Preface

I am writing this guide to help out other people who are interested in rebuilding/restoring old motorcycles. I started a project in November '06 and have been busy with fact finding, finding, purchasing,  installing and rebuilding parts for my first vintage motorcycle. When I first started, there was a lot of information on the web, but it was really tailored towards experts in the field. I'm not an expert and do not profess to be. I am a novice re-builder and the contents of this guide are from a novice re-builder's perspective. If you have any comments, suggestions, or additions you'd like me to make, let me know and I'd be more then happy to add them.

OK. What should I rebuild?

This is a decision you need to make on your own. I'd advise to do your research. The internet is a wonderful place to look, and together with vintatge magazines, journals, and talking with experts in the field, decide on the perfect bike for you. There are things you should consider:

1) The older the bike, the rarer the parts, and therefore the harder to find and more expensive it will cost to rebuild. With old bikes, there are a finite number of parts available. That's a serious point to consider. The rarer the bike, the greater likelihood that parts simply aren't available or will be ferociously expensive. Bikes like old Hendersons, Velocettes, and early 20th century Indians are incredibly hard to find parts for. They do exist, but I've met more individuals who need to have parts re-built by a very good machinist is more likely the case.

2) The style of the bike is specifically to your taste. I've been in several good debates between restoring old bikes to original condition, to chopping and customizing to something specific to your tastes, and creating a hybrid or bitsa. Here's some very very general information on those:

2.a) Rebuilding/Restoring to original condition. This kind of work is very challenging, but probibly the easiest of the three options. The reason why I'd say it was the easiest is that parts specific to that year/model are easy to figure out, and you know exactly what you're looking for. These lists exist!

2.b) Chopping/customizing to taste. This kind of work usually means taking an original bike and modifying it to create the style of bike that suits you the best. This work usually means that you're using 70%-95% original or after market replacement parts, which again are quite easy to figure out and purchase. The real challenge is in the modification of the parts to suit your desires. Chopping frames and other parts start to become a real challenge because you need to make sure that things align correctly, and can handle the stresses of the changes. For example chopping an old Triumph to become a chopper usually means chopping the head tube (where the forks meat the frame) to redefine the angle and height of the tube. Experts usually measure this by degree of the change of the fork angle, the difference in the height of the head tube and how far out it it goes in orger to stretch the frame. Thus, you'll hear choppers referred to as a 45, 4 up, 6 out ... which is really 45 degrees on the fork tube, with the head tube moved 4 inches up and 6 inches out from it's original position.

2.c) Creating a Hybrid or Bitsa. Hybrids have been around for many many years. I don't know much about their full history, but the results are quite awesome. From what I understand the craze started in England where bike enthusiasts took the best parts of a couple of motorcycles and put them together. One of the more famous of these bikes was the Triton which was a mix of the Norton Featherbed frame, and suspension with a Triumph engine. I've also seen other combinations such as the Tribsa (Tiumph/BSA), and the Vincati (Vincent/Ducati), and a Yamazuki (Yamaha / Suzuki). The real challenge is getting parts that weren't designed to work together, to work together. With this kind of work, a lot of custom parts have to be manufactured to get pieces to fit correctly. This kind of work really isn't a novice project and I'd strongly advise against it. A result of this kind of hybrid resulted in a lot of spare parts that peiople had floating around from different makes and models of bikes. Some people put them together and created Bitsas or bikes constructed from many different bits of motorcycles.

Myself: I did some research and wanted something easy to work on and easy to find parts for. I ended up finding an old '72 BMW R60/5 SWB Toaster. From what I understand BMWs are incredibly easy bikes to work on, there are still lots of parts available, the SWB (short wheel base) is a short lived model which was nimble, but was considered a little dangerous and thus BMW extended the wheel base (referred to as the LWB or long wheel base), and the toaster (which had distinctive chrome plates on the tank and battery panels) was a very short run of bike. In the end I'm working on a relatively inexpensive bike, which has a strong potential to become a classic.

What's the difference between a vintage and a classic? From what I understand any bike over 25 years old is a vintage. But only very few bikes are considered classics, and that's determined by the desirability of the bike. Only time and popularity really count here.

