R 75/5 for sale - Any help with evaluating what I should offer?

[riddlerb52]

Howdy Everyone. I ran into a very nice gentleman with a running R75/5 for sale at the local neighborhood motorcycle shop in Austin. He has the following running bike and I asked if it was for sale. He said yes. There is quite a bit of cosmetic work to be done but appears to be solid. I have not ridden it yet. What should I look out for and what are your thoughts on what it is worth given the body condition? Help is appreciated.

 

[20774]

Welcome to the forum!! Wow, I guess you could call the bike a survivor! As you've noted, cosmetically it's been hurt. I notice not mirrors...can bikes be run on the street without mirrors? Wrong seat pan or maybe the wrong tank...notice the gap between the front of the seat the back of the tank. It has a Dyna III electronic ignition...I notice the brain box on the right downtube in front of the engine. Looks like it use to have higher bars, but now it has low bars but they kept the original throttle/clutch cables. Aftermarket side stand...that's maybe a good thing if you don't happen to like the OEM stand. I think there's something broken off the center stand. There's supposed to be a small tang that wraps around the bottom of the muffler that lets you put a toe on it to lower the stand. I don't see that.

The serial number indicates it's a Jan 1973 build date. I can't see, but I'm guessing it's what's called a Short Wheel Base or it could be right on the cusp of the change over. Somewhere during the second part of the '73 models, then lengthened the swing arm by about 2 inches to help with handling.

How many miles? The foot pegs look brand new. What sort of maintenance on the bike? Kinda seems like with the cosmetics, maybe the maintenance hasn't been kept up? Anything else come with the bike?? Tools?

I'm not sure about cost, but I think it would be less than $2K...as low as you could get it. Depends on what you're looking for though. There are multiple /5 and /6 bikes being sold in various places for $4K and above.

 

[James.A]

I own a 1973 R75/5 with a 12/72 build date that is a long wheel base variant. I am the 3rd owner. I know the history of the bike, and there is no reason to believe that it is not original.

Having said that, a well running, well sorted airhead is worth $3000 at the very least, in my estimation. If the current owner will allow it, take it for a ride of at least 30 miles. That would allow the bike to get to full operating temperature. Apart from leaks, any serious flaws should reveal themselves. I am always skeptical of bikes that are super clean.

 

[riddlerb52]

Great feedback! Thank you so much. He originally told be $4k, but I didn't think that sounded right.

 

[James.A]

What is your goal with this bike? The paint looks nice enough, but the seat is more likely from a later 70's model as Kurt pointed out. Too bad about the dent in the headlight bezel. I wonder how it got there. The fit of the tank looks funny, like the back end is too high or the front too low. On an original R75/5, there would not be a gap between tank and the seat. It would make me wonder what other monkey shines might be at play with it. For those reasons it is not a $3000 bike in my assessment.

 

[gregfeeler]

It’s very hard to tell from those photos, so I may have some of these things wrong, but here’s what I think I see:

1. This is a LWB bike due to the size of the battery. If there is about a 2 inch section welded between the rear dive flange (at the rear drive end) and the body of the swing arm then that confirms a LWB.

2. The tank sits just where it should – they really can’t sit any other way because of how the back just clears ahead of the rear frame down tubes.

3. The tank appears to be from a /6 unless this is a really late production /5. The clue is that the gas cap opens towards the front of the bike (the /5 tanks opened toward the rider), but it also has the screws for the tank badges. The /6 tanks were the only ones like that.

4. Those are /6 style mufflers rather than the sausage shaped /5 style. This is common as the stock /5 mullers would rust out before your eyes.

5. The sparkplug wires are the newer ones (/7??) rather than the wires with the metal caps that were standard for the /5 and /6s. Also a typical change.

6. The seat is most certainly wrong and if it were me, I’d want that fixed very soon, and I would check to make sure the original seat mount points and latch are sill ok.

7. It looks like it had a Windjammer on it at one time from the scratches on the front frame downtubes. That’s a classic hallmark of the Windjammer mounting bracket. But it also could mean that there was splicing done inside the headlight bucket to add the Windjammer wiring harness. Seen #9 below.

8. The missing stock mirrors are a loss as they fit very well.

9. The yellow turn signal indicator lens is amber which was stock on the pre-1972 /5s. So, either it, or the head light bucket, have been replaced or BMW was fishing in the parts bin the day that bike was built (that happened a lot). Still, I would look very carefully at the wiring inside of the headlight bucket to see if it looks like someone changed It out. That might be hard to tell as that bucket one a stock bike looks like spaghetti. I’d be looking for splices, or signs of sloppy work.

10. On the positive side, the cases don’t look corraded from road salt, I don’t see any case oil leaks, and the rims look like they would shine up nicely.

The old airhead market has apparently softened over the last couple of years. There are other things to check out, but if the bike is ok other than what can be seen, and it runs out correctly, then $2,000 to $3,000 could be reasonable, depending on prices in your area. I would look for comparables.

 

[EUGENE]

Sounds like Greg knows what he is talking about!

