1968 BMW BMW

1815414

I know ebay is not the right place to be selling a vintage (over 40 years old) motorcycle but I just want to get this bike out there for people to see and ask about. I can't imagine someone paying over $10,000 for a motorcycle they can't see, touch and ride. Especially since so many classic or antique bikes are advertised, using words like all original which often means it has all it's parts but it can look or run poorly. A refurbished bike may look great but if genuine BMW of Germany parts have not been used it's not original. I have been told by Capitol Cycle in Virginia that this bike--if it truly is original and in excellent condition--sells for 15K to 18K. But if it is not all original and in excellent condition, it is worth much less. The only parts on this bike that are not original are the petcock and the battery strap. The petcock is from Capitol Cycle --they carry a lot of parts for older BMWs and get them from BMW of Germany which is where this petcock came from but it is for a newer bike. The old petcocks simply did not last because of a poor design and BMW replaced it with the newer design. It also does not have the original battery strap on it, just a rubber strip, but I will order one. The battery of course is not origiinal but the BMW runs as well without a battery so I have not replaced it in 10 years. Otherwise the bike is original, with a Wixom fairing that was a popular add on at the time. The Wixom fairing has been repainted once just because the UV rays dulled the finish. The windshield had some scratches from 40 years of use so I found a company in Colorado that made a new one out of extra thick acrylic polymer. It has no distortion and is scratch free. A normal height rider would be looking just over the top of the windshield which is the recommended use for this type of windshield. Only short riders would have to look through the windshield. The seat is very low to the ground and anyone over 5'5" would have no trouble. Considered a big bike in 1968, it is amazing how small it looks now, smaller then any 400cc bike I am aware of. My local dealer tells me that there are still a lot of 1960s BMW US and /2 models still around but the original condition this one is in is 1 in 100 or better. It was my first street motorcycle which was the only motorcycle capable of doing truly long distance touring at the time like riding it across the US without it braking down. Mine has not had a single problem in 43 years. The first few years I had it I rode often and far but then along came the Honda Gold Wing and the BMW was relegated to shorter trips. In the years since I have probably owned about 20 bikes, both street and dual-purpose but have held on to the BMW solely because of its classic looks. Especially with the Wixom fairing that I added in the early 70s it almost looks like a fairly new bike. Of course , with 30 horsepower and a 1968 design, it certainly does not run like or feel as comfortable as any bike over 350cc made after 1975 or so. I must emphasize the bike is all original visually but internally I just put a badly needed set of new KONI shocks and springs on it but they are completely covered by the shock covers. I also put new heavy duty springs in the front suspension to cope with the Wixom fairing. I also put new original BMW of Germany mufflers on. About 1973 Capital Cycle then located in Washington DC had a closeout sale on 1960s R60 parts. I bought the mufflers, shocks and springs, cables and knowing I would need them someday. I didn't plan on waiting almost 40 years but I really had no good reason to put them on until now. If I did not own 4 other bikes I would also put a Corbin seat on it since this is the only real uncomfortable part of the bike. But then it would not look original. I did buy the optional wider American seat with the bike. It was one of the few options available along with the crash bars, alloy rims and taller, wider "American" bars, all of which were options which I got with the bike. I have the original tool kit and owners manual although somewhere along the way a hungry mouse ate off part of the cover. The owner's manual is a far cry from today's manuals. It tells you how to adjust the valve clearance, etc. The bike has been appreciating at the rate of about $1000 a year, according to the NADA guide. It currently gives only one value, $8500, for this bike in excellent condition. But how many one owner, 21,000 mile bikes like this are out there? Always been maintained with a $1,500 20K maintenance bill for a through going over by an experienced BMW mechanic.A fair amount of the cost was converting the steering hear ball bearings to roller bearings. Because we could only find roller bearings for the sport oriented R69, a machine shop did an excellent job of machining bearing seats that would fit the R60 with the roller bearings. The payoff is the steering head damper can be adjusted without damaging the bearings. With the ball bearings if you tightened the damper too much, the ball bearings would be history in a few thousand miles. Now you can tighten it to whatever you like, within reason, to slow the steering head response. The roller bearings should never need replacement. The big difference between the R60/2 and the R60/US is the use of a telescopic fork that was good enough to be carried into the 1970 models as opposed to the earles fork on the R60/2. The R60/2 used the odd looking Earles fork because it was excellent for sidecars which were very popular in Europe. American riders wanted a solo bike and the telescopic forks are much lighter and provide several more inches of travel than the Earles fork. For some reason, the Earles fork RUS/2 model has a much higher NADA value, $11,500. This is somewhat of a mystery to me since the R60/2 only excels when used with a sidecar. As a solo bike it has a heavy front end and limited suspension travel. It does have a more vintage look than the R60/US but since the R60/US was only built in 1968-1969 and the R60/2 was built from 1960 to 1969 there were many thousand more R60/2 bikes made than the R60/US.and the US model is a far better handling motorcycle as a solo bike than the R60/2. And the R60/US had several options such as the wide 2 person seat, crash bars, polished light alloy rims and higher sport handlebars, all of which this bike has and were not offered on the R69. In short, the R60/US model was built for the American rider while the R60/2 was built for the European market with special emphasis on sidecar use. The R60/US frame does have the mounts for the sidecar on the frame but I assume BMW did not want to bother with building frames that were identical except for the sidecar mounts. The R60/2 may be rarer in the US which is the only reason I can account for in the NADA book values. As a solo bike the R/US has a better front suspension (less weight, longer travel) than the R60/2. The biggest problem is how to get the bike to the potential buyer. It is really not comfortable or powerful enough to ride for a long distance on today's interstate highways, although it will go over 80 mph all day with no problem, you wouldn't want to do it for hours at a time. It is easy to put on a trailer since the Wixom fairing does not get in the way of putting tie downs on the handlebars. I guess I'll have to work something out with the potential buyer depending on where he lives. If you are serious about this bike and have any questions, call me at 505-662-3293. On Aug-20-11 at 15:58:47 PDT, seller added the following information: On Aug-25-11 at 17:41:02 PDT, seller added the following information: I added some pictures in an attempt to show the excellent condition the bike is in. There is not a scratch or dent anywhere except for scratches on the end of the crash bars. The paint is all original and has held up very well but the bike was always garaged. The bike has never been down but has fallen onto the crash bars a few times from getting knocked over while standing still. The crash bars were one of only a few options available at purchase time. The extra wide USA seat, the taller "sport" handlebars and the polished allow wheels were all options. Now sport handlebars mean lower bars but back then BMW called the higher ones sport for some reason. The Kawasaki KLR 650 picture at the end is to show the size. The BMW was considered a big motorcycle in 1968, but any mid size bike is larger now. Bikes have gotten bigger and cars smaller. Of course, the KLR is a dual purpose bike with very long suspension travel so it is not a fair comparison. The BMW weighs about 370 lbs. I am hoping it will catch the eye of a vintage bike collector since it does not make too much sense as a performance bike with 30 hp and all the great new bikes you can buy for $7000. But I bet it could win an award as "best unrestored vintage bike" at some bike show. Living in Los Alamos, NM I have never had the chance to enter it into any kind of bike show, but I understand they do have them and this bike would fit in the over 40 year old vintage class of unrestored bikes.