I now have my bike, now what?

The first piece of advice I can offer here is to do your research. The three things you need or should have:

1) A full rip down manual. This will guide you through all of the steps you need to do to disassemble/reassemble the bike to original standards. There are lots of these for almost every bike out there. Just hunt for it!

2) Take an inventory of your bike. Going through the manual, figure out what you're missing or should be replaced. Put together a parts list of things you need to pick up. Make a list to yourself on whether you need to keep, replace, or rebuild a certain part. That'll become your guide to your project. Please note the parts that you shouldn't reuse. Certain bolts that take a lot of strain can't be reused safely. Gaskets shouldn't be reused. Etc. Etc.

3) Find the exact part numbers. For every bike out there is an online catalog of parts on the internet. Again, do your research. Find exact part numbers if you can. Speak with experts to see if the same part was used on other models, and sometimes other makes. For example, I've been told the the Bing carburetors used on some old BMWs were also used on a model or two of some Triumph engines. Online catalogs also give you one advantage: they give you an idea of how much a part is going to cost you.

Find the part you need.

Now that you have your bike, manual, and list of parts, go to eBay and start hunting out the parts. Do not expect to buy everything in one shot. It will take a while, but don't lose faith. Here are some tips:

1) Do a search based on the make and series model of your bike. Since the same part may be used for a number of models, then the series will help you to find the things you need. For example, for my 1972 BMW R60/5 SWB Toaster I typically search for:  bmw (/5,r60/5,r75/5,r60,r75)  in the motorcycle parts section.

2) Make note of the people that are selling the parts. Some are extreme experts and can answer questions. Use the Ask the Seller a Question function and ask details. Make sure that the part you want is the part you need.

3) Is the part common or rare? Some parts are incredibly hard to find and therefore will draw out very high prices. For example the toaster battery panels on my bike were nearly twice the cost of my vintage new old stock racing mufflers.

4) NOS, New, After market or Used?

4.1) NOS or New Old Stock parts are original parts made by the original manufacturer that (more then likely) was sitting on the back shelf of some dealership. These parts are the most expensive of the three options but are the exact part you need, built to the original standards and tolerances of when the bike was new. The disadvantage of these parts are that there's a very finite number of these available and the number of these dwindle year after year.

4.2) New parts for some old bikes can be found. Some manufacturers still manufacture old parts.For example Bing, the manufacturers of many BMW carburetors still manufacture parts for these carburetors. These parts are now NOS because the parts are new and are still manufactured to the original specificaltions and tolerances. If you can get these, go for it.

4.3) After market parts are re-manufactured parts by a third party. Some old parts need to be replaced and NOS, new and used parts simply aren't an option. After market parts usually work quite well, but I've heard that many After market parts simply aren't as good as NOS or new parts. Sometimes they aren't built as well. Sometimes they just don't fit as well. The advantage of these parts is that there's a lot of them out there, so compared with NOS or New parts, they're relatively inexpensive.

4.4) Used parts usually come from people who take old bikes and rip them apart and sell for parts. While there's a plethora of them on eBay, make sure you know what you're buying. Sometimes the parts aren't in fantastic condition. Sometimes the parts are listed with the correct year/model that they state they support. My advice would be to ask the seller lots and lots of questions. Be as informed as you can get before you jump the gun and purchase things that aren't going to work for you. As an example of this, I have 3 sets of carburetors simply because I didn't read the description clearly enough. Most times, you'll need to take the part, and rip it apart to re-condition it to get it to the condition you want for your bike. This times time, patience, the right tools, and knowledge. Take your time and do it right the first time around. I accidentally destroyed one carburetor because I wasn't patient.

Assemble

Now that you have your parts do what you need to do to get it in shape. Take your time. Rebuilding/restoration for the novice is a long and painful experience at times, but in the end you could have the bike of your dreams.

Questions & FAQ

Please feel free to send a question over to me using the "contact ebay member" button on My feedback and I'll add it in this section.

In the meantime, please click on the "was this useful" options below as I'd like feedback if you did or did not find this useful.

Cheers,
Hector_C_Toronto