New 1995 K75 RT owner

[k-roc]

Hi, I recently purchased a 1995 BMW K75 RT from a retired colleague who is an avid BMW collector.  I have always coveted a K75, but previously had a 1994 Kawasaki KLR 650, which was purchased in May 2012 after getting my license at 49.  As a kid we had a 1974 Honda ATC90 three wheeler and also rode neighbour's 100-120 cc enduro style bikes on the farm in NE Saskatchewan Canada.  About a year after getting the KLR I got a 1981 Kawasaki k650.  Spent a lot of time wrenching on both.  I sold both and ended up with a new 2016 Yamaha FJ-09 in spring 2016. 

In 2014 I rented a 1993 (I think) BMW K75 from Knopf tours in Heidelberg Germany (https://www.knopftours.com/motorcycles) and road into Austria and then Italy.  It ran like a top even though it has over 100,000 km on it. 

Sold the Yamaha in 2022 as I wasn't riding it much.  The opportunity came up to get my hands on the 1995 K75 RT earlier in May 2024.  The bike has about 24-25,000 miles and during its lifetime when from Maryland in the USA to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, before landing in central Alberta in May.  It has an aftermarket front fairing while the radiator fairing with screen seems to be off another version of the K75.  I have attached a few pics.  It appears to be off another model and a small aluminum bracket was placed between the two halves as the fairing itself isn't wide enough to fit on the bike without the bracket.  Overall I like the look of the fairing as it has a bit of a funky look.  Would anyone have an idea of the brand of after market fairing I have?  The serial number check lists it as a 1995 BMW K75 RT, but from all the pics on the internet of this model the bike I now have doesn't have the factory RT fairing set up.

Just going over bike as I need to get an out of province inspection done and wanted to prepare for that as well as just tidy things up a bit.  It had new spark plugs installed, oil and filter change, and new front and back tires before I received it.  When I took off the seat and the rear fairing and base I noted the wiring harness covering was rotted completely so installed some new cable armour over the wiring from the mid part of the bike to the tail end.  The side stand is off and the rust cleaned up by soaking in a rust remover, and did the same for several metal bolts, nuts, etc.  There are some missing rubber grommets which had been replaced with pieces of fuel line hose, etc.  Seems to work ok.  Have ordered multiple bits and pieces (e.g. rear gas tank rubber grommets and circlips, etc.) some of which the dealer has to bring in from Germany.  My colleague recommended a number of suppliers (EME, KpartsHolland, Beemer Bone yard etc.) and it has been fun searching through to look at what parts, etc. are available. 

Hope to have the bike fully licensed next week.

[k-roc]

Oops forgot to attach this pic from 2014.

Kelly

[Past-my-Prime]

Nice bike! I’m sure you can restore it to full RT cladding if you want, the stuff comes up on eBay all the time. You already likely know that you’ve got a smooth riding, reliable, and nice to work on machine.

[daveson]

It looks a lot like a Rifle aftermarket fairing for a K75. I think the K75 RT might have a K100 radiator which could be wider than normal for other K75 fairings.

I reckon those radiator fairings have a really good mean look to them.

[Kbiker]

Another K-anadian. It's got bugger-all for miles. Some elbow grease and a good going through should give you a really nice bike. Owners say they have engines as smooth as electric motors. As for parts, there is also Motobins and Motorworks in the U.K. I'm down in Calgary, by the way.


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[Chaos]

The red one you rented in Europe is interesting, it looks similar to an 86-87 K75T which was US only and had a drum brake.  It also has the CC products injection cover and a low seat. 

[natalena]

Welcome. Brick's are the definition of a motorcycle that's "sublime."

[k-roc]

Just a general update for now.  I have been working on the bike for the last several weeks in terms of multiple maintenance items and fixing some things that the previous owners had done, while also updating a few things.  Again the information on the forum from various members has been great along with other forums and various YouTube videos, while I have a Clymer manual as well as a PDF of the factory service manual and have looked at these multiple times.  The work that have done so far has included:

Cleaning some of the handle bar switches as they were a bit stiff (e.g. signal switches) and disconnecting various connections, cleaning with cleaner and using some dielectric grease; and fixing some jerry-rigged wiring for an SAE connector that comes out at the handle bars;

Treating some bolts, the side stand assembly with Evaporust to clean up some rusty bits;

Removing the the drive line and cleaning and lubing the rear splines and pulling out the drive shaft and lubing the splines at the front of the shaft;

Draining gear oil at the rear and front and replacing it;

Replacing all throttle body rubbers, adjusting the choke and synching the three throttle bodies, replacing all external fuel lines and vacuum hoses (z-pipe, fuel regulator to rear throttle body. Pic attached;

Removed the fuel injectors, cleaned the access ports (making sure to use an air gun to blow out any dirt/sand, etc., tested the injectors and cleaned them, and reinstalled.  I am planning on getting the gasket kits from K-parts Holland to refresh the gaskets on the injectors.  They appeared to work fine and the spray pattern looked normal.  Pic attached.

