First BMW

[KenHawk]

Welcome to the wacky word of BMW's!

If that R90 is a nice one and runs well, 2K is a good price. I paid that much for mine back i 89 and wore the poor bike out over the next 200K miles.

OTOH, The outside bike might be a good buy as the basis of a build if you can get it cheap but any BMW thats been outside in the weather for a decade will break your heart, while it empties your wallet. Don't say I didnt warn ya!

[Ken in Oklahoma]

Years ago, in the late 80's I broke the transmission on my newly acquired '77 R100/7. I was in the middle of the torque band, near wide open throttle, getting on to an expressway, when the transmission broke and I lost the gear I was in, 3rd gear IIRC. The dogs broke on the cluster gear I determined comparing the pieces that came out of the transmission against a photo of the 5 speed gearset.

In those pre-internet days (for me anyhow) I secured a used transmission through the BMWMOA want ads. It has served me well since.

About 4 years ago I had to put in a new clutch disk. Having learned that the first 5 speeds were unreliable compared to the later ones I looked at the casting code on the tranny. Sure enough it was a '74. No problems with it in around 25 years of moderate use.

The small point I'm making here is that, based upon my own anecdotal experience, I wouldn't be too afraid to buy another '74 transmission again.


Ken

[Major Softie]

IN GENERAL, in my experience, such teething problems have usually been worked out by PO's on a vehicle that has 50,000 miles or more. If I was offered a "barn-find" '74, with under 5k miles, I would expect I had a greater chance of getting bit with the "first year of the model" bug than one that's had some real use.

[DucatiPete]

Get the /6: work on it when it's cold/wet/miserable, RIDE IT when it's not!

[jagarra]

Well guys, went to check out the /6 this morning. I took some pictures, now to figure out how to post. The old darling is a 74, according to the tag it was made in Sept 73. Really dusty, tank had crazing on the paint work, looked kind of big with no pin sripping. It was missing the side covers, all the rubber needs replacement, even all the boot covers for the controls. The odometer says 10011 on it, so I don't know what to look for in order to figure out if this is the 2nd time around or not. Header pipes are a little blue, mufflers in good condition, 1 ding that I noticed. Serial is 4040910. Looks like a decent project, felt pretty good when I straddled it, bars don't look stock as they are black. There was no tool kit. The fellow that has it has never registered it and he bought it over 10 years ago from a friend , the bike belonged to that guys father. ( I know, believe what you see and not the story) Anyway, will have to post pictures later due to size restrictions.

[Major Softie]

Pipes should be blue, so that's normal. These bikes have single-wall headers.

If you take the serial number to a dealer, they can see if it has any service history. They started keeping all that on computer and centralized a long time ago, so there's a chance they will be able to tell you if it ever showed up with more miles on it (there are lots of reasons this can happen - over 100k, as you mentioned - failed odometer - replaced odometer, etc.). You can look at seat wear, and wear on the footpegs and shifter rubber, and tank pads. If they show little/no wear, it doesn't guarantee it really is a 10k bike, but if they look more worn, then you can be pretty sure it isn't.

Since you're near Reno, Sierra BMW is really nice and Airhead friendly. They should be able to help you out. They're over near 80 and Sparks Blvd.

[jagarra]

Yeah, I checked that stuff out. The rubbers on the pegs looked good, don't remember if the shifter rubber was checked, but I am going back tomorrow. The guy who has it is going to drain the tank, charge the battery and fire it up. The tank pads looked good, but one had been glued on again, I will check it out better. I will go by Sierra BMW and run the number. You realize this bike was made in the 1st month of production. Has a sort of scary feel in some respects, were they careful or.........were they thrown together to get them to market. The snobum did not talk highly of them in his article.

thanks,

gg

[Duane Ausherman]

You can submit the VIN directly into your computer and get the info back from BMW. I forget the address.

[Major Softie]

Well, Snowbum isn't perfect, and neither is Duane, but when they both agree, it's definitely a sign.

Since both of them are not big on the 74's, you should definitely take that into consideration. It wouldn't keep me away from the bike, but it would certainly be a factor.

[Garnet]

I think the gearbox was the weakest link in a 74, and any gearbox (4 or 5 speed) up to 1980 will fit, so I wouldn't run away from it either.

Actually the 5 speed is the weakest link in any airhead, so it's not a bad idea to have a spare in any case.