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New Member - 1975 R90S owner

floridar90s

New member
Greetings, everyone! I have joined the MOA in search of a better perspective regarding the value of my R90S. I’ve owned the bike since 1996, having purchased it from its original owner. The bike was purchased new from San Jose BMW.

My journey with this bike started with motorcycle-shaped tarp in the corner of a garage in Detroit. It was my first visit to my business associate's home. I asked Andy what was under the tarp. He puffed his chest out a little bit and stated “ That’s a BMW R90S”. He went on to tell me what a glorious bike it was, but that he had stopped riding when he came to Detroit. Too dangerous. The bike had been under the tarp for several years…

Shortly thereafter I purchased the bike. Then I went to the local BMW motorcycle dealership to ask them what the heck I now owned. Seated next to me at the counter was an airhead enthusiast about my age. A friendship developed. Steve’s garage was dedicated to his small collection of airheads and his then contemporary BMW daily ride. I have a picture somewhere from that winter of the naked R90S frame hanging by its gooseneck from the ceiling with all of the bike's parts organized on shelves behind it. Steve guided me through a functional restoration of the bike and it became my daily ride. It took me on several trips to the Shenandoah Parkway, Blue Ridge, and Deals Gap.

I’ll refrain from giving a long-winded history on the bike right now. I’ll go into details in a later post if necessary. Suffice it to say that it was put away for many years, and was once again resurrected a couple of years ago. The Dellorto carburetors got rebuilt, as did the petcocks. All fluids changed, filters too, as well as a number of other odds and ends. The bike gets started regularly and gets ridden occasionally. Just often enough to keep everything exercised.

So, I’ve submitted pictures to show everybody what I’ve got. When I bought the bike originally it was missing its fairing, due to a minor accident. In its place was a Vetter Windjammer SS. As you can see from the pictures of all of my extra parts and accessories, I was really into the bike for several years. One of the things I acquired was a leather top-hat tank bag. It was gifted to me by a mechanic friend of mine. At the time, he called it “pure unobtainium“.

Here’s the problem. I think my biking days are now behind me. I would like to sell the bike and everything related to it. But how should I do it? Would it be better to sell the bike as is and part out the rest of it? Or, is the whole lot of it something that another R90S enthusiast would be interested in as a total package? What is the value of what I have? I’m hoping that in this group of BMW motorcycle-minded folks, I might find a new home for this legendary bike.

I will start for now and post this, and see what interest it generates. I thank you all in advance for your replies and advice.

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Too bad the original fairing was lost. In this day and age the R90 S have become very collectable with matching prices. Of course without the fairing the value of this one will come down. The assortment of spare parts will be helpful.

A number of them do come up on Craigslist and Bring a Trailer and there are members who troll those places looking for them.

If you are serious about selling I would suggest maybe putting it up on this website first to avoid many tire kickers that hang out on those other sites.

I have no doubt more people will chime in on this thread. Good luck.
 
Welcome floridar90s! Really don't have any input re: sale of bike but wanted to say thanks for posting the pics.
 
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