hard chromed and ground, hence non repairable. But as with everything, the K100 crank is extremely long wearing, virtually indestructible, not so sure about its newer brother.

Did ya know Harley and Indian were asked by the US Army to build a bike as reliable as the BMW R75 (I know, it's not a brick)? Harley copied the bike directly and I think they called it the WA75. Did ya also know that the WW2 German Army contract for a bike was actually awarded to Zundapp for their design? Because of the war the Zundapp model never really got into production and they were forced to produce the BMW R71 and R75.

and then the russians took the whole german zundapp factory to Russia and started producing dniepr M72 a pretty bad copy of BMW. i guess that still produce them

Did ya Know that the July Issue of Bike Australia had full double page centre spread advert for the 1984 K100RT approved by BMW and had an error stating the bike had an "18inch" rear wheel Yeah mags long gone but the ad is hanging in my shed

Did ya know that a K100 8V head fits onto some of the Mini engines?? ( have never tried though).Tom Grabau

otto59 wrote:Did ya know Harley and Indian were asked by the US Army to build a bike as reliable as the BMW R75 (I know, it's not a brick)? Harley copied the bike directly and I think they called it the WA75. Did ya also know that the WW2 German Army contract for a bike was actually awarded to Zundapp for their design? Because of the war the Zundapp model never really got into production and they were forced to produce the BMW R71 and R75.

Hi

afaik this is not correct
the contract for the engeneering / design was given both : BMW & Zündapp
Leading co was Zündapp

Zündapp KS 750 Production : 18.695 pieces never really got into production

BMW R75: Production : 16.500 pieces




for more infos & pics & fun

http://www.wehrmachtsgespann.de/index-english.htm

"I think they called it the WA75."

It was called the XA750 (experimental army).

XA: as blakey mentioned.

Thanks for the link ZONENFEILE I like the look of those I could have some fun with one of them beasts and could even get rid of my Landrover mind you they would cost more to buy and be worth more.

BIG D

Did you know "our" bikes were the first production motorcycles to have fuel injection and ABS truly ahead of their time.
Regards,
K-BIKE

K-BIKE wrote:Did you know "our" bikes were the first production motorcycles to have fuel injection and ABS truly ahead of their time.
Regards, K-BIKE

Hmmmm.....
In 1982, Honda marketed the first-in-the-world, fuel injected motorcycle CX500TURBO, which attained both better acceleration performance than the CB900F and better fuel economy than the base model CX500.
At the time, they called it 'Computerized digital fuel injection' but the K100 was still a 'Beta' version.

Do you remember the beast?

Another Hmmmm....

In 1980 Kawasaki introduced Z1000h, and it didn`t have carbs.



Inge K.

Here is another one.....
One of the first modern motorcycle with electronic ignition was produced from the frog's country
This was a French production (1973) but only 760 units were sold. I remember looking at it after I bought my first Honda CB360. The quality of the design could not compete with the rice cookers.
The engine was a 3 cylinders, 350cc 2 strokes. later(1975) they produced a 500cc but that was a 'flop' too.
I believe that Bosh bought the patent from Motobecane and soon after started to mass produce electronic ignition for car manufacturers.

Here is the 350


Here is the 500

Inge K. wrote:Another Hmmmm....

In 1980 Kawasaki introduced Z1000h, and it didn`t have carbs.



Inge K.

That Kawasaki was the first Fuel injected Bike I ever came across and they had the Bosch system similar to the L-Jetronic that the Ks have.

Maybe with the Motobecane (1973) electronic ignition

K Freak wrote: That Kawasaki was the first Fuel injected Bike I ever came across and they had the Bosch system similar to the L-Jetronic that the Ks have.

Kawasaki did continue with the L-jetronic on the Gpz 1100 in the first year(s), but then changed back to carbs.

Inge K.

I think I may have started something here, sorry Bert, I hope it doesn't grow into a monster. Looks like BMW may have been about 3rd for the use of fuel injection, as I get reminded by a mate who raced the Kawasakis of the era. Oh well, this helps pass the time between problem solving I guess.

