Workhorses and Survivors

[Mello]

Great looking job Dave These bikes are getting very collectable.
I believe those bar end indicators are hard (expensive) to come by these days.

[daves79x]

Thanks! The Hella signals are readily available, but as you said, pricey. Complete set-up (signals, wiring, switch, relay) runs about $375 US.

Dave

[NobleHops]

Some of you may find my latest project interesting: a '59 R50. This was a bike-in-a-box that took a year and a half to restore.

Dave

Yoicks, how did I miss this!!??

OUTSTANDING as ever Dave, the bike looks amazing. Great job.

[daves79x]

Thanks for all the kind words guys! I should mention that all the bare aluminum you see on the bike was vapor blasted by Nils. There is no better way to clean aluminum and no better guy to do it than Nils. Have about 150 miles on the bike now and it is a real hoot to ride. Perfectly capable in modern traffic, but better on back roads.

Dave

[wyly]

Thanks for all the kind words guys! I should mention that all the bare aluminum you see on the bike was vapor blasted by Nils. There is no better way to clean aluminum and no better guy to do it than Nils. Have about 150 miles on the bike now and it is a real hoot to ride. Perfectly capable in modern traffic, but better on back roads.

Dave

this doesn't have quite the vintage as your ride Dave but I just saw this at the IFK show, very clean/functional

[PeterE]

Used this to commute to work for the last 10 years before I retired.

[Irishman1]

Some of you may find my latest project interesting: a '59 R50. This was a bike-in-a-box that took a year and a half to restore.

Dave

Just perusing through posts and saw this BMW restoration... beautiful bike Dave! Well done

[daves79x]

Thanks! Here is one I just finished - a '55 R69. Very rare first-year model.

Dave

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[EMS]

A "Resurrection" rather than a "Survivor".

Here is one. used to be a "Workhorse" and is now a "Survivor"

[Syscrush]

Wow, love it EMS.

Years ago (like 25 years ago, before car/bike people started getting interested in patina) I was at the Steam Era show in Milton, ON where they have steam-powered stationary and traction engines (aka tractors) and related machinery on display. The restorations were meticulous, but during the parade on the fairgrounds the thing that drove the crowd nuts were the unrestored machines. I remember one tractor that was still running at over 90 years old - the announcer's term for it was "still wearing it's workin' clothes", and that term has always stuck with me.

I love modified bikes, I love restored bikes, but they can only be original once - and there's something extra-special about something that wasn't just locked away but that saw regular duty and kept coming back for more.

A buddy of mine has an unrestored '72 350T and I got to take it for a spin when he was having trouble getting it to shift and wanted a second opinion. Literally nothing about that bike appeals to me, it's not something I'd ever want to own myself, I'd never go shopping for one. Riding it, it was grossly underpowered and the brakes and suspension sucked. But I couldn't help but love it a bit, felt a bit emotional at the thought of all of those moving parts still moving after almost 50 years.

[EMS]

Yes, Phil! That's the "American Pickers' " credo. "Rusty Gold" as Mike Wolf says.
I used to own a 1971 HD FLH with a sidecar. The rig was unrestored and had the original, faded paint. I also own a 1973 Kawasaki H1 which is unrestored, except for the fuel tank, which was replaced with a take-off (not NOS) at one time.

The original idea of this thread was to show real "workhorses' and "survivors". Bikes that have been worked on the road hard all their life and still are. Not collector or museum pieces. I could bore you with pictures of those for two weeks...

[Jeff Bennetts]

Found three days ago, bought for $200, not mine.

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[cross]

Thanks! Here is one I just finished - a '55 R69. Very rare first-year model.

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That's beautiful Dave!

[EMS]

Found three days ago, bought for $200, not mine.
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Wow! That survived really well. Brings back great memories when we rode around on Zündapp, Hercules, Kreidler, DKW and old NSU. BMWs were out of reach..