Checking the functionality of the fan and the temperature warning light;

Rebuilding the front two calipers and draining and replacing the brake fluid;

Removing and replacing rotted wiring loom protectors from the gas tank to the rear signal light, adding wiring armour at points where the wiring may or has rubbed;

Removed the front fairing (appears to be an after-market rifle) to clean the head light compartment.  I removed the front clear shield and cleaned it.  The gasket material around the fairing part where the clear shield was mounted was quite deteriorated so I removed and clean this area and used some Gorilla grip double sided tap.  I seems to have sealed quite well and doesn't look too jerry-rigged.  Treated the and of the rubber seals/trim with silicon protectant and remounted the fairing.  I took my time and it seems that the round headlight assembly is better fitted to the fairing itself;

Lubing pivot points on the brake and clutch levers.  I avoided lubing the cables based on reviewing this forum and others as the K75 doesn't require this and actually lubing the cable can deteriorate the internal components of the cables;

Fixing various body hardware issues including missing rubber grommets as well as removing the jerry-rigged front radiator cover that wasn't meant for the bike and replacing it with a radiator cover and the two carbon fiber side radiator covers from K-Parts Holland.  Pics attached.  There were no instructions for installing the carbon fiber side radiator covers and I couldn't find anything online at other retailers selling the same covers.  The clip with a built in nut that came with the covers didn't quite work as the hole for the back upper bolt was too far to the back of the gas tank grommet hole for the clips to line up properly when the front lower cover bolt was attached to the radiator.  I had some nuts from my KLR wind screen (bought some aftermarket the time) that fit the carbon fiber bolts and used these to attach and secure the rear carbon fiber hole to the gas tank grommet hole.  Used some splash guard plastic washers that I had kicking around for my RAV4 to secure the nut to the back part of the gas tank grommet hole.  The right side carbon fiber cover was a bit trickier as the air duct gets in the way when trying to install the rear carbon fiber cover bolt.  What I did was to remove the air duct and install the rear cover bolt as per what I mentioned for the left side.  I left it very loose so you can pivot up the cover to allow for installation of the air ducts and then rotated it down to install the front carbon fiber cover holes to the radiator.  In the carbon fiber kit they include small flat pieces of aluminum to use to attach from the side of the radiator to the carbon fiber cover.  Note the front lower carbon fiber cover hole on the right doesn't align with the threaded hole on the radiator so one needs to use a small aluminum piece that comes with the covers.  Picture attached.  Funny thing is that the small aluminum piece had holes that didn't line up.  So I ended up drilling correctly sized hole a little further down from the original hole on the aluminum piece that was provided with the covers.  Picture attached for reference. Note the red is from a red felt marker.  When installing the small aluminum piece one needs to get it lined up properly with the carbon fibre cover front hole.  Of course when you tighten the bolt to the radiator it tends to turn to the right.  I managed to install the bolt in the radiator so that it didn't move and then gently moved it to the position where the hole I had drilled into the small rectangular aluminum piece.  I used the marker to indicate the correct position and made sure the aluminum piece stayed in the right place when fully tightening the bolt that attaches the aluminum piece to the radiator.    Looking back I could have used a small knife or something with a sharp point to score the hole to mark the correct position for the small aluminum piece.

I added a fuel injector cover that isn't normally part of the original 1995 BMW RT fairing etc. set up.  I wasn't happy with this area being exposed so I ordered a cover from K-Parts Holland that is designed to fit the RT and it went on quite nicely. 

To be done items include:

Replacing the fuel filter and perhaps the fuel screen as mentioned in other posts on the forum as a good thing to do;

Replacing the front fork oil and installing new seals.  It is a very tight fit between the handle bars and the top of the forks.  I may leave this for the shop that did my out-of-province inspection to do this.  I was quoted about $400 CAD to do this including new SKF seals.  Will review the two manuals I have, this forum and other sources and may do this myself this fall and winter as I have the oil and drain plug washers, but no seals.  There are no leaks, but the shop indicated the oil was old.

I would like to clean and lube the clutch input spline, but based on reviewing this and multiple forums, looking at the manuals and also reviewing several YouTube videos, this seems quite involved and I may leave until the winter or I may take it down to Anderwerks in Calgary to do this.

Remove valve cover bolts and treat in Evaporust as the heads are quite rusty, while also replacing the rubber grommets as the ones on the bike are likely original and very cracked, at least externally.  I will do the same with various other bolts and if they have rubber grommets will replace these.  So far the rubber grommets are not leaking, but I would prefer to have new ones installed; 

I may also look at installing a RT handle bar that reaches back further as the previous owner had taken off the all the RT fairings and the handle bar is closer to the front of the bike verses what I can see for RT handle bars on various sites.  However, I plan a few trips this summer and will see how the existing set up feels in terms of riding position, etc.

The bike runs much smoother now and the vacuum hoses, especially the z-pipe and the throttle body rubbers were in poor shape.