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When at work one day I was walking to the rear of a parking lot which is property of the folks who I work for, I am a Building engineer and I care for a 700,000 Sq Ft facility and oversee another 20+ apt complexes main heating boilers,
While Im in the back of the parking lot entertaining calls I see this old BMW in an abandoned houses rear yard, The house had the rear wall fall off in the past and is getting ready to collapse,
So I see this BMW and think that I should rescue it,
Well in a week or two I stop by one morning in my pick up and wheel the old girl over to the truck and into it as there is a short wall which happens to be the same being height as the truck, See pics,
Well, This bike has been sitting since 1990 or so and it looks pretty rough, The kick start lever snapped at the bolt hole as I was curious and put a foot on it, Not hard, But as you can see, 25+ years in the weather is rough on a bike
It rolled well and I bought it to work and got it indoors next to my 1972 R60/5 which I just rebuilt the engine,
Ahh, indoors for the old girl,
I had the opportunity to tinker with the bike for an hour today and after getting the shift lever unstuck and the spark plugs out, I noticed that when in 4th gear, The engine turns smoothly, Yes I did look in the bores before trying to turn it over and they were pretty clean, I only rotated the engine about 90* as I want to go and pull the heads to get a really good look before trying to "Gasp" start the bike,
Only about 17k miles on the bike, Oil is nice and yellow, I will drain, Refill and replace the filter before trying to start.
The Bing 53 carbs have no manual choke, So they are odd looking to me as all the Rs I have had, Had chokes,
This is a long wheel base model and I think in surprising condition considering it sat for 25+ years !
Im unsure what to do,
Originally I wanted it for parts as mine needs side covers,
But if the engine is good, I will want to save the bike,
What are your thoughts on the matter?
Whew,
Peter B

More pics

There are ways to get title to a bike with none, depending on your location, usually involving money and/or courts. I have seen crustier ones come back to life, so that's not a stopper. If I found a bike like this again, I would just try to make it safe, legal and run well... and not touch the cosmetics! It gets expensive and time consuming when you have to replace, refurbish or repaint everything...

I have no interest in the cosmetics and would leave them be,
Safe and reliable is all I would like,
I have some spare parts about and may be able to source a few ted parts from a local motorcycle shop,
I also have an old 1976 R90/6 frame and title in the garage,
Any idea if the parts will fit on that frame?
If they will, I may pull the heads this week and get a good look at the bores and then go from there,
Gaskets are cheap !
An hour here or there can also be done and maybe in a year I can have a R60/5 on a R90 frame if that works?
Ide like to keep it all mechanical, No disk brakes,
What do you think?
Peter B
~ ~ ~
While I could afford to buy clean running R60/5,
I prefer to tinker and make them run myself,
The other one in the pics has sat for over 20 years but indoors and I rebuilt the engine and the last thing is rear wheel bearings as they are a tad loose,
Otherwise its done and very reliable,
this new one I had to rescue and if the Jugs check out,
Ill check the intake, Change oil and filter and crank it over and see if I can get it to sputter,
Heres a few more pics,
PS.
If the engine is bad.
Ill have a few parts available,

Do a really good appraisal before you start sinking money into it. Even fixing the safety and stuff for reliable operation will probably cost far more than you can get for it.

Good luck and remember rule #1. Keep your money in your pocket.

This is definitely not something to do if you want to be able to defend it fiscally. Now, if you will get immeasurable joy from saving this poor diseased bike, well then, that is (by definition) not measurable.

IOW's, don't even think about this unless it just matters so much to you that it doesn't matter that it makes no sense.

...and I hope that's exactly how you feel.

Major Sofie,
You may be the voice of reason,
I have an issue with good things going bad and a good engine means to me that the bike should be saved,
Im willing to toss about $400 into parts as long as I can switch everything over to my R90 frame,
I keep my bikes at work and they are in a temp controlled space which I can tinker a few minutes to an hour here and there and even if it takes a year thats fine with me,
In reality I should just put the side covers on my bike and offer this one to someone local for parts.
Ill try and be mature about this oxidized relic.
PS.
I may still pull a head to get a good look,
Thanks for reeling me in a bit,
Peter B

I tend to agree with the comments made so far. It's hard to recommend just what to do because I and others each will have different 'visions' if you will. From reading your posts it sounds to me like you're on the correct path, for you, and not far from what would be my own approach. More specifically that would be to get the old girl running first, and then running correctly, before you start buying parts and spending a lot of money. If you don't hit a big snag then you would have a bike that runs and functions more or less well. Only at that point will you have enough knowledge to determine how to proceed.

As for deciding whether to 'restore' the bike (by varying degrees) I reckon that most of the answers will present themselves to you as you get into things. Then the answers to your questions of how much to do, when, will tend to fall into place, or so I think. A full or near full restoration, even if you do the work yourself, will be a time and money vacuum. So in essence I guess what I'm saying is that the questions in your mind as what to do and how much perfection you want will sort themselves out.

Now shifting to specific problem areas you're going to find, I have a couple or so thoughts. First and foremost in my mind would be the wiring and the electricals (in addition to the basic engine and transmission concerns). I would be inclined to 'hot wire' the necessary electricals and get the engine running. If the engine, transmission, and final drive seem to be OK (replace oil and grease what needs to move first) then knowing that mechanically things ore OK enough, then you can make all of the wiring right. At this point you haven't spent much money but you have invested a significant amount of labor. I understand that German cars will have the DIN color coding of the wiring that you would like to have in your finished bike. So you will likely want to find some wrecking yard(s) that have German cars in them. Around here in the Boise area there are a few wrecking yards where the customer picks his own parts. That would be the place I would look for in your case, if needs be.

The switches, connectors, and the wires themselves are likely to be a major problem. Essentially you're going to have to take every switch apart and every connection apart and make them right. That's a lot of tedious work and not very rewarding (romantic) to do.

From the pics it looks like the wheels and spokes are in very rough/rusted shape. At the minimum that looks like a re-spoking job.

What I'm saying, I guess, is that you need to get the bike in mechanical enough shape to ride it and see what things feel like, before you invest significant time and money.

There are certain things that you don't need to worry about right now. Cosmetics is high on the list of things not worry about until the bike checks out mechanically. And you decide how cosmetically 'new' you need for the bike to be. For myself I like the idea of a 'survivor' bike, in and of itself. To me there's a certain 'majesty' in a bike that runs well though remaining cosmetically challenged. In fact I would be damned near tempted to let it stay in it's resurrected shape. There a a lot of airheads out there that have been restored from 'last gasp' to 'hallelujah'. If you go that direction (and it's a valid direction) your bike will then be one of many old and pretty bikes out there. "Not that there's anything wrong with that"--Seinfeld.

End of ramble.

Ken

Congratulations on your lucky find.

When you've got both feet back on the ground again, sell it [1]. That is, apart from the side covers, which you wanted.

From (part of) the money you may get, buy more modern bits to put into your 90/6 frame. An early R100 engine may be a good starting point. A 34:11, or even better, a 32:10 final drive may get it to go properly.

[1] I won't contact you as potential buyer; I've already got one /5. Great, but one is enough.