If you’ve been lucky enough to be exposed to classic motorcycles for any length of time, particularly classic European motorcycles, you’ve probably come across some of the books written by Ian Falloon. An internationally recognized authority on motorcycles, Falloon writes for magazines around the world. Although he trained at one time to be a symphony oboist, that career was derailed following a motorcycle accident. Rough for him, but good for the rest of us, who have benefitted greatly over the years from his change in career. 

Thanks to a deserved reputation for thorough research, Falloon’s become one of the most trusted sources for detailed information on marques such as Ducati, Moto Guzzi, Laverda and BMW. He’s written more than 20 books on motorcycles, including restoration guides, catalogs and detailed examinations of specific street and racing bikes.

Falloon’s books are always top shelf, and we think the “Bible” series constitutes some of his best reference work. Covering specific models from Laverda, Ducati, Moto Guzzi and now BMW, Falloon’s latest “Bible” focuses on the /5 air-cooled twins BMW introduced in 1969 and developed until 1996.

Published by Veloce Publishing, and following a successful format laid out from the beginning of the “Bible” series, Boxer Twins starts with a short tour through the history of BMW, touching on major events and changes that influenced the company’s development of the first /5 models.

From there, Falloon works his way up through the air-cooled range, starting with the /5 and ending with the final R80 and R100s of 1996. Along the way, Falloon supplies a detailed, year-by-year synopsis of each model’s development.

Model series (/5, /6, etc…) are broken down into chapters, each chapter concluding with a comprehensive list of frame numbers allied to production dates. Model information, much of it gleaned from factory records, is bolstered with periodic “distinguishing features” sidebars detailing specific model year changes to aid identification. 

Period photos aid identification while sidebars provide detailed information on yearly model changes. Nicely done.

A short history of racing with air-cooled BMWs brings up the back of the book, followed by a series of indices featuring detailed technical information and year-by-year production numbers for each model in the air-cooled range.

Exhaustively researched and featuring hundreds of supporting color and black and white reference photos, Boxer Twins is an absolute must for anyone who owns a post-1969 air-cooled BMW or is simply interested in having the definitive reference for the later air-cooled model range. 160 pages, $53.95.  Order now and get 10% off!!

AVAILABILITY UPDATE: Demand for Ian Falloon's BMW Boxer Twins has already outpaced supply! We've doubled our order from the publisher and will have copies in stock and ready to ship within the next 14 days, so please allow two weeks between ordering and delivery.  Order from Motorcycle Classics by clicking here. -- Richard Backus.

The 2009 Buell 1125CR. Better buy one now, because they won't be making them anymore.

Reeling from even worse than expected third-quarter results showing an 84.1 percent decline in net income over the same period last year, Harley-Davidson has announced it will shut down its Buell division and sell off MV Agusta, the Italian manufacturer H-D bought just last year. A visibly stunned and emotional Eric Buell, founder of the brand that carries his name, has posted a video announcing the planned December closure.

Eric Buell's video, posted this morning on the Buell website, appears below:

Harley-Davidson had the following to say about the planned closure of Buell and sale of MV Agusta:
Details of Buell and MV Agusta Actions
"The Company will discontinue production of Buell motorcycles. Remaining inventories of Buell motorcycles, accessories and apparel, while they last, will continue to be sold through authorized dealerships. Warranty coverage will continue as normal for Buell motorcycles and the Company will provide replacement parts and service through dealerships.

"The decision will result in a reduction over time of about 80 hourly production positions and about 100 salaried positions at Buell. Employment will end for a majority of Buell employees Dec. 18, 2009.

"Harley-Davidson, Inc. expects to incur approximately $125 million in one-time costs related to the discontinuation of the Buell product line. The Company expects to incur approximately $115 million of that amount this year.

"Relative to MV Agusta, the Company will immediately commence efforts to sell the business, which is based in Varese, Italy.