 

[gregfeeler]

Sounds like Greg knows what he is talking about!

Maybe, sometimes, when I get lucky.

 

[riddlerb52]

It’s very hard to tell from those photos, so I may have some of these things wrong, but here’s what I think I see:

1. This is a LWB bike due to the size of the battery. If there is about a 2 inch section welded between the rear dive flange (at the rear drive end) and the body of the swing arm then that confirms a LWB.

2. The tank sits just where it should – they really can’t sit any other way because of how the back just clears ahead of the rear frame down tubes.

3. The tank appears to be from a /6 unless this is a really late production /5. The clue is that the gas cap opens towards the front of the bike (the /5 tanks opened toward the rider), but it also has the screws for the tank badges. The /6 tanks were the only ones like that.

4. Those are /6 style mufflers rather than the sausage shaped /5 style. This is common as the stock /5 mullers would rust out before your eyes.

5. The sparkplug wires are the newer ones (/7??) rather than the wires with the metal caps that were standard for the /5 and /6s. Also a typical change.

6. The seat is most certainly wrong and if it were me, I’d want that fixed very soon, and I would check to make sure the original seat mount points and latch are sill ok.

7. It looks like it had a Windjammer on it at one time from the scratches on the front frame downtubes. That’s a classic hallmark of the Windjammer mounting bracket. But it also could mean that there was splicing done inside the headlight bucket to add the Windjammer wiring harness. Seen #9 below.

8. The missing stock mirrors are a loss as they fit very well.

9. The yellow turn signal indicator lens is amber which was stock on the pre-1972 /5s. So, either it, or the head light bucket, have been replaced or BMW was fishing in the parts bin the day that bike was built (that happened a lot). Still, I would look very carefully at the wiring inside of the headlight bucket to see if it looks like someone changed It out. That might be hard to tell as that bucket one a stock bike looks like spaghetti. I’d be looking for splices, or signs of sloppy work.

10. On the positive side, the cases don’t look corraded from road salt, I don’t see any case oil leaks, and the rims look like they would shine up nicely.

The old airhead market has apparently softened over the last couple of years. There are other things to check out, but if the bike is ok other than what can be seen, and it runs out correctly, then $2,000 to $3,000 could be reasonable, depending on prices in your area. I would look for comparables.

Thank you sir!

 

[gregfeeler]

Thank you sir!

 

[kbasa]

My brain looked at that thing and immediately said "$2500".

It's gonna need some cash infused into it.

 

[gregfeeler]

My brain looked at that thing and immediately said "$2500".

It's gonna need some cash infused into it.

Correct. And the only way I would pay $2,500 for that bike is if I *really* wanted a /5. I'm seeing some much cleaner /7's and later for around $3,000 to $3,500 which would require much less investment and work.

 

[20774]

And how much of that /5 are you getting here? Seems like a stretch....

 

[kbasa]

Correct. And the only way I would pay $2,500 for that bike is if I *really* wanted a /5. I'm seeing some much cleaner /7's and later for around $3,000 to $3,500 which would require much less investment and work.

And in all honesty, the later bikes are a lot better to live with, IMHO. Better brakes, better charging system, more modern wiring, etc. I'm a /2 and '84 R100 guy myself. Kinda hard to beat the looks of a nicely done toaster though, especially in that blue or in the green they sold them in. This one above even seems to have the side covers, which is kind of a miracle.

FWIW, I paid $3500 for my R100CS LE back in like 2003. It need many things, but it was a reliable, if slightly ugly runner that really didn't need much to be a good regular rider.

It's amazing to me that they still sell for that when i bought my RS back in 1992 for $4300 and it had but 15K miles on it.

$4K feels like a lot for a bike that's gonna need pretty much everything on it gone through and touched.

 

[gregfeeler]

And in all honesty, the later bikes are a lot better to live with, IMHO. Better brakes, better charging system, more modern wiring, etc. I'm a /2 and '84 R100 guy myself. Kinda hard to beat the looks of a nicely done toaster though, especially in that blue or in the green they sold them in. This one above even seems to have the side covers, which is kind of a miracle.

FWIW, I paid $3500 for my R100CS LE back in like 2003. It need many things, but it was a reliable, if slightly ugly runner that really didn't need much to be a good regular rider.

It's amazing to me that they still sell for that when i bought my RS back in 1992 for $4300 and it had but 15K miles on it.

$4K feels like a lot for a bike that's gonna need pretty much everything on it gone through and touched.

Well, $3,500 in 2003 is at least $5,600 today, and conversely $2,500 today would have been about $1,600 in 2003. OTOH, parts and labor costs today are very high.

As someone who sold /5's and /6's new, as cool, vintage, etc. as the /5's are today, I would prefer at least a /7 or later to live with on a daily basis. Just about everything is better: brakes, frame, instruments, electrics, power, forks, and so on. The /5 was a Hail Mary by BMW to save their motorcycle division which was suffering greatly from essentially no new designs in 15 years or more, so in that context, it was a radical upgrade, but still behind the best bikes of the early '70's. BMW spent the next 25+ years improving on it's basic design.