Previous Owner '55 R50 VBMWMO Member?

[CWRoady]

Looking at a post inquiring about previous owner of a bike prompted me to try and do the same. I purchased a 1955 R50 in January that has a "BMW Vintage" club roundel on the steering damper. It also has "Reblt 4/74 RM?" painted inside the headlight (great idea I will add to with my refurb). I thought it might be worth attempting to make contact here since there is clearly some level of affiliation with the club by an owner previous to the one I bought this bike from.

I would love to know some history on the bike since I got zero from the gentleman I purchased it from in Long Beach. I gather he was a short term owner who purchased it from someone in the Pacific NW. I am currently going through it based on no maintenance documentation so the contact is more from a fun perspective than need to know I guess. I will post a few pics that could help identify the bike and perhaps previous owner if he is still active here.

Thanks,
Chris

[schrader7032]

Have you tried searching the forum for the VIN number? Maybe it was discussed at some point. Also, if you click on Knowledge Base above and Model Info, use the VIN to find the R50 section and look for a PDF file at the bottom which has a range of VINs over the years...no owner info but maybe the VIN is in there and it shows build dates near to your bike.

[CWRoady]

good idea Kurt, thanks. I found that the guy I purchased it from had posted about it when he purchased .. apparently August of last year. viewtopic.php?f=7&t=15905&p=4490&hilit=550375#p4490. He told me he had done very little to the bike when I bought it from him in January of this year and he did not have any maintenance documentation to go with it. While it looked very nice, it was in need of a good bit of mechanical refurbishment that was not readily identifiable, that I am making sure it gets now.

I previously contacted BMW and received the following information as well: The BMW R 50 VIN 550375 was manufactured on March 15th, 1955 and delivered on March 16th, 1955 to the BMW importer Butler & Smith in New York City. One day delivery from Munich to NYC seems miraculous, but I think I read somewhere that delivery could mean transfer to Butler & Smith prior to transport.

It would be nice to connect with previous owners if possible, and it seemed the roundel and notation inside the headlight are pretty good clues if any of the PO's are active here.

[schrader7032]

That specific user seems to no longer be active. As for previous owners, I ran into the same thing on my R69S...I was fourth owner. I tried contacting the 2nd owner but there was no response. The first owner was a soldier who brought the bike back from Germany. I figured it was too long ago and didn't know how to find him.

[jwonder]

Chris,

Don't tease us with only a couple pictures, lets see the whole thing!

James

[CWRoady]

Haha, happy to. A pic of when I purchased

91F12B2A-346F-465F-A369-10FE8218617D.jpeg (41.19 KiB) Viewed 1725 times

and a pic as it sits currently! I have a target of riding it again on my birthday the end of Sept. fingers crossed that the motor, heads, frame & front end all get back to me in time!