I bought my first motorbike in October 2010 – a BMW R45 (pictured above).

I’d always loved the styling of old BMW airheads, particularly the pre-1970 models; however at 21 years old, with limited money and a restricted licence for a year (34hp) a pre-1970 bike wasn’t an option. After a bit of searching I came across an old 1979 BMW R45 (conveniently 34hp) and bought it for £900 Sterling.

The bike had 45,000 miles on the clock and at first it started and ran pretty well. Unfortunately after a few weeks things started to go a bit ‘off’. At night I could see the exhaust pipes starting to glow red (running too rich), the bike would cough and splutter, and it simply wouldn’t idle correctly at all. Next the clutch started to slip and make a horrible grinding noise. Eventually I took the decision to strip the bike apart and so began seven long years of the bike lying in various bits, in various sheds, until I found the time and money to get it back on the road.

My brother and I got the bike back together and I got the bike up and running (minus a needle bearing or two in a rocker arm!), but I didn’t have any confidence in the bike so I took it to Mullan Motorcycles in Derry~Londonderry Northern Ireland, who got it set up correctly and passed through the MOT.

Within 5 minutes of collecting the bike (now running like clockwork) it began to cough and splutter again. A return to Mullan Motorcycles diagnosed a faulty coil; but luckily I had a spare. With the new coil installed the bike is now running like a new machine – starting on the button and riding like never before.

With the NI weather and work commitments I don’t get out all that often on the bike; however I try to get to a couple of classic shows every year. My dad and I attended the Armoy motorcycle show in July 2017 and on the way home his Honda CB500T broke down. This saw the two of us riding two up on the R45 for the 40 mile journey to Londonderry. We were both amazed at how well the almost 40 year old (and small!) R45 coped with two adults over the mountain road home.

From a fairly unreliable and frustrating first motorcycle – I now have a great reliable bike which looks, rides and runs like new.

Andrew

“Real World Stats”

Physically it is a very small bike by modern standards but it is a lot heavier than most bigger bikes today. Although the bike is small the seat and luggage layout makes it very comfortable for longer distance driving with two adults. I’ve driven new bikes with less space.

The R45 will cruise comfortably at 70 mph, but takes an hour or two to get there

It runs perfectly on unleaded fuel with no sign of wear on new valve seats. You can add lead supplement but I’ve been advised not to bother.

It gives around 65 miles / UK gallon

It has plenty of torque throughout the range

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