BMW F650, 48hp, built in 1994

I alwys wanted to make longer tours and journeys with my motorbike. But I didn't want to do this with my old Zündapp KS125 because this would be no more commensurate for man and material. However life plays you won't find a way to do it at all. Therefore this won't remain when I was 50 years I thought of buying a low-priced motorbike which could take me wherever I wanted.

Or both of us because there is one more who likes to ride a motorbike.

I was looking for a low-priced bike with less paneling may be a bit high-legged to ride in easy terrain and also usable for every day. Could it be an enduro perhaps?

I found a lot of offers for motorbikes of a type which fullfill these wishes but the quality varies of course. My idea was a bike with few kilometers on the speedometer and if possible with side bags including.

The price expectation also was limited.Willingly I would have been liked to get a BMW GS 650 or a newer model but older bikes also have their advantages. On them I can work on every part and don't have to have the original electronic reading devices for failure and maintenance. 1 cylinder, 2 spark plugs. This I didn't know before but it'll have its reason.

The built in engine made by Rotax always has become a very good valuation. 100,000km and more shouldn't be rareness.

This to see the BMW F650 was the right choice; 'Funduro' it is called too. With only 27,000km (about 16,800miles) and built in 1994 I thought it made a good look. The first drive I made home by using the motorway over a distance of about 80km (about 50miles) was without problems.

And to this motorbike of course there is a story:

Naturally later I had to work on it. In 2017 I thought of making a tour to the Edersee (a water reservoir in about 300km distance) was the right tour for a few days. When I arrived there I spent the night by camping. The next morning I wanted to start the engine punched out of the exhaust while doing over 2.000 turns per minute. It was working but without power above this speed.

First I thought about a teared off valve or another heavy technical problem with the crankshaft. So I let tow the bike home - poor I didn't see anything of the landscape.

The next weeks I employed with the problem; I looked into forums and looked for bikers with similar problems but I have had bad luck. So to dissassemble was my decision; the engine was partly dismounted.

At this opportunity I newed all the seals, put in harder clutch springs, dismounted the valves and grinded them. The timing chain and the chain tyres were okay. Clutch, generator and attachements looked good too. The carburettors only were dissmounted and cleaned but I didn't part or adjust them.

When I mounted the head of the cylinder with a torque wrench on of the bolts ruptured. I thought I was not looking right. Fatigue fracture after all this time? I was not shure but it looked like. So I ordered 4 new bolts. And this was delaying the thing. But last not least everything was mounted and ready and I was hoping that the engine would work properly.

Like always before the motorbike started at once and worked properly in idle mode. But when I put some gas on it all the problems were back again. Then the point is there when you've thought about everything and you won't get any further idea to this problem. So I began to surmise and to think about the electric system. While totally annoyed I looked into the forums again. And a hit. There was only one report which touched the same problem.

The rectifier could be damaged and so with higher speed of the engine the power of the alternate current of the generator causes problems with the ignition. Bingo, but that I didn't unfix this problem made me angry until now! So I divided the connections to the rectifier started the engine only with battery power.

Yes, that was the problem and the only problem. After changing the rectifier the engine works better than before. The cause might be that the flange between carburettor and cylinder only was mounted with two screws and the rubber was been hard and brittle because it was old. Because of that it was no more tight perfectly. So again mounted with a sealant this failure ist fixed too.

But did I do everything in the right way? Are timing chain and valves mounted correctly? Was the clutch mounted in the right way? And so on. Before I made my north tour I have been driving about 1.000km (about 630miles) and when I came back from the north tour I knew: all top!