Tuesday, September 6, 2011

1956 R26 BMW single

About 10 or so years ago I bought this old 1956 R26 BMW. It was supposedly an old German postal bike of 250cc displacement. The paint was peeling of and in rather bad shape at the time. I bought it thinking it would make a good first bike for my mother. My family fell in love with it and named it Bart. She used it for a bit and got her license on it. A knee injury sidelined her from starting it in later years. I kept it running for a few more years until carb issues crept up on it. To keep it running a r60 carb was installed but the intake would need to be cut back to maintain the factory airbox. I couldn't bring myself to cut it up so on went a K&N for the mean time. The paintwork that I had done was fair to say the least, but the price was right and it was black. My Dad wanted to use Bart as a daily rider for his senior years. A through restoration would need to be done for proper use. Bart would have to wait as bits and parts were collected. The early frames tend to crack behind the engine mounts and this old timer is no exception. A previous repair seems to be well done and holding just fine. When I really feel like having a journey I would use the old single. but as for the past few years hes been sleeping and waiting for needed service on the slingers and better paint. Maybe this year? Maybe don't know.

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