Ready to race! Well, almost...

BMW R65, rolled out and started for the first time since January.

Over the long fourth of July weekend, I managed to complete the reassembly of the beemer. She's now as complete as she was when manufactured in October of 1980. 

Good news: she started right up and ran pretty strong.

Bad news: she seems to slip in 5th gear just a bit, so we'll need to investigate and sort that out real soon.

Other than that, I have some safety wiring left to do (the first two bolts drilled real nice and easy, and I even managed to finish the holes off with nice beveled edges so nothing catches.

Another photo:

Not showroom, but not too bad for going on 34 years old.
She's not looking much like a race bike, 'cause for her race class she has to be 100% bone stock,
and let me tell you, 34 year old stock bikes are hard to come by.
I'm really happy with all I've learned on this project so far - and soon we'll get to run her at Bonneville.
Pretty cool anyway you look at it.