nevada72
Vintage User
Just wanted to post up my bike that has no problems. 
It's a 71 R75/5 that I purchased locally last year. I've had newer BMWs, but always admired the /5s. I bought it from the second owner who had it for 34 years. Nice guy who simply wanted to fund his R1150GS purchase. Frankly, I was surprised that he wanted to part with this bike, but I guess he's a one bike kinda person. It came with an Avon fairing, and some subsequent turn indicator issues from the not terribly well done adapter wiring - not a biggy.
Here it is as purchased -
And now without the fairing -
I believe it's been repainted somewhere along the line as the paint quality isn't up to BMW standards. The pin stripes are definitely not original - they look pretty bad - tape marks. I'm torn as to how far to go with this bike. I like "patina" but I'm thinking a better paint job and hand pin stripes to mimic the factory ones are in order. But once the paint looks great, the eye is drawn to the not so great aspects of the bike like some pitted chrome, etc. It's a slippery slope.
The bike has been a pleasure to ride and fairly easy to work on. I know there a bunch of maintenance type things I should get on such as spline lube etc, so I'm very happy to be back as a BMWMOA member to learn from the best.
It's a 71 R75/5 that I purchased locally last year. I've had newer BMWs, but always admired the /5s. I bought it from the second owner who had it for 34 years. Nice guy who simply wanted to fund his R1150GS purchase. Frankly, I was surprised that he wanted to part with this bike, but I guess he's a one bike kinda person. It came with an Avon fairing, and some subsequent turn indicator issues from the not terribly well done adapter wiring - not a biggy. Here it is as purchased -
And now without the fairing -
I believe it's been repainted somewhere along the line as the paint quality isn't up to BMW standards. The pin stripes are definitely not original - they look pretty bad - tape marks. I'm torn as to how far to go with this bike. I like "patina" but I'm thinking a better paint job and hand pin stripes to mimic the factory ones are in order. But once the paint looks great, the eye is drawn to the not so great aspects of the bike like some pitted chrome, etc. It's a slippery slope.
The bike has been a pleasure to ride and fairly easy to work on. I know there a bunch of maintenance type things I should get on such as spline lube etc, so I'm very happy to be back as a BMWMOA member to learn from the best.
Work on low-hanging fruit to get the bike where you want it. The bike will "tell you" what it needs!
