Buying an R69s

Hi there,

New guy here. I am toying with the idea of trying to find an unrestored rider. I have seen a number of bikes on the interwebs in the $10k range. I understand that on most of these bikes the slingers (and associated bearings)should be addressed sooner than later. Is there anything else that jumps out that I should be worried about in terms of heavy duty motor work?

Am I being realistic in my hopes of finding a sub $10k sunny day rider that will appreciate over the next ten years?

Finally... the vintage ads in the marketplace... Does there seem to be a good number of scam ads, or are most legitimate ads? I've tried to contact two different sellers over the last couple of weeks and not a peep back. One of them (1967 R69s asking $11k) is on the same little island I live on in the PNW, and would seem to be a great buyer/seller matchup in terms of logistics.

Thanks for any feedback you can give.

Chad

Welcome to the forum, Chad, and to the world of vintage BMWs! Prices seem to have gone up since I bought my R69S...but I guess that's just the nature of things. But then I dropped $2-3K on it in the first year or so getting the slingers done as well as a refurbished top end. There's a '66 R69S for sale on IBMWR for about the same amount, so that seems like it might be the going rate. There's always the decision to be made of whether to buy a basket case for cheap or a fully restored bike for big bucks or to find something in the middle. I've seem some fully restored bikes go for $25-30K so that end can be pretty expensive.

Slingers are certainly the one thing that needs to be factored in to the purchase because, IMO, for peace of mind it needs to be done sooner rather than later. I'm not sure you can trust "meticulously maintained" that much...miles are miles. Plus it's a crap shoot if the bike hasn't been run in a while...sometimes what happens then is all of the collective contaminants on the inside of the engine slough off quickly to fill the slingers. Best to factor in to your thinking that slingers should be done.

As for other things to think of, of course the later the model the more running changes will be included. They might be somewhat minor but BMW obviously thought they would be best for the bike. There was a period in the 1966-1967 timeframe where the heads present a problem...it's known as "butterheads". Duane Ausherman wrote about them here:

http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/head/index.htm

These year models are not necessarily to be avoided but something that should be remembered...the fix is to get new heads with long reach plugs...they show up from time to time.

Not sure what to say about the Marketplace, but one does have to be careful with buyers these days. It would be nice to actually go and see the bike yourself or at least have someone you know and trust check it out for you.

Good luck on your hunt.

Thanks for the reply! I had read about the issue with the heads. The bottom end issues scare me a lot more! I will continue my quest for the right bike.

Thanks,

Chad