"In the third quarter, Harley-Davidson, Inc. recorded a one-time fixed-asset impairment charge of $14.2 million related to Buell and a goodwill impairment charge of $18.9 million related to MV Agusta."

The finished gauges on the BikeBandit.com/Motorcycle Classics Project Cafe, complete with custom face plates. Pretty cool, eh?

If you’re old Honda has spent any time in the sun, it’s a pretty good bet the speedometer and tachometer face plates are cracked and faded. Thirty-some odd years out in the elements will do that to a bike. The good news is, you can make those face plates look like new – or give them a personalized look – and it’s not as hard as you think.

Here's what we started with. Pretty typical, really, and pretty ugly, really.

As part of our BikeBandit.com/Motorcycle Classics Project Café, the 1973 Honda CB500 Four we’ve slowly transformed from a tired dog, ready for the parts bin or the junk yard, into a gleaming, lovely little café for the street, we decided to freshen up the bike’s clocks. We’d never tried disassembling a set of Honda gauges, so we went into this as cold as the next guy. And while it definitely takes a little time and patience, we discovered it’s a project completely in reach of the average guy.

Unfortunately for us, the telling of this tale got let down by technology, or maybe just bad “best practices,” you decide. I documented the entire process, taking pictures of the speedo and tach from start to finish as we worked through, but an unexpected and pretty devastating system failure in my computer resulted in losing just about every pic I took. A few – the ones you see here –survived, but that’s all. Had I backed everything up to a disc, I’d still have all my pics. There’s the “best practices” element. Fortunately, someone else has already documented the job.

It was, in fact, because of Steve Swan’s excellent step-by-step instructions for disassembling/assembling CB750 gauges on the SOHC Honda CB Motorcycles website that we decided we were up to the task. The process is nicely documented on the SOHC tech pages, and we relied heavily on the SOHC article to get our gauges apart.

As excellent as that article is, there are some differences between the CB750 gauges and those used on our CB500. Thanks to our paucity of pics, it won’t be very instructional to try a comprehensive walk-through – you can get that on the SOHC page. Instead, I’ll point out some of the things we learned that differ from the SOHC article and some of the elements unique to the CB500 gauges. If you’re going to follow along, you might want to print this out so you can refer to it while going through the SOHC article, or put both articles up on different pages in your browser and flip back and forth.

Step One: Removing the crimp band
Once you’ve removed your gauges from the bike, it’s immediately obvious that the biggest challenge in getting to the face plates is splitting the gauge body, which requires removing the crimp band holding the upper and lower parts of the gauge case together. The SOHC article suggests using a utility knife to uncrimp the band, slipping the blade up under the crimp band working from the lower side of the band (gauge face facing you), then using the knife blade like a miniature pry bar. We found it was much easier – and safer – to use a very small screwdriver, gently prying the band up and with a little sideways twist. As the SOHC article shows, once you get the crimp band to start bending back, move in baby steps around the entire circumference of the gauge, slowly prying the band open. We ended up working our way around the gauge about four times, transitioning to a slightly larger screwdriver in the process, lifting the band a little farther with each pass until it opened up enough to slip off the gauge body so we could separate the two halves.

Use a screwdriver to gently pry the crimp band off, twisting up and a little sideways. We started with a small screwdriver and then transitioned to a slightly larger one, once we'd made our first pass around the band.

Here's what the crimp band should look like once it has been completely opened up. It takes a bit of work to get to this point, easily 15 minutes, so be patient.

Step Two: Removing the trip odometer reset knob
To remove the inner speedometer assembly from the gauge case, you first have to remove the trip OD reset knob. Unlike the CB750 speedometer, where the trip reset knob screws off its stem, the trip reset knob on the CB500 is held onto its stem by a very small Phillips head machine screw. In our case it was rusted in place, and wouldn’t screw out. To remove it, we took a small drill bit just slightly smaller than the head of the screw. Drilling carefully and gently, we drilled through the screw head to the body of the screw. The tapered profile of the drill bit lets you remove most of the screw head until the bit hits the screw stem, at which point the head should pop off. The knob then slips off, and we removed the rest of the screw with a small pair of locking pliers. The threads in the shaft were fine, leaving us only to find a small, metric machine screw to hold it together on reassembly.

