Big Boom Blog

Archive for the ‘Automotive’ Category

The beautiful weather is back in Asheville so I thought it might be time to take a break from all the website and internet related blog posts. I finally found a few hours of down time to get caught up on some well needed motorcycle repairs. The bike is a 1976 R75/6 BMW. I bought this Airhead about 4 years ago from a shop in Greensboro and I’ve been in love ever since.

So a few days ago I rode up to Acme Motorcycle in Fairview and had someone look over the bike with me to pin point any problematic areas. Overall it’s just in need of a good tune up other than a few oil leaks and squishy forks.

This will be a 3, maybe 4 part posting as I find time to finish the project. The complete bike breakdown and rebuild can be seen on the R75/6 page.

Click here to see the whole bike breakdown up to this point.

BMW has just unveiled its new Three Cylinder Turbo Electric Hybrid that produces 163 horsepower from the internal combustion and another 193 horsepower from twin electric motors. This sucker claims 0-62 mph in 4.8 and electronically limited to 155. Other than the stupid looking fins that stretch way too far behind and below the rear of the car, it looks awesome! It won’t be long and electric hybrids will be the norm all around. We’ve turned a blind eye to this technology for far too long and I believe we’ll soon see a big shift towards these types of vehicles. Click here for more pictures and a full article about the BMW Efficient Dynamics

This is the largest digging machine (or trencher or rotating shovel) in the world. It was built by Krupp and is shown here crossing a road in Germany on the way to its destination, an open air coal mine. Although at the mine the treads are unnecessary, it was cheaper to make the machine self-propelled than to try and move it with conventional hauling equipment. Some factoids:

• The machine is 95 meters high and 215 meters long (almost 2.5 football fields in length)
• Weight is 45,500 tons (that’s equivalent to a bumper to bumper line of jeeps 80 miles long)
• It took 5 years to design and manufacture at a cost of $100 million *
• Maximum digging speed is 10 meters per minute
• Can move more than 76,000 cubic meters of coal, rock, and earth per day Giant digging machine

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techarticles/tech_main.htm

These guys do a great job of informing you about all the little gotchas that your Haynes manual doesn’t.

No. Well here you go anyway. I thought this was a cool looking shot.My 325 just before I realized that I forgot to put the head bolt washers on. And of course they are single use bolts; the treads stretch when tightened to the correct torque.

325i Valve Picture

I took advantage of the beautiful weather today, rolled up the garage door and began working on my electric dune buggy, “Evox” for the first time in months. I’ve been having some trouble with the wiring harness that connects the controller to the rest of the components in the car.

Finally the company that makes the controller started making a wiring harness to go with it. I’ve received my harness and begun the wiring process once again.

The Evox wiring delema