Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

One of the very rare Medium Gray R 50/2 's that were shipped to the US in 1966. I got it from the original owners family with all the original documents verifying the Gray color from new. Its not Bristol Grey, I have an R 69 S that color and they are different. I got the bike November '21 and spent some time on a few things. Slingers, bearings wheel & swing arm bearings and a few of the rubber parts. I did change the seat and removed the Craven saddle bags and rack. Bike runs like new, only 13,700 original miles.

Nice job taking care of the better-safe-than-sorry items! You'll never have to think about them again.

Great pics, cool to see that color--fits the low-key nature of these old bikes.

Did BMW always paint the air pumps to match the bike? (Dover White, Granada Red, etc.)

I think BMW painted the pumps to match. Here's Jeff Dean's pristine /2s and the red one shows the red pump. Follow the link at the bottom of the post to read more about colors:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17663

That's a great find AND and beautiful color. Enjoy.

In regards to the pump color ... last week I was looking through Roland Slabon's Authentic Restoration Guide on How to Restore Your BMW motorcycle, Twins 1950-1959. On page 149 it says "Tire pumps, which were manufactured by such German firms as SKS and never by BMW, only came in black. To paint one white or red is incorrect." Since it only states Twins 1950-1959 it may be different for twins 1960 to 1969.

I personally think the green pump looks great on that bike.

I'm right in the middle of a Dover White R69S restoration and still undecided what to do with the pump.
Chuck

From Jeff Dean's site (from link above), he writes about special painted bikes (/2s specifically):

"In special colors like this ... the frame and sheet metal items were painted appropriately, as were the tire pump, center stand, and side stand. Minor items, such as the foot pegs, battery holder, and the spring-loaded cap for the electrical socket behind the battery, were left black."

Since your R69S is a /2 era bike, it sounds like you should paint the pump along with everything else.

As an aside, I'm not sure I have ever seen a color-matched side stand (center stands, yes) on the non-black bikes.

Side stands were an option on the /2. Also on the US fork /2 bikes the foot peg irons were silver.

That is gorgeous!!! Have fun riding it and enjoying it.

Great looking bike...RARE BIRD!!

Slabon got a few things wrong. That said, I think it’s been verified that some other-than-black bikes came with matching pumps and some came with black ones.

Dave