Step Three: Removing the face plate
The SOHC article doesn’t address removing the face plate (it focuses on repairing a bad gear), so we called up Honda CB750 guru and café fanatic Steve “Carpy” Carpenter at CB750cafe.com for advice. The big issue was how to remove the speedo and tach needles without breaking them. Carpy told us they’re just a press fit on the shaft and come off easily, but who wants to break one once you’re this far along? Essentially, you need to lift the needle straight up and off the shaft, but using what? Carpy uses a pair of pliers, but we discovered the perfect tool; a common dinner fork. Using one of the two screws that hold the face plate on as a fulcrum, we inserted a regular bladed fork under the center of the needle, rested the butt of the fork blade (the part below the fork tines but before the handle) on the head of the screw and then gently pried down on the fork handle. The rocking action provided by the arc of the fork lifted the needle off perfectly! I think I need to patent that one. Once the needle’s off, it’s a simple matter of removing the two Phillips head screws holding the face plate on and that’s it, it’s off.

Step Four: Replacing the face plate
Once the face plate’s off you have a couple of options. The first of course is to replace them straight out with standard faces. Charlie O’Hanlon at Charlie’s Place in San Francisco works with a fellow who does perfect Honda replica faces, which is great to know. Okay, cool enough, but since our bike was/is a non-stock café special, we decided to do something a little different, so we turned to Carpy. Carpy’s been in the Honda café scene about as long as anyone, so we weren’t surprised to discover that he’s created his own custom face plate transfers. Carpy will sell you the transfers straight out, but we opted to send our face plates to him. Using our specs he made up a custom set of transfers, cleaned our old face plates and applied the new faces. We got them back in about a week, and the results speak for themselves. They look fantastic and really help finish off our café theme. Carpy can supply just about any design you can think of, and Carpy also has step-by-step instructions for replacing the face plates on CB750 clocks on his site. The only place we differ with him is on removing the crimp band, which he cuts off – it’s not necessary, and then you have to fit a new band or, as Carpy does, glue the old band back together.

Step Five: Putting the gauges back together
We cleaned our gauges thoroughly inside and out before putting them back together. They’re not hermetically sealed, so you don’t have to be too anal about it. Get them clean, and make sure the rubber seal on the upper half is still in good shape, maybe conditioning it a bit with some WD40 so it will go back in shape. With the gauge in place, place the two halves together, followed by the crimp band. Drop it in place going from the upper half to the lower, with the end you pried open facing the lower halve of the case. You’ll have to gently push it in place. Before going any farther, make sure the case halves are properly oriented to each other so the gauge face will be straight once you mount the speedo or tach back on your bike. Now, take a set of duck-billed pliers and a soft rag. Place the rag between the pliers and the outer face of the ring (the part you didn’t pry up – it has a nice chrome finish on it, and you really don’t want to mar it), and gently squeeze the crimp band down, putting the pressure on the side you opened up and gently rolling the pliers forward to seat the band. Do this slowly and carefully and the band will crimp in place without damaging the exposed side. Just like removing it, we worked our way around the gauge a few times to get it crimped back evenly.

Re-crimping the band takes the same kind of patience as removing it. Work your way around slowly with a pair of duck-billed pliers and a rag protecting the finished edge, gently re-crimping the band while gently rolling the pliers up to help seat the band and lock the two halves of the gauge together.

Here's a close up of our finished speedo. Cool.

Step Six: You’re done!
That’s pretty much it. Bolt those suckers back in the handlebar mounts and you’re in business. You might have noticed that our upper gauge bodies are polished. Near as we can tell, they’re made out of stainless steel. We started sanding off the damaged paint to repaint them, but once we saw how easily they’d shine up, we figured to hell with paint and just polished them up on a polishing wheel. They look great, and it’s loads easier than painting them. If we’ve left anything out, please add to our experience by using the “Comments” feature and fill us in on what you know. – Richard Backus

Start of the Lake Elsinore GP, 1971, from the film On Any Sunday.

