NGC: Bought a BMW

[Testarossa]

Not really. It's an Aprilia with a Rotax engine and a BMW roundel.  A 1999 F650 "Funduro."

I was looking for a 400-lb dual-purpose bike to go on the back of the van, and capable of carrying us two-up. The KLR was too tall. I lucked into a killer deal on this machine. Gail likes it and I can reach the ground on both sides.


Couldn't be happier. This will be a daily rider while the T comes apart for the transmission seal and left-side compression issues, and our day-trip bike when we're on the road with the van.

I'll have to get used to sitting up this high, but it's stable and not too buzzy at 75mph. Comfy firm saddle. Interesting engine: two carbs and two plugs in the single cylinder. Already set up for some nice boxes.

The Triumph is for sale. I've spent far more time wrenching than riding over the past two years, and that has to change.

[elvisboy77]

Cool bike!

[Lannis]

You do what you gotta do, and you've given a lot of good "gotta" reasons!

Have fun!

Lannis

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

If it's anything like it's Aprilia twin, you'll really enjoy riding it. I put nearly 9k miles on my brother's Pegaso and it was surprisingly capable everywhere except in loose gravel. Probably poor choice of tires there.

However, if it sat more than a month, the tiny idle jets would clog up and the carbs would have to come out for a cleaning. PITA job. Oil changes are rather involved and time consuming compared to a Guzzi. Never did do a valve adjustment, but that's another job that didn't look like it would be much fun. The Aprilia had 5 valves per cylinder and the BMW only has 4 though.

[wrbix]

Teresa had one - really liked it until the voltage regulator/rectifier went TU.  Apparently a common issue that can be ameliorated by rewiring/relocating it to a cooler location with better airflow.

[Arizona Wayne]

If it's anything like it's Aprilia twin, you'll really enjoy riding it. I put nearly 9k miles on my brother's Pegaso and it was surprisingly capable everywhere except in loose gravel. Probably poor choice of tires there.

However, if it sat more than a month, the tiny idle jets would clog up and the carbs would have to come out for a cleaning. PITA job. Oil changes are rather involved and time consuming compared to a Guzzi. Never did do a valve adjustment, but that's another job that didn't look like it would be much fun. The Aprilia had 5 valves per cylinder and the BMW only has 4 though.

Sounds like the Pegaso has the Yamaha 5 valve 660 single motor like my MZ Tour has.  Adjusting the valves is no big deal and it is sensitive if it sits for awhile when it comes to starting it up when warm.  I have found to deal with that, have the pet cock off, give it full throttle and eventually it will start.  After it's running it's A OK and it starts right up when cold w/choke only.  Oil change/filter  less hassle than on a big block Guzzi.

Now if you want an oil change/filters hassle, do it on most any 4 stroke KTM, I've heard. 

[canuguzzi]

If it's anything like it's Aprilia twin, you'll really enjoy riding it. I put nearly 9k miles on my brother's Pegaso and it was surprisingly capable everywhere except in loose gravel. Probably poor choice of tires there.

However, if it sat more than a month, the tiny idle jets would clog up and the carbs would have to come out for a cleaning. PITA job. Oil changes are rather involved and time consuming compared to a Guzzi. Never did do a valve adjustment, but that's another job that didn't look like it would be much fun. The Aprilia had 5 valves per cylinder and the BMW only has 4 though.

I had the Pegaso Cube and rode a friends Funduro. The Pegaso breathes deeper and has more oomph across the range but both are great bikes. The Pegaso ran dual exhausts out the rear too, helping the engine.

Go down 2 on the rear sprocket and highway speeds at 75-80 all day are easy enough. While quite a few parts are interchangeable, most of the important ones are not, engines are quite different on the top end.

Bike should easily go forever.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Sounds like the Pegaso has the Yamaha 5 valve 660 single motor like my MZ Tour has.  Adjusting the valves is no big deal and it is sensitive if it sits for awhile when it comes to starting it up when warm.  I have found to deal with that, have the pet cock off, give it full throttle and eventually it will start.  After it's running it's A OK and it starts right up when cold w/choke only.  Oil change/filter  less hassle than on a big block Guzzi.

Now if you want an oil change/filters hassle, do it on most any 4 stroke KTM, I've heard. 

Not a Yamaha engine, same Rotax as the BMW, just with a 5 valve head.

Definitely not less hassle than changing the oil on a big block Guzzi either. The Pegaso had an oil drain/strainer screen for the frame backbone "tank" that was behind the exhaust header pipe, so if you emptied it that way, oil went everywhere. I always sucked it out with a vacuum pump. Then there's the oil filter - right side of the engine just forward of the countershaft sprocket. Remove the cover and oil runs down all over everything below it. I eventually fashioned a small metal funnel shaped tray that fit under the filter area to prevent (most of) the mess. And you still had the drain the engine. One BMW website had a step-by-step procedure for the oil change on the F650GS. When printed out it was 15 pages...

[canuguzzi]

The engine in the Peg is all Rotax. Unbreakable. Quite a bit of punch too. Handling was a dream and with good tires, typical sport bikes try to keep up in the twisties although on straights things change.

Picked mine up as a garage find with barely 1000 miles on it, rode it on a trip if nearly 3000 and it never skipped a beat. Started instantly.

The Peg was also counter balanced while the Beemer is not. Super smooth at freeway speeds, just enough minor stuff to let you know it was running. Reved up a bit, the sound was great.

That Funduro is a great find, congrats!!!

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

The engine in the Peg is all Rotax. Unbreakable. Quite a bit of punch too. Handling was a dream and with good tires, typical sport bikes try to keep up in the twisties although on straights things change.

Picked mine up as a garage find with barely 1000 miles on it, rode it on a trip if nearly 3000 and it never skipped a beat. Started instantly.

The Peg was also counter balanced while the Beemer is not. Super smooth at freeway speeds, just enough minor stuff to let you know it was running. Reved up a bit, the sound was great.

That Funduro is a great find, congrats!!!

The Funduro and later F650s are counterbalanced, so is the Can-Am 650 DS ATV the same basic engine is used in. The Bimota BB1 used a non-counterbalanced version, but that's the only application that I know of that wasn't.

Funduro parts fiche:



My brother's Pegaso Cube was jetted horribly lean - in ambient temps below 60F, it would just shut off during gear changes even when fully up to operating temps (unless you were revving the crap out of it). Made riding through towns "interesting". A jet kit and some mixture adjustment took care of that "feature".

[leafman60]

The Original Poster has a BMW F650.  These bikes and all the BMW singles were assembled by Aprilia up until '11 or '12 etc.  My '09 G650X has "Aprilia" stamps molded into the backside of the all the body panels.

While Aprilia assembled these for BMW, they had a deal to incorporate a version of the same Rotax motor into their own Pegaso bike.  This was the 3rd iteration of the Pegaso, hence the Pegaso3 label or cool talk reference to the Pegaso "Cube." "Cube," "3," get it ?

Anyway, I've had all of them.

The Pegaso3 was a most amazing bike.  As has been pointed out, it differed from its BMW cousin with a special 5-valve head.  It was a helluva bike, too.  Not only did it have 5 valves in its head, it had 2 carburetors and two exhaust headers that fed genuine twin exhausts. Mine ran like a bat out of hades.

The BMW is fine too. Check out the somewhat foundering website      www.F650.com      for lots of info on the older BMW 650 single.

The oil change procedure isn't that bad at all, once you've done it a time or two.  You just have two places to drain- the engine sump and the oil reservoir. You have to learn how to check the fill lever but that's no big deal, really.

The bike is a good runner, particularly for a 15-year-old machine.

[leafman60]

Things are coming back to me about these early 650's.

The Pegaso had an issue with the voltage regulator because it was mounted underneath the seat and did not receive a steady flow of cool air. Some folks had electrical problems because of this. There were several fixes including either moving the regulator or fitting a 12V computer chip cooling fan to the fins of the regulator.  I am not certain if the BMW had the same regulator issue but check it out.

Also, the water pump seals sometimes liked to leak on these engines.

[Randown]

Yours is carb'd but the same year GS, Dakar & CS are FI. Those may have brand new recalls on them for engine stalling, I think the dealers are just loading a new map is all.

Check for recalls here:
http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/us/en/index.html?content=http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/us/en/virtualcenter/index_recall.html&notrack=1

Nice history lesson on model differences here:
http://faq.f650.com/FAQs/F650HistoryDifferences.htm#Model%20Specs

[steven c]

 Neat bike. On my short list "if I can get one cheap enough" .

[Guzzistajohn]

You'll like sitting up high Seth, you can see right over all those Colorado Subaru's with all the NATIVE COLORADO bumper stickers plastered all over the back windows.    Oh.......Hello Gail! nice to see you!

[Testarossa]

Gail says hi, John.  We're about to head out and try the nicely graded dirt road above Jamestown.

[canuguzzi]

Things are coming back to me about these early 650's.

The Pegaso had an issue with the voltage regulator because it was mounted underneath the seat and did not receive a steady flow of cool air. Some folks had electrical problems because of this. There were several fixes including either moving the regulator or fitting a 12V computer chip cooling fan to the fins of the regulator.  I am not certain if the BMW had the same regulator issue but check it out.

Also, the water pump seals sometimes liked to leak on these engines.

I put a piece of hose outside and routed it to the rectifier, end of problem. Never had one fail after that.

Water pump seals dried out if the bike wasn't run regularly, hard to do with a Peg, they are such a blast to ride.

A Peg or Funduro is a perfect blast around bike that can easily make cross country trips.