New member

tonyhutchinson · Post by **tonyhutchinson** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 3:12 pm

Hello my name is Tony, I have a R75/7 that I've owned since 1982 and now am thinking about an early bike to use and maybe restore.
A very informative forum - Im looking forward to being part of it.

Tony

schrader7032 · Post by **schrader7032** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 3:52 pm

Welcome, Tony! Very limited model the R75/7...what year do you have? I thought they only produced the R75/7 in 1977 before then went to the 800cc model shortly after that.

tonyhutchinson · Post by **tonyhutchinson** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:05 pm

Thank you for the welcome. The bike was registered in December 76 and used by the police force. I used it daily for 21 years then laid it up until my kids grew up. I have a real passion for old bikes, the bm is the youngest bike I own so it fitting that I should have a pre 69 boxer as well,
I will try and learn as much as I can though before making a purchase so any advice would be appreciated.
Tony

808Airhead · Post by **808Airhead** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:10 am

Tony,the best bang for the buck bike IMO is the BMW R60/2. It is more powerful than the R50/2,has nice tq and power enough to keep up with modern traffic. I own one as well as a R69s,and both are great bikes,but the R60 is a better all around bike,but the R69s is definitely faster/more expensive. For much less money you can get basically the same bike as a R69s,without the extra 12 hp.

tonyhutchinson · Post by **tonyhutchinson** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:57 am

Thanks for the reply. From what I have read on the forum I am sort of leaning towards that way of thinking, apart from the power output is there much real difference in the riding of a R50, R60 or R69s ?
Tony

butch housman · Post by **butch housman** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 5:01 pm

I would suggest that unless u r a compulsive garage man stay away from basket cases & fixer upers. Find a nice one that someone has already put the $$ & sweat into, buy it & enjoy it. In the long run it is almost sure to cost u less.

Doing a good job of "restoring" one will be more trouble & expense than u would ever guess.

Good luck & welcome to the group,
Butch

tonyhutchinson · Post by **tonyhutchinson** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 7:55 am

OK I have a couple of questions.

Firstly does any model have inherent weakness that should be avoided, what would be useful reading, is there much to be gained by becoming a paid up club member from someone outside USA, do bikes come up for sale on this forum. I would rather find a machine from a genuine owner/enthusiast who knows its history and any work that had been undertaken.

Bit of a list I know
Tony

schrader7032 · Post by **schrader7032** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 8:39 am

Tony -

IMO you should look for something that is the oldest within the set of models. Roland Slabon wrote a book about these bikes. The title ("How to Restore Your Bmw Motorcycle Twins 1950-1969") is misleading in that it doesn't really deal with restoration perse but discusses the model changes over time. There are other books that attempt to do the same thing...Mick Walker (?) as well as Ian Falloon. I suggest the latest models as any running changes will have been incorporated. For example, there are transmission seals that were done which allows for the use of gear oil instead of engine oil. You can read service bulletins here:

http://www.beemergarage.com/bulletin.html

The mid '60s, especially for the R60/2 (possibly the R50/2) had the "butterheads" where a poor alloy or processing was used on the heads and the spark plug inserts were known to work themselves out of the heads. Duane Ausherman discusses it on his website...just use his search bar:

http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/

Bikes do come up for sale on the forum. Paid members to the vintage club have an additional forum area which is visible only to other members and this can be a benefit for buying/selling amongst other club members/enthusiasts. Using the general forum area for this, while accepted (to a degree), doesn't afford the same general playing field, although one would hope that we're all enthusiasts here on the forum.

Darryl.Richman · Post by **Darryl.Richman** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:11 am

Becoming a member gets you a few things. You can create a photo gallery on this website to show your bike or bikes (the little thumbnails in the left sidebar, that change on each page, are randomly selected from there, and anyone can see them all by clicking the Member Galleries button in the second group of buttons at the top of the sidebar.)

Here on the forum there is a members-only area. The most interesting part of it are the classified ads areas. It's not that active, but it is different than posting ads on eBay or Craigslist or the Internet BMW Riders Marketplace, in that you know that everyone looking at the ad is a paid member also - which pretty much insures that you won't be scammed or spammed and that you won't see the photos you might upload on eBay next week from someone trying to cheat the public. I go through all the new ads every time there's a new issue of the magazine about to come out, and pick them up for the classifieds at the back. In fact, I have to do that this weekend, as the next issue is getting close.

The magazine, Classic BMW Motorräder, comes out quarterly, is full color and has 40 pages. We try to have a selection of topics for the articles: technical, social, riding, restoration, and try to cover all of the eras from the start of BMW to 25 years ago (though there hasn't been much interest in K bike articles - yes, K bikes are "vintage" now!) For example, the next issue will have an article about timing an R51/2 (applies to any two cam motor), an R51 restoration, a review of a show, a travel story from the 1970s and a tribute to the late John Yee.

Also, our content is not all US-centric. We've recently had a story about the history of BMW motorcycles in South Africa, and the restoration story I mentioned above is from Germany. We've also published stories from Britain, Canada and Australia. We also try to be involved internationally - next year is BMW's 100th anniversary and they are going to have big events all over the world. We've mentioned it before and we will be talking more about it; they are planning to have a particularly big celebration at Motorrad Days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (a ski town south of Munich in the Alps), the first weekend of July. We had a stand at Motorrad Days this year, and we plan to have one again next year.

tonyhutchinson · Post by **tonyhutchinson** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 1:52 pm

Thank you for the replies, I have the osprey book of BMW twins and singles and Bahnstomer by Setright, both of which only seem to scratch the surface of older models. Ive had a quick look at the butterhead topics, something I'd never even heard of until today.