Get that classic dirt bike out, because the legendary Lake Elsinore GP, made famous in Bruce Brown’s epic 1971 film, On Any Sunday, is returning this November 7-8, 2009. The original 1969-1972 race became so well known it inspired Honda to borrow the Elsinore name for its CR125M and CR250M dirt bikes introduced in 1973.

Since being revived in 1996, the Lake Elsinore GP has had its ups and downs, but this year it looks poised to return in style thanks to renewed interest by potential competitors and, importantly, the local government, which sees the event as a great way to bolster flagging revenues. The local parks and rec department has been leading the charge to revive the race, working closely with Podium Productions/Storm Entertainment and Diamond Stadium to organize the event. While the city has supported previous efforts to keep the race going, this time around it feels different, with Elsinore mayor Bob Magee personally involving himself to help make sure the Elsinore GP continues.

Route map for the 2009 Elsinore GP.

This is really good news for the classic bike community, and especially the classic dirt bike community. Although the planned 7.2-mile course will mostly keep riders away from downtown, it does include a good portion of the infamous GP hillside course just beyond the original downtown starting point. Better yet, it also includes a section that hasn’t been used since the original races. Start/Finish will be at Diamond Stadium, which will also double as the race vendor, providing concessions, camping and the pit area.

There will be over a dozen classes, including classes for minibikes, women and riders 70 and older, and there’ll also be a special “Harvey Mushman 100 Miles” purse, named in honor of actor and offroad rider Steve McQueen, who rode the original Elsinore GP under the pseudonym Harvey Mushman.

If you’re in the great LA-area you need to go to this race. This is exactly the type of event the classic bike crowd needs to support, and if it goes as we think it will it could help rekindle interest in classic dirt racing and classic bikes in general. Be there! – Richard Backus

Check out the video below from last year’s Elsinore GP!

Got an old bike with tired front forks? Want to learn some of the secrets of suspension tuning? Join Motorcycle Classics and Race Tech Suspension’s Matt Wiley at 11a.m. on Saturday, October 10, at the 5th Annual Barber Vintage Festival for a guided tour on effective suspension upgrades.

Old bikes have old suspensions. Duh. So what do you do when you want to upgrade? New shocks? New forks? New fork springs? There’s more to suspension tuning than just slapping on a new set of springs, something Race Tech Suspension’s Matt Wiley appreciates only too well. 

Since joining Race Tech three years ago, Matt has spearheaded Race Tech’s involvement in the classic bike scene. In that short time he’s created over 200 vintage bike applications for Race Tech, and become a familiar face to AHRMA racers thanks to his regular presence at AHRMA races, where he sets up shop in the pits, giving racers on-the-spot suspension tuning including fork overhauls, shock replacements and installing Race Tech’s Gold Valve Emulators.

We’re getting ready to install a set of Emulators in a 1974 BMW R60/6, and when we found out Matt was also heading to the Barber Festival we asked him if he could come by our tent and give us a little seminar on what the Emulators do (they give traditional damping-rod type forks tunable compression damping) and how to install them (almost a drop-in affair on some bikes, a bit more involved on others). We know we’re not the only ones needing a little insight on basic suspension tech, so we asked Matt if we could expand our little workshop to a wider audience, and he agreed.

If you want to know more about basic suspension workings and effective upgrades, this is a great chance to get the inside dope from a guy who does nothing but suspension tuning, and pretty much on nothing but vintage bikes. Join Matt at the Motorcycle Classics tent in the Expo area at the Barber Vintage Festival on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009, at 11a.m. The seminar will take about 30 minutes, and Matt says he’ll be happy to hang around and answer any questions we might have. See you there. – Richard Backus