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R51/3 speedo; Km or MPH

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Matteo
Posts: 169
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:44 pm

R51/3 speedo; Km or MPH

Post by Matteo »

I am to the stage of restoring the headlamp of my '54 R51/3. I know from the BMW archives it was imported directly to the US. What I have for the speedo matches all the photos I've seen for the R51/3, but it is in km/h and not in MPH. Did the speedo come to the US in km or Mph?

Barry Robin
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:00 am

M- I've owned two R51/3s and

Post by Barry Robin »

M-
I've owned two R51/3s and two R67s and they all came with Km markings. as far as I know, no BMW's imported into the States were in miles until '55.

-B

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niall4473
Posts: 174
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:54 pm
Location: U.K.
Been thanked: 9 times

Barry, FWIW the original

Post by niall4473 »


Barry,
FWIW the original speedo on my 1953 R67/2 project is an MPH one, and BMWs were only imported into the UK in tiny numbers, so I would be surprised if the officially imported ones in the US had km ones.
Some BMWs were privately imported second hand into the UK (often by servicemen serving in West Germany, where they were relatively cheap) and I expect the US as well, and would have the home-market spec. speedo, often a home-made chromed brass ring was fitted around the bezel with the markings in MPH on it. I have one and will post a pic if anyone is interested.
Cheers,
Niall
Oil is always cheaper than metal

Barry Robin
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:00 am

Niall, that certainly sounds

Post by Barry Robin »

Niall, that certainly sounds like sound reasoning about the UK/US bike speedos. Makes sense to me. I think my info might have been thirty years stale, given to me from a guy who worked for the Butler and Smith office in San Francisco (I bet you bay area folk didn't know they have an SF office, didy'a?).
Lets just blame my probable misinformation on Roland Slabon. That's the ticket.

-B

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Matteo
Posts: 169
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:44 pm

Per the Betjemanns' book,

Post by Matteo »

Per the Betjemanns' book, they show a speedo part number for a mph speedo. They even have photos of both versions of the headlamp, even a R51/2, with a mph speedo. That answers the question for me.

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