So you want to buy a classic BMW motorcycle? Here are a few things you may find helpful.
General
Beware of that unicorn low mileage motorcycle that grandma had tucked in her attic and is now being offered for sale. At least once a month I have a client tell me what a great deal they just got on a BMW from the 1970’s that somehow has only racked up a few thousand miles. In general, this is too good to be true. It can and does happen, but in reality these bikes were mostly ridden to death. You can buy into the story, just don’t pay the premium. Here is what to look for:
Paint condition 1: A low mileage bike should have very good original paint and stripes. Fading and rub marks are clear signs of weather and use which usually means mileage. For bikes with the key in the headlight look for worn paint from a billion miles of a key chain flapping in the breeze. An exception could be a legit low mileage bike that has been stored badly and thus the paint and chrome look worse than they should. In this case try to validate the low mileage in other ways like stamped service records in the owner’s manual, receipts, and even the story the seller is telling you.
Paint condition 2: Watch for a repainted bike. If the bike only has 9400 miles on it but was just repainted you’d have to wonder why. At that mileage the paint should be perfect and a classic BMW is always far more valuable with original paint and stripes. Pay less for a repainted bike, no matter what the mileage…..proper restorations being the obvious exception.
Paint condition 3: R90S and other smoke paint schemes are extremely difficult to repaint. If you are thinking of buying an R90S take a pause and do some homework before you get drawn into the romance of owning this iconic bike. If the bike is original, you are fine, move on to other buying tips on this page. If the bike has been “restored” and that restoration included new paint, have a good look at the paint, take some pictures, and then go home and fire up the internet. Look at other R90S’s, especially period pics and ‘Quail’ level restorations, and compare the candidate bike to these known good references. The mythology that no two bikes were painted the same is true, but still the variance shouldn’t be night and day. It’s not like they switched out the orange, black, and silver recipe from day to day so at the very least the colour tones should be correct on any R90S you are considering. Very often I see these bikes being flogged as “original” but the orange is more pinkish/copper and the silver is too bright. Again, if the colours are wrong the bike is neither original nor was it repainted correctly, which in both cases devalues the bike. Next look at the quality of the smoke work. Yes there was factory variability, but not to the extent that suddenly one bike has perfect smoke work and another looks like it was painted by a blind man. Pay attention to how the smoke transitions from the orange or black. It should be very soft and subtle and never look sharp. I might help to think of smoke paint as “controlled overspray” since that is essentially what it is. The smoke transition on the fuel tank is generally along the pinstripe region and along the vertical creases on the sides of the tank. Transition is the key word. There shouldn’t be a sharp or obvious switch from one colour to another. If it looks like it was masked, run away screaming. Same goes for the area around the headlight and along the fenders. Subtle and smokey and beautiful, not a big silver circle around the headlight or stripes on the fenders.
Switchgear: The silkscreen labels on the switch gear and instruments age proportionally with time, storage conditions, and exposure to weather. If the labels are faded or missing it could be another clue to watch for when validating mileage claims.
The Odometer: BMW speedometers/odometers are well known to fail early and in many cases previous owners have swapped in new/used units somewhere along the way to keep their bike functional. Do a quick sanity check that the bike condition aligns with the odometer numbers. Finally, I’ve talked to more than a few new owners about the concept that the odometer “rolls over” and that pristine 15,000 mile bike is actually 115,000 miles. It’s worth mentioning that the odometers CAN be changed, so trust your gut if something feels wrong. Many owners are honest about having changed or serviced their speedometers so it should come up in conversation.
Maintenance History 1: A low mileage bike should have a complete and documented maintenance history. In theory since the bike is low mileage (implying few owners) and people tend to care for nice things, the maintenance records should be easy to get a hold of and will usually help validate mileage. But even without records, it should be obvious what quality of service the bike has received. Don’t confuse a clean bike with a properly serviced bike. I’ve seen meticulously clean bikes that have silicone jammed in the top end. Just because the owner has OCD it doesn’t mean he has a keen eye for service workmanship.
Maintenance History 2: Every region has good BMW shops and bad BMW shops. Dealers can land in both camps. Do your homework and if your prospective purchase was serviced at one of the less reputable shops, you can expect expensive surprises. Also….low mileage bikes really shouldn’t have gone to the shop much at all so pay attention to the number of visits.
The current owner: Trust your gut. If you get a bad feeling or the story seems strange or you just plain don’t like his personality, consider that as part of your purchasing decision.
Silicone: Look for silicone around the base of the cylinders and on the valve covers. Presence of silicone here is a clear sign of poor quality maintenance. No top tier BMW mechanic ever uses silicone. Who cares? Well, silicone often blocks the top end oil galleries and causes major damage to the rocker gear. Sometimes silicone can even get lodged in a more critical oil gallery and starve other critical systems of oil such as a main bearing. Besides all of that, the use of silicone on a BMW is more of an indicator of the kind of person that has maintained the bike. This kind of person doesn’t understand why silicone is NOT needed and thus probably doesn’t comprehend other important factors concerning the machine world. Don’t run screaming, but take this into consideration when purchasing a bike. Silicone on the barrel bases means - with 1000% certainty - you will be spending money immediately all over the bike to get it back on track for maintenance.
Hose Clamps: Ok, maybe just a pet peeve, but it’s sort of like my silicone observation. The presence of hose clamps gives you an idea about the mindset of the soon-to-be previous owner. It is reversible and unharmful, but if this person doesn’t understand how fuel line works are you going to believe that he set the preload on the wheel bearings correctly, or at all?! Take it with a grain of salt but use a clue like this to size up the virtue of a bike owner. Ideally he’ll be honest and admit all he does is wash the bike and put gas in it and won’t claim he does all his own maintenance. Then you can get to the conversation about who IS maintaining the bike.
