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charliew Sun Apr 18, 2010 11:37 am

I actually would rather look at this than a bolted together occ bike.

MrBusCo Fri May 07, 2010 12:44 pm

So is there a kit available to get the power from the trans to the rear wheel?

elliott92869 Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:49 pm

I have a 1961 BMW frame - 1967-8 VW bus engine - Honda Front tire & brakes - Twin Honda 450 carburators - and a Flandershield R-400 fearing..... A barn find..... I want to get it running..... Would appreciate some direction from knowledgable sources.

The paint job is by "Tweety `74"

Thanks, Jon

BL3Manx Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:32 pm

elliott92869 wrote: I have a 1961 BMW frame - 1967-8 VW bus engine - Honda Front tire & brakes - Twin Honda 450 carburators - and a Flandershield R-400 fearing..... A barn find..... I want to get it running..... Would appreciate some direction from knowledgable sources.

The paint job is by "Tweety `74"

Thanks, Jon



I guess I'm knowledgeable, I've owned and rebuilt a bunch of VWs and motorcycles over the last 40 plus years including a BMW R69S.

Nice find. It looks like its actually been sitting in a barn since the 70s.

If the engine is free, you can probably get it started.

The first thing to do is remove the tank and make sure its clean inside. If it has varnish or rust it needs to be cleaned out and leak checked. The fuel shut off valves should be cleaned and rebuilt. Then after the tank and SOVs are immaculate inside, replace the rubber hose to the carbs, but put an inline filter before each carb.

Remove the carbs and rebuild them IAW the instructions for Honda 450 carbs and reinstall them.

See if the engine is free by gently depressing the kicker or turning the crank with a socket/ratchet on the pulley bolt. If its free, drain/change the oil and clean out the strainer.

If the engine is stuck, you can pull the spark plugs and put something like Kroil or PB Blaster in each cylinder and letting it soak over night. Then take it outside and put it in 4th gear and try rocking it forward and backward. If the engine frees up it will shoot the penetrating fluid back out the spark plug holes, so do it outside.

If the engine won't come unstuck, you'll need to do a top end job (cylinders and heads removal). The good news is it can be done with the engine in the bike.

If the engine turns over freely, then check the valve clearance, put a new battery in, check the ignition timing, put new spark plugs back in, open the fuel tank petcocks, close the chokes if the carbs have them, with the ignition off and trans in neutral, kick it through a couple times, then turn the ignition on. Then give it a healthy kick and it should run. Once it warms, open the chokes and see if it runs and idles. Don't let it sit and idle very long unless you have a big fan or two aimed at it. It has no cooling system and so must move forward at at least 30mph or so or it will overheat and damage itself.

Get new tires and inspect and service the brakes before you try to ride it. That front wheel/disc brake is off a Honda 750 and that brake line hanging down has to be fixed.

You'll also need a BMW /2 manual.

2weel Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:45 pm

Based on what I see in the pics of the bike posted just ahead of my post.
The bike is a Willis 4's conversion. It has all the tell tale signs of his parts.
Front disc setup/Carb & runner set up/ Casted Aluminum Collector boxes/Trans adapter. May have been built by him (Roger Willis) or using his parts by a garage builder.

There is a website dedicated just to VW Powered Motorcycles on Yahoo Groups "VWMOTORCYCLES".

The fairing is an R400 Flanders with Earls mounts. These fairings trimmed down look very cool! Sidestand is a "Flanders Stander" and the mounts for the bags are for Buco Twinmasters commonly called "flat stocks" back in da day in my area. They made another version called "hoop mounts".
More than likely the trans has had its intermidate shaft repositioned to allow proper gearing to match the VW motor's RPM.

elliott92869 Thu Jan 24, 2013 6:14 pm

So... Its taken a year for me to get started on this little project. The help I have recieved from this site is amazing. Thanks a million. I'll try to keep an update running but so far I haven't done much but found the carburator flange rubber which was crystalized, a non-matching ignition to get things going electrically, and believe it or not the tires hold air ! I sure look forward to trying to kick start this beast. Apparently the procedure is to choke one carburator and then kick it over. Get it running on two cylinders then bring on the other side by opening the choke and away we go ~! Does that sound reasonable? Sounds like some procedure from an airplane...

VOLKSWAGNUT Wed Feb 13, 2013 1:03 pm

VOLKSWAGNUT wrote: The Von Dutch XAVW bike, Frankly... thats awesome.



Endo21 Wed Feb 13, 2013 10:42 pm

Motorcycle powered vw lol





Used the 68 no title parts car and a 1993 yamaha seca ii 600cc.

elliott92869 Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:09 am

So I have made some progress... Engine runs great, Transmission snapped free with a little TLC, but the fuel tank is still on the work bench. All that said this bike finally starts...runs... moves... and stops... much to the delight of my darling "bride"...

Here's the maiden voyage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjeJG7CafUg

BL3Manx Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:38 am

elliott92869 wrote: So I have made some progress... but the fuel tank is still on the work bench.

http://www.lmstripping.com/

VOLKSWAGNUT Fri May 15, 2015 8:19 pm

Adding picture..
Just because... well.. why not.. topic needed a good bump....

and here ya go ...one Helluva bump... :wink:



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Alexander Gromow Thu Oct 17, 2019 6:07 pm

I just wrote an article about the Brazilian Amazonas and Kahena motorcycles driven by VW boxer air cooled engines:

[Translation by Google translate]
MOTORCYCLES "POWERED BY VW" - PART 1 — http://bit.ly/32fy4gl



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