Boxerworks.com

Hello everyone,

Its my first post on the forum and I'm hoping I can get a little feedback from the community. I have a a question about how the Airhead community feels about the value of R-bikes with engine swaps. My father is the original owner of 1974 R90/6 with a 78 R100 RS engine, transmission and front end (forks and dual disks). He is a former BMW of Santa Monica mechanic and did the engine swap in off a nearly brand new R100 in 79. He took me on many rides as a kid and it's the first bike I ever rode myself on the street but recently he bought a Bandit 1200 and he has decided to let the BMW go.

Its a fine running motorcycle that is so/so cosmetically and I'm toying with the idea of restoring it by replacing or repainting the fuel tank, fenders, side panels and seat. What I'd like to know is, in your opinion does it seem like it would be worth it to put the time and money into the bike to make it shine or does the non stock engine destroy its value? Would you (in general, the bike is not for sale yet) be interested or consider buying a bike with an engine/transmission swap like this and if so would you expect to pay less because of it. I would guess that it's not much a collectable but its still such a great bike to ride and that's why people love these bikes to begin with. There is such a wide range of asking prices out there I'm really not sure where this bike fits into the picture. I would really value the opinion of anyone who is willing to share, especially if you have experience buying/selling or collecting this era of R bike.

Thanks in advance and happy trails,

Justin

Welcome to the nuthouse Justin.
Photos man!

Most R bikes are not worth a fortune at all. A bitsa, even less.
You may make more by parting it out, if you can be bothered.

Then you'll wish had kept that old banger that was your first ride on the road.....

Welcome Justin.

It seems to be that in the States there is an endless supply of low mileage 1970s airheads. Not so over here in Oz.
The only "collectable" ones at this stage seem to be the R90S and the R75/5, though even these arent particularly rare, and some owners don't mind modifying them.

Sounds like you have a good machine there with valuable provenance at a personal level.

Keep, ride and enjoy!

And share some pics.

Cheers
Mal

As a financial question, the answer is quite simple: no. You will not end up with a bike worth near what it cost you to make it like new. That would be true even if it did have matching numbers, and with the replacement motor, it's a little more true. Except for R90S's, these bikes really haven't developed much collector interest yet. /5's are just getting started though. /2's really started to take off right before the economy took a dump, and that settled them down a bit.

Now that we've got that out of the way, who gives a shit about that? This is a bike you have an emotional attachment to, and you can make it a nearly like new rider for a fraction of the cost of a new bike. Check out Toga's thread. His project makes absolutely no rational sense financially, but who can't see what a fantastic project it is?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6562


Nike has it right: Just Do It.

I think you're getting some good stuff here, Justin. I particularly like Major Softie's take. I've had airheads for quite a while and been "unreasonably" enthusiastic about them for quite a while, so I guess I have some bonafides as a member of the airhead community.

My take is that it is the "airheadedness" of the bikes that we enjoy the most. Appreciation of an "unmolested" airhead is nice, but most of us are focused on the riding experience (and the maintainability "experience"). We are not so enthusiastic about the cost of parts nowadays but we are appreciative of the fact that that BMW does make some effort to supply parts for these 40+ year old bikes. We wring our hands that some parts are now unavailable and rejoice when a previously unavailable part does become available. We also (reluctantly) support the breaking of whole bikes into parts for sale on ebay and similar venues.

Our comfort level with non original airheads extends to "improvements". We are only too happy to get rid of that gawd awful under the tank master cylinder and install a bright shiny new handlebar mounted master cylinder instead. Similarly, no one looks askance at a bike originally equipped with that ineffective single "swinging" ATE caliper on the front end being converted to dual swinging calipers or even later forks.

That's not to say that we don't all yearn for an unmolested /5, or R90S, or '77R100RS esconsed on a podium in our living rooms.

But mostly it's the riding of them that we enjoy.

Caveat: This is, of course, only my take on what "everybody" enjoys about airheads.


Ken

Replacing the '74 drivetrain was a good move from a maintainability standpoint, but it adds no monetary value and toasts the bike for "collectors". Even if it's nice-looking, it'll probably not fetch more than $4K from a reasonably well-informed buyer. If it looks un-nice, considerably less---like 30-50% less.

Keep it and ride it!

Based on your personal history with the bike, you should probably keep it and ride it.

If you're willing to have it repainted without the pinstripes, you're not talking about a particularly expensive restoration.

If he's just going to give it to you, I say go for it! You could have an amazing bike for ~$1500. Sure, the collectors won't like it, but I sure wish I had dual front discs on my R50/5.

audiowize wrote:...but I sure wish I had dual front discs on my R50/5.

Oh, just wait until Duane sees this!

Thank's so much everyone for the reply's and advice. I'd love to share pictures of the bike, I intended to along with my original post but when I tried to attach a picture I was told something to the effect that the forum was "over its attachment quota" Is there another way to post pictures?