Is this what I think it is?

[hayden90]

Is this what I think it is? R100RS motorsport??



I recently purchased a 1978 r100rs with 34000 miles sight unseen from San Diego and was perfectly happy when it arrived. Then I came across a bike for sale online with the same paint scheme as mine and saw it was called the motorsport edition which apparently is quite hard to come by. My bike has the paint scheme, fairing, white cases and blue seat. So, is this what I have? And is it worth more than I paid for it. This is my first motorcycle let alone my first airhead so any input will be helpful.

 

[lmo1131]

 

[Omega Man]

I can't help you other than- Welcome to the forum!
Gary

 

[20774]

Welcome to the forum! From what little you say and the picture, it does compare with the Motorsport models that were released. Hope you enjoy your piece of history!!

 

[PAS]

 

[JDOCKERY132445]

Nice bike

Enjoy your new ride; it is a beauty.

 

[akbeemer]

I bet someone in the Airhead world will have a list of VINs that will tell you if it is a true Motorsport. I hope it is.

 

[barryg]

Nice score.

 

[20774]

I bet someone in the Airhead world will have a list of VINs that will tell you if it is a true Motorsport. I hope it is.

Don't think it exists...the Motorsports were intermixed with other bikes in production.

 

[61996]

Nice motorcycle!

 

[toooldtocare]

Easy to clone a Motorsport, but I bet yours is a true one. Another test is to look at the rear master cylinder. Is the hose that connects to it from the reservoir blue? Motorsports had a blue hose.

 

[hayden90]

Under the 40 years of funk it turns out the hose from the master cylinder is blue! But now I have a more important question and please don't scream blasphemy. I purchased this bike with the intention of creating the world's coolest garage built cafe racer. Although this is my first bike and I'm but a wee 26 years old, I am a service and repair plumber and no stranger to a wrench. I did my research for over a year and fell in love with everything about airheads and became borderline obsessed with this build. But knowing what I know now it seems like a bad idea to dismember this piece of history.

I've seen one motorsport sell for 13grand and another for sale for 9500. Mine looks like you would expect after being ridden for 34000 miles with little dings and cracks and such. Is it worth more than the 6grand I have in the bike or should I commence my project?

 

[20774]

I think it would be a travesty to break this bike up into something other than it is. If you want a project, there are plenty of Airheads out there that are more of a blank canvas to start with...might even be cheaper in the end. And selling off the Motorsports parts just makes another bike out there a "fake" Motorsports. IMO, two wrongs don't make a right. Resell this bike...probably can flip it for more than you got and buy something else. That's my $0.02.

 

[98lee]

Hayden,

What you have, if you do nothing, will probably continue to increase in value (they only made a VERY limited amount of them and they're very desireable). If you do your project, it will probably decrease in value immediately and go down from there.

You don't take a '66 Shelby GT350 and heavily modify it. You take a standard '66 Mustang to go wild with.

Buy another (cheaper) airhead to get crazy with and keep this one stock (and valuable) and end up with the best of both worlds!

 

[barryg]

Brook Reams is freshening up a '77 RS on the airhead forum, very nice informative thread. Just a couple of threads away from yours. You probably have allready found it. Brook knows his way around a airhead. Read and enjoy.

 

[bob_m]

They are only original once. What you have is pretty special. For your project, come up to Portland, there is an RS on Craigslist painted color shifting purple, that begs to be a project.

 

[toooldtocare]

Price can vary a lot. My Motorsport is the one that sold for $13 grand. I paid $8,000 for it, traded it in for $9,000, and the dealer sold it for $13,000 three weeks later. Tell you something?

At Barber museum there is only one R100RS on display, a Motorsport. A friend of mine in Texas has one for sale in the $10,000 price range. Even my bike went to a museum in Alabama, then to Las Vegas for auction.

To be fair, my Motorsport looked nearly new, had both seats in blue, a full tool kit, and only 16,000 miles. It came from El Paso, thus had no corrosion on anything. Yours looks good too, I would venture that it is worth in the $10,000 range to the right buyer.

That said, they are only original once, and turning it into a cafe racer would kill the value. What ever you do with it, good luck.

Wayne

 

[khittner]

Now, now, Hayden---don't listen to any of these guys; they've all been watching way too many episodes of American Pickers. Trust me, now--what you've got there is plainly just an ordinary old "bitza bike", probably cobbled together after some kind of major get-off way back when. The obvious signs are the crazy mis-matched headlight surround (who on Earth would put a red piece smack dab in the middle of a white fairing, unless it had been crashed and put back together?), and the zaney multi-colored pinstriping job (hey, paint guys did a lot of weed back in the day, in addition to all of those vapors from pre-water-based paints). And where'd they get that wacky blue seat? I guess bad stuff happens to old, black naugahyde when you leave it out in the sun too long---or maybe that's what Armor All will do to a nice black seat after awhile. And these are just surface concerns---now just imagine what the neglected insides of that mystery bike must look like after 4 decades of post-crash neglect! There's probably nothing useful there, even for a cafe job that you're dreaming of.

I tell you what---just to help out a newcomer to get what he really wants, I'm willing to come take it off your hands for the $2500 or so you paid for it at that old guy's estate sale. With that newly-refreshed nest-egg, you'll be able to get yourself a newer, uncrashed donor bike that you can turn into that neck-snappin' schnazzy cafe bike that you're ridin' buds will be drooling over. PM me with your contact details, and I'll get my old pickup truck fired up and pointed toward San Diego.

OK, seriously, now---don't chop up that motorcycle.

 

[barryg]

You would probabably enjoy this web site. www.omnilex.com bmw motorcycle ephemera-omnilex that should get you to the site. Nice magazine articles, brochures, pictures of late 70's BMW motorcycles.

 

[barryg]

It's not working for me. Just do a search for late 70's BMW ephemera-omnilex. Should work.