Nice pic of the Honda Bert, they certainly started a trend with the other Jap manufacturers following suit, and the Motobecane's that's the first time I have clapped eyes on those almost kawasaki'ish KH triple in style.

Thanks also K freak the pic of the Kawasaki Z1000 reminded me of the Z1000 MK2 I owned same shape but it had carbs, some bike.

BIG D

Yes that Honda pic is great and they reversed the turbo sign so you would recognise it coming up behind you. I have heard afew people claim that BMW copied the z1000 injected for thier K100. But really if anything it would have cemented the decision they took. The GT550 ramair suzuki I owned 3cylinder sounded majick on the throttle suppose the motobecane sounded the same.

R25, R26, R27 are still very popular bikes in Indonesia. Market price ranges $6,000 - $12,000.

Many enthusiasts are still riding regularly around Java and Jakarta.

K75cster wrote:The GT550 ramair suzuki I owned 3cylinder sounded majick on the throttle suppose the motobecane sounded the same.

I owned a ram air too (GT 380) and the sound was way better than the Motobecane.

It didn't sound like this special 5 cylinders Kawi


The Motobecane sounds really "tinny".

Adiwan Djohanli wrote:R25, R26, R27 are still very popular bikes in Indonesia. Market price ranges $6,000 - $12,000.

Many enthusiasts are still riding regularly around Java and Jakarta.

These people must be real enthusiasts to use these as daily commuters. Particularly when you see how much they pay for it.

I still remember the commercials for the Honda Turbo...man I wanted one of those Bad!!!


OG

Jeez, Bert a 5 cylinder kwac stroker they where awsome in standard form, I bet that thing needed some hanging on too when the power band kicked in

BIG D

K-BIKE wrote:Did you know "our" bikes were the first production motorcycles to have fuel injection and ABS truly ahead of their time.
Regards,
K-BIKE

Since Fuel Injection did stumble on his way to the medal table, you can put in Regulated Catalytic Converter as a replacement.

Inge K.

I had a CX500 Turbo 20 years ago, awesome bike, wish I still had it. Although the fairing design made it a very hot bike to ride on a warm day. Very nice on a cold day, but too dam hot on a hot day.

Also did ya know that the K100 engine was based on a Peugeot 107 car engine.

A Peugeot 104 engine was used to build the first prototype. This was only to test the concept of the future K100.
Even if the 104 was a small car, it was a lot of empty room in the engine compartment.



Peugeot built another 104 which was a lot smaller. BMW didn't use this engine to test the concept of the K100

Yep, and the first (prototype) K100 had the crankshaft on the left hand side (saw a pic of it). Did ya also know that no aftermarket exhaust makes more power from the K100 engine. Some give a little hit here and there, but overall, none of them increase overall developed HP. Interesting isn't it that the BMW exhaust is both the quietest and gives the best HP output, now that is engineering. In fact it is only just recently that this phenomenon has been able to be boasted by the Jappers. Plenty of those these days come standard with the best exhaust for the job and all others just make more noise with no HP increase. Only took 'em 25 years to catch up. Oh, and the RS fairing/screen system was the first in the world to give neutral up/down aerodynamic effect because it was properly wind tunnel designed. Ah zee Germans, za sink of everysing !

Ah zee Germans, za sink of everysing !

Hää ?? Tasmanian accent ?

zonenfeile wrote:Hää ?? Tasmanian accent ?

It's because we don't have the umlaut on our keyboards.

Did ya know..... The BMW R100rs was the centerpiece at the 1976 Cologne Moto Expo. At the time, it was the first fully faired production motorcycle.
This sleek model was designed through wind-tunnel testing. (another first..)

Even now thats still one good looking motorcycle Bert.

BIG D

Bit concerned about the Tasmanian accent. Consider this, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsU6vLIaWH4

ainsjac wrote:Bit concerned about the Tasmanian accent.....

