Buying a 50s BMW

Hi,

I'm planning on buying a BMW from the 50s, and would like to know if
there's something I should be aware of?

My eyes were originally set on a R25/3, but it's only 250ccm and since
my own weight is about 110kg it perhaps should go for R51/3 instead.

I kinda like "the look" of the R51/3 over an R50, but the R50 is newer
and perhaps recommendable due to the updates it got?

The R6x are outside my budget, except if there's really good reasons
for buying one of those instead.

 

It's very old

You've posted in the wrong group. There is a sister group for such old
crap.

X-posted for your benefit

 

You may as well buy a recently built one, they haven't changed anything.

 

well, , , , that's not quite right...

they have changed a lot, but a flat twin is of course a flat twin so there's
not a lot that can be done to change the shape of it, or the perception of
it as
being an old design bike.

bmw are now building flat twin engines that are very efficient at what they
do.
they aren't over engineered to the extent they used to be, so i'd not defend
that aspect of them, but, for anyone that cares about mpg figures on bikes,
i was getting 70mpg on a late r1200rt when touring at 'easy' speeds. the
'not so highly tuned' flat twins can get excellent mpg figures, or can be
tweeked up for speed and power a-plenty (the sports versions).

unfortunately bmw seem to have reduced the quality of their offerings and
aren't over engineering as much as they used to. gone are the days when
you could throw a bmw into a ditch and come back a year later and start it
up and use it in the same condition as you left it. i'm pretty sure they'd
rust into heaps the same as japanese bikes would (i am not having a poke at
jap bikes by the way, they are excellent machines too, just not what i look
for in a bike).

cheers, al, removing his slippers, putting his pipe out, and going to bed
to catch up on some much needed sleep LOL

 

You will develop a tendency to wear large stormcoats and waders.
Brown workshop coats are optional.

 

The message <[email protected]>

Oy! I resemble that remark!

 

What the ****** is it about BMW owners that they have to lie about their
fuel consumption figurers (or omit to mention that they were achieved at
a snail's pace)?

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in message

What do you mean? I regularly get:
39mpg out of the K75
40mpg out of the ZXR750
36mpg out of the K100 sidecar
42mpg out of the K1100
and 23mpg out of the 735.

I have got...
36mpg out of an ST1100
32mpg out of the z500 with sidecar
26mpg out of the 520
50mpg out of a GPZ600r
39mpg out of a ZX9r
59mpg out of a CB250RS
39mpg out of a GT750
38mpg out of a K100
37mpg out of a(nother) K100
40mpg out of yet another K100
51mpg out of a BX19rd
45mpg out of a ZX 1900 diesel

That's all I've kept records for recently...

 

Yes, but you're not the stereotypical BMW bore, like al appears to be.

 

Never worked out what I get from the GS, but it drinks about as much as
the 9R at 3/4 the speed.

 

It may be that they believe the odometer is correct and when it says
they've done 100 miles they don't realise it's only about 90.

 

Standard BMW error, is that.

 

I'd believe the GPS rather than the speedo and odometer.

It's easy to claim that you get 50mpg cruising at a steady 80mph but
the reality is that you're actually getting 45mpg at a steady 70mