Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

Hi,
does anyone know till which production year of R12 the front lamp holders were made from aluminium?

I cannot tell you exactly what year they went from the aluminum to the stamped steel ears, but I can give you this info.
Interestingly enough, as late as 1940 both were still listed as available The official bikes turned over to the government were not equipped with more expensive parts the government was not willing to pay for. Such as the stylish art deco fenders, and a charge indicator light in the headlight bucket, and the cast fork ears. During the war, after all twin cylinder production went to the government exclusively, the cast ears were discontinued. Likewise, early civilian bikes had upper triple plates, had a cast in boss for the removable fork lock cylinder, and a receiving boss welded to the steering head for the shaft of the lock.
Authority government bikes were not equipped with fork locks, it added to the cost.
Keep in mind, that the government early in the beginning of the war did confiscate civilian bikes for the war effort.

The 1940 parts book shows:
212 1 82 204 0 right hand headlight bracket for civilian which is cast aluminum I am 95% sure
and
212 1 82 205 0 right hand headlight bracket for official which is stamped steel
Likewise:
212 1 82 214 0 left hand headlight bracket for civilian which is cast aluminum I am 95% sure
And
212 1 82 215 0 left hand headlight bracket for official authority which is stamped steel.

My 1936 R17, which shares the same frame and body parts as my 1936 R12, has the aluminum cast headlight brackets, yet my 1936 R12 which was delivered to the government and was deployed with the Condor legion to Spain, has the stamped sheet metal headlight ears.

Hello Vech,
Thanks a lot for you replay and I apologize for very late respond. Somehow I missed your respond. I also have to tell that I am not often visiting the forum, my mistake - now I turned on Notification
Ok, for clarification. Yes I agree with you that there were changes during the production time of R12. Early frames are different than late, forks also. I am curious why BMW is not talking about series for R12 like they are doing in case of R11. Who knows. To conclude: civilian were richer, military simpler and cheaper. Different is when we are having motorcycle which was taken by the army from civilian person.

To explain I was busy with my mechanic to renew my BMW R12 WH 1940 project. I have had it since 25y and use to drive a lot before R75 era. So I decided to remove my earlier mistakes and improve this bike in my collection. Now is time for Steib sidecar. I have light version because it dose not hurt the frame as the military does. I will try to post some detail photos on forum.

Have a good weekend
Lukasz