General BMW vintage discussion thread (As well as some photo's of mine)

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Redwolf

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Ok, as most of you know, BMW motorcycles were manufactured since before the WW2. With vintage BMW's there are a clear line drawn between pre war and post war bikes.

This thread serves as a discussion forum for ALL vintage BMW's, but I'm going to elaborate a bit on the post war bikes... just because...... I own one.. :biggrin:

History
Probably the most sought after post war bike is the R68, because of being a sport model and also only a few were manufactured.

Bikes manufactured from 1955 - 1969  with their serial numbers were:

1955 — 1960     R50                                 550 001 — 563 515
1960 — 1969     R50/2 & R50US               630001 — 649 037
1960 — 1962     R50S                               564 005 — 565 639
1955 — 1960     R60                                 618 001 — 621 530
1960 — 1966     R60/2                              622 001 — 629 999
1966 — 1969     R60/2 & R60US               1 810 001 — 1 819 307
1956 — 1960     R69                                 652 001 — 654 955
1960 — 1969     R69S & R69US                 655 004 — 666 320

The R68 was manufactured between 1952 and 1954 and only 1452 were manufactured.

Buying
According to the experts the most unreliable part of the post war bikes between the engine, transmission, shaft drive and final drive was the transmission. So when buying, drain the transmission oil and if you rub the oil between your fingers and it feels like rough sand, prepare yourself for repair work. Even if it were the most unreliable part, the experts recon that the transmission lasts between 50k and 75k miles and with modern synthetic oils this figure can be doubled..., well talk about reliability... have you ever seen another 1956 bike where the most unreliable part can last 250000km with modern oils.. :deal:

Also when buying look for repairs on the body work,.. because body parts are very very expensive... +- R7500 for a mudguard.. :eek:

Another tip.. check the engine and frame number, they should be the same otherwise the bike is only worth half of what it could have been... :deal:

Parts
Most parts are still available
Look at https://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/fiche.aspx. There are quite a few suppliers still available, so don't worry about parts.

Price
Well, this is where it gets tricky. In the USA prices differ between 3500 dollars and 25000 dollars for "slash 2's" The R50, R60, R50/2, R60/2, R69, R69S and R60US, R50S and R69US are classified as "slash2" bikes.,

I am still searching for prices on R68's.. :deal:

So what to pay in SA for a slash2??? Well, from my limited research a non runner in crap crap condition without papers sells for R15000. A totally restored 100% original bike with papers can sell for R110000. But in the end this is all irrelevant.. the best price is the one the seller is willing to sell for and the buyer is willing to buy for. But the age, condition and numbers manufactures plays the biggest roles in obtaining a selling price.

So, what is all this about.... about this.. :drif: :drif:
 

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