Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Motometer instruments for the BMW R80GS motorcycle.....

Readers of my blog will know that I ran an instrument sales, repair and restoration business that specialised in motorcycles.....
I was strong on Smiths, but dealt with all the others....German VDO, Motometer, Veigel. 
From the USA Jones, Corbin, Stewart-Warner. 
Italian Veglia. 
Japanese Nippon Denso, Yazaki and Nippon Denso to name a few.
This blog is on the German Motometer instruments used on the offroad BMW R80GS....
Yes I owned one of these motorcycles and it is still around, being run by a friend, John Herrick in Sydney, to whom I sold it.
Left click on the images to enlarge....
I'll likely come back to other Motometer and VDO items in future blogs, for despite my closing my retail business I retain all the literature and I searched the world for it during the time I ran my shop.
I first visited Motometer around 1986, when I did a business trip from Australia via the USA ( where I visited the Jones instrument company) to the UK and Europe.
They were helpful with exploded parts diagrams and for some years sold me individual spare parts before reaching an agreement with BMW, Mercedes and VW not to supply further spare parts....
I sold off all the Motometer, VDO etc stuff when I closed my shop and other than this literature I have no parts...please don't ask- there just isn't any....
I note in a Wikipedia item, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motometer ,  that Robert Bosch GmbH acquired Motometer AG in 1991 and liquidated the company.
From memory it was around this time that I was unable to gain further parts supplies, so Bosch may have dictated the decision.
Motometer AG, Daimlerstrasse 6, 7250 Leonberg, Germany in 1986....now likely a Bosch factory....
1978 Motometer Catalogue cover page.....
BMW original equipment from the 1978 Motometer Catalogue.
1982 BMW R80GS off-road motorcycle.
 
1982 BMW R80GS instrument binnacle.

Motometer spare parts sheet for the BMW R80GS binnacle.
R80GS Motometer speedometer spare parts sheet.
Motometer top R80GS speedometer frame and main odometer parts sheet. This instrument is damped with silicon fluid.
Motometer R80GS trip reset spare parts sheet. The reset button fits into a rubber sleeve located in the speedometer glass.
Additional instruments in small "pods" were available as accessories. Usually they were a quartz type clock or a voltmeter both nominally 52mm diameter, but a 52mm diameter electronic tachometer was also offered.
Another view of the accessory quartz clock and voltmeter, but these are fitted to a BMW R65 motorcycle.
The dials were black background with green numeral printing as was the speedometer which was calibrated as a 180kph for metric areas ( Europe, Australia, NZ, Japan etc) and 120mph for imperial areas ( usually USA and UK).
The small, 52mm diameter, 8000rpm electronic accessory tachometer in a binnacle.
Motometer 52mm accessory quartz clock with binnacle exploded parts sheet.
Motometer 52mm accessory voltmeter.


As mentioned above, the dial configuration was a black background with green numerals with the pointer blades for speedometer,tachometer,clock and voltmeter coloured white...this was from 1978 onwards, prior to that, pre 1978, the dials were black background with white dial numerals and the speedometer/tachometer pointer blades were fluorescent red. 
The clock movement prior to 1978 was not a quartz movement, but an impulse type.
A quartz clock can easily be identified when running as the pointer for the secondhand advances a second at a time and appears jerky in operation, whereas the impulse clock sweep secondhand smoothly sweeps around in operation.
Detail of the speedcup shaft bottom pivot length. This wears on the end stone in the bush at the top of the mainshaft and the inside of the aluminium speedcup "poles" on the magnet, eventually destroying it.
You can lightly stone the worn end of the shaft and then tap it though the brass piece in the speedcup to the correct setting...0.140" protruding.
From DQs notebooks...electronic tacho calibration information.

Since I originally published this post I noted in the comments below about a fault with the instrument, which was the plastic threaded section of the lower instrument frame fracturing and that I utilised the diecast frame from the Motometer BMW/5 twin instrument.
The photo below shows it...
 

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU!!

Peter G said...

What a brilliant, detailed blog for owners of this fantastic BMW R80S. Mine is 30 years old and I will never ever sell it. Sadly my speedo is buggered and they wat around $400 for new ones, if you can find them It's a great shame craftsmanship does not exist anymore.. shame on Motometer

The Velobanjogent said...

The main problem with the R80GS speedo was the lower frame to which the cable attaches to...threaded 18 x 1.5mm,which was made of plastic. Over time and with heat this becomes brittle and breaks off just above the threaded section.
I effected repairs using this part...virtually identical, from the early BMW/5 speedo as this was a diecast aluminium part. I imported over 200 of these frames from Motometer before they stopped supply.