Froggies are not doing better..

did you know that the target design company why styled the bmw rs/rt fairing also designed the suzuki katana, and the bmw r65ls(which if you look at the ls fairing is pretty obvious as its essentially a katana fairing with a round headlight) and that the actual design for the katana was originally done as a styling exercise for mv augusta but mv thought it a bit too radical and so target sold it to suzuki who used it pretty much unaltered.

or, as you were talking about harley building a bmw clone in ww2, that after the war, when the factories in the german industry were being divided up, the dkw factory had a design for a single cylinder 125 commuter bike called the rt 125, and that bike was after the war copied by jawa, and also became not only the bsa bantam, but also was built by harley davidson as the hummer, and even by yamaha in japan as its first post war product.

Crazy Frog wrote:Did ya know..... The BMW R100rs was the centerpiece at the 1976 Cologne Moto Expo.

Does somebody knows what are the yellow lines in front of the head light. It looks like the defroster on a rear car window. This alway puzzled me.

I would think that the yellow lines serve the same purpose as our red dot on the oil sight glass...it looks "nice". A styling exercise that serves no purpose?

Did ya know....



The Elephantentreffen (green elephants) is certainly the oldest motorcycle winter rally. The first edition was in January 1956 near Stuttgart (Germany). Any serious European rider has to attend it at least once in his life.
Every year, during the coldest month of the winter, 1,000s of riders from all over the world met in frigid conditions for a week end of fun (?).
I personally attended the 1976 edition on a 1963 BMW R50/2. The temperature was around -12 degrees and we rode over 700km in the snow (Yep I am a crazy frog)

German Motorcyclist Federation Bundesverband der Motorradfahrer

That's extremely cool Bert, what an experience. Just one question, where are the girls?. And you say you go to these things.
RT

That is seriously cold, with some seriously cold people attending. Which leads me to the next question....was any part of the BMW made of brass?

I don't know...that is why I ask it here....Is there a temperaure at which one of our bikes will not start?

was any part of the BMW made of brass?

shit... took me an hour to get that

thx to my Martin in Poole

[quote="Crazy Frog"]Every year, during the coldest month of the winter, 1,000s of riders from all over the world met in frigid conditions for a week end of fun (?).
I personally attended the 1976 edition on a 1963 BMW R50/2. The temperature was around -12 degrees and we rode over 700km in the snow (Yep I am a crazy frog)
quote]



all i can say is brrrrrrrrrrrrr

zonenfeile wrote:

shit... took me an hour to get that

thx to my Martin in Poole

That monkey is in my home town, on the corner outside the newsagent.

Does it need Brasso or would Blakey recommend "you know what"to keep it clean?

Ok its not k related but it is cold related. The saying ''freeze the balls of a brass monkey'' comes from the days of cannons on sailing ships. The cannon balls where kept on a brass ring called a brass monkey and when the temp got cold enough the brass ring would shrink causing the cannon balls to fall off.

Thats my bit of useless info.

ainsjac wrote:Does it need Brasso or would Blakey recommend "you know what"to keep it clean?

Nope i think he would suggest painting it red and the no need for polishing.

caferacer62 wrote:Ok its not k related but it is cold related. The saying ''freeze the balls of a brass monkey'' comes from the days of cannons on sailing ships. The cannon balls where kept on a brass ring called a brass monkey and when the temp got cold enough the brass ring would shrink causing the cannon balls to fall off.

Thats my bit of useless info.



Nope i think he would suggest painting it red and the no need for polishing.

The version I have heard was that the Monkey was a square frame and when the ice built up it would cause the balls to fall off so Hoo Nose.
Painting it red don't give the local louts any ideas they have already stolen the brass balls about 3 times. But they are smart they were caught playing with them in a side street on one occasion.
We are fond of our inbreds here they make us normal people look real smart.

Hey hey were the Monkeys, Ahh its just rattling around in the brain now isn't it. The Yellow lines on the RS fairing headlight glass covering was used at speed with the lights on at night to give you reasonable braking markers on the road infront of you. oops this was supposed to be factual wasn't it.

lol

I am still intrigued....how low can it go with the temperature so that a K won't start. Is it to do with the battery or the metal ( brass or otherwise) refusing to move? In WW11 in the Russian offensive the fluids froze in machinery and no go. Sorry, can't continue, must defrost the tank !