Model Differences
Not all BMW Airheads models are created equal. And not all BMW Airheads are worth investing a lot of money into. I have my biases, of course, but here are some practical facts and feelings that might help you when buying a classic BMW motorcycle.
Pretty much anything pre 1969 (Slash 2) is highly collectible and desirable and prices reflect this. Unless you are an expert yourself, ALWAYS insist on documentation and/or take the bike to a reputable shop to validate everything about it. Documented maintenance is everything! The rule of thumb is that if there is no documentation it can be assumed the work was not done, no matter what the owner claims. Even more scary is the owner who claims to do deep engine work - including slinger service - on his own. Get it cheap or walk away.
The Slash 5 series are excellent bikes. In my opinion these are one of the high points of the brand. Try to resist major modifications since these are almost perfect from the factory. Instead spend your money returning it back to the original spec as much as possible. Learn to enjoy them just as they are and if you feel you need more power or more range or more whatever, get a different bike. Somewhat like a Slash 2, these are best enjoyed the way they were designed and major modifications would need an engineering degree to be meaningful. The drum brakes are excellent when set up correctly: far far far better than the disc brakes until about 1976.
Slash 6 and Slash 7’s are softer in terms of value and collectability. Pick one of these if you want to build a cafe racer. These models were transitional and the engineering developments are reflected in the various mutant build recipes. There is nothing particularly bad about these models, they just aren’t special in any way, so don’t pay special prices. They can be harder to maintain also. Keep in mind I am not talking about the R90S and R100RS bikes in this category. Just the plain Jane naked stuff. Of course the R90S and R100RS motorcycles are extremely competent and collectible bikes. Another exception might be the R80/7 since they are sweet like a Slash 5 but you still have to put up with all the weirdo BMW engineering of the mid seventies.
Dual shock vs. monolever. See below for details, but in general these are like checkers and chess. The monolevers have their own character and should be considered as distinctly different from the dual shock bikes in every possible way. I mention this to highlight that if you think you want a dual shocker, don’t get a monolever, and vice versa. They are just totally different machines. Monolevers tend to get lower prices for some reason even though they are superior in every way (spoiler alert).
Monolevers and Paralevers
The 1985 and later single shock bikes are the peak of Airhead engineering. The engines and gearboxes are built to higher standards and tolerances. The power delivery is perfect for real world riding. Handling is superior. The list goes on. If you want a bike for riding and not for bragging about, this is the one. The only exception to think about are the paralever versions which have unique maintenance concerns to consider, but this is manageable. Here are a few tips for the 1985 to 1995 bikes:
I generally don’t see these coming in as beat -up as the dual shock bikes. Condition is usually better than average across the range so it all comes down to mileage and price. Even then, these bikes seem to rack up the miles effortlessly so don’t let that be a detractor if the condition is otherwise good to excellent and the price is right.
Circlips: I’ll say it quietly….this is nearly a myth. 100% internet paranoia with some other much smaller percent of it actually being an issue to worry much about. Sure, I add circlips when they are missing, but NOT having one is NOT an issue to freak out over. Improper maintenance is the issue and if these gearboxes were getting maintained on schedule they wouldn’t blow up in the first place. And…they don’t generally blow up. I have done literally hundreds of gearboxes, many of them did not have circlips and only one had the catastrophic failure that everyone worries about. It failed because it had done three times the mileage it should have before rebuild, not because the circlip was missing. Use this fear to negotiate a lower price if you like, but don’t let it cause you any actual worry. Worry about proper maintenance instead. I wouldn’t walk away from a purchase if the circlip situation was unknown. It is easy enough to fix, and the gearbox is probably overdue for service anyway.
Paralevers: These were badly designed. Everyone knows it. But they do work great in terms of handling. The pivot bearings need constant monitoring and the splined driveshafts need to be checked often. The final drives themselves are okay but the crown bearings tend to fail earlier than the monolever and dual shock versions. The theme, again, is maintenance: has it been done and are you willing to take on the responsibility once you own the bike? If not, get a monolever.
GSPD: 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag. I mean this from the point of view that these are very densely packed and a bit more challenging to maintain. Heralded as a fabulous touring mount and often used for overlanding, these are heavy machines with a few quirks. Once at speed on a paved road these are glorious to ride but, oh my, they are tall and heavy. They command a higher price due to a cult following, but if you make sure the maintenance is up to date and don’t mind the more frequent and expensive service intervals, you won’t go wrong.
R100RT (mono): Ubiquitous. BMW seems to have made a metric shit-ton of these. I personally own one! These are amazing touring mounts that offer great weather protection for eating up the miles. If you are over 6 feet you will want to change the windscreen to something a little taller and maybe a laminar lip. The engines are, of course, the late model 1000 cc units so with the extra weight of the fairing and luggage (and probably pillion) the R100RT can feel more sluggish than you want it to. These bikes are geared for cruising so you lose a little of that exciting acceleration feeling that the R80RT has. Not to worry! The engines a can be woken up quite nicely and without compromising maintainability or reliability. Ask me how. I made some modifications and now the RT cruises at 90 mph fully loaded and still has throttle for passing.
R80 naked (mono): Kind of like the R75/5, these are almost perfect from the factory. Peppy and easy to ride with excellent handling, the R80 is a fun ‘little’ cruiser for backroads and minor highways.
R100R (para): Sweet, sweet, sweet little bike. A bit rare and crazy under-valued, but these are really nice handling bikes with ten more horsies than the contemporary R80. Somehow this is a comfortable bike even for my 6’6” frame. The MYSTIC and BOXER versions are equally good, just uglier.