Anonymous said...

What causes moisture to cloud over the glass in the R80 G/S speedo? Is there something I can do to stop this. The climate here is very moist!
(Vancouver B.C.)

The Velobanjogent said...

Japanese M/cycle instr. doen't cloud up as they have sufficient air holes in the bottom of the speedo case. The R8oGS has none on the earlier ones.
So you need to drill say two 10mm dia. holes. Tricky this as you really should do it with the bezel off and movement out of the case, but you can do it still sealed. Drill around the light hole fixture.
Use at least four drill sizes, increasing in size and heavily grease the drill to try to catch the metal chip...remember there is a magnet assy in the movement and exposed odo gears. I'd start with a 2mm drill.
DQ....

Anonymous said...

I too am a long time R80GS owner from mid 80s..good comments on the fogging! I have a question---does anyone know where I can get the little rubber push button cover on the speedo that resets the odomoeter. Mine has cracked in half but don't know where to get one. Thanks....sure sorry your retail is out of busines...great blog!

oscastyle said...

I have owned R80Gs's since 1981 and a dozen or 3 other BMW's since 1976. The speedo trip meter stuffs up when stupid people press the return to 000 button whilst riding. The trip meter should only be zeroed when stationary. I had mine repaired because of this and have not had any problem since, because i don't lend my bike. You don't need a big hole or 2 in the housing. I drilled a small 3 mm hole , right at the lowest point [on the corner ] when mounted in the bike ,that solved the fogging and still allows moisture to escape but does not allow too much dust etc to get in ,if any. I have done thousands of KM's in the dirt on my own or following other BMW riders of course and not had any further problem .I also have an R80ST, it runs an R65 front end as standard but i also did the same to both speedo and tacho.It can be done without dismantling the unit if you are careful,use a slow speed drill. Long Live The Original R80GS's they are by far the best.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dennis,
I have just resurrected an R80GS PD which belonged to my late father.
Has not been ridden for about 8-9 years. The speedo indicates way over what it should (30-40 km/h over).Any clues what could be causing it. Bike only had 20,000 km on it. Odo works OK.
I also own '58 Velo Venom under going v.slow rebuild.
Cheers, Garry

The Velobanjogent said...

Gary, You can email me offline... details at top right of this blog. Re the likely over-reading... Motometer seemed to set all their instrument to over-read a bit and with use this increases. The usual problem is play develops in the keyplate area of the magnet mainshaft and allows the magnet to mover closer to the detecting disc ( the speedcup). As well the speedcup shaft that the pointer attaches to, at its other end...the end that pivots in the magnet assy, it wears slightly and again the magnet moves closer to the detecting disc. This results in the speedo reading faster. Kindest regards, Dennis Quinlan

John Hibbert said...

Thanks. Just good to know there's SOMEONE who knows ... Thanks for the tip about the misting up: I thought I had to sort out the seals on my speedo. I own a R90s with the old kind of (time) clock. It just seems to have lost positive drive from the clock unit to the hands. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. I am going to just leave in on the bike if I can't find another.

The Velobanjogent said...

John,
These early clocks are not quartz operation and parts are impossible to get. An alternative is to get a later BMW 52mm quartz clock,the type with the green numerals on the dial ( yours are white) peel off the bezel carefully, remove hands and dial and replace them with the dial and hands from your clock and seal the bezel. It will fit into your housing etc...

Unknown said...

My dad loves motorcycles and I have had my eye on getting him a vintage motorcycle clock. I know that he will really love it and it will be a perfect present for his birthday. This is something that he doesn't have and will be a gift that he will never forget.
Jak Manson | http://www.creativechateau.com/unique-vintage-clocks-2/vintage-motorcycle-clock-2/

Unknown said...

Very informative blog! I have a 1984 R100RS, where 2 voltmeters have let me down. Not much for buying another used one, as it seems like lifetime is limited for the needle axel. VDO seems to have a very similar instrument (http://www.vdo-instruments.com/instruments/by-series/cockpit-international/voltmeter/cockpit-international-12v-voltmeter-250-spade-connection.html). Do you think it could be possible to take the back plate and needle from the Motometer instrument and replace the VDO back plate and needle, thus having a new VDO voltmeter look like an old Motometer voltmeter?
Thank you in advance
Steen

lee said...

The speedometer glass on my g/s has crazed and now is almost broken, looked like it was icing up from onside, now I realisie it's this fogging thing. Anyway now it has stopped the speedo moving - I think from pressing onto it (at least I hope) can I change the glass then ? Where would I get one from ?
I'm in the UK - London
leedonaldson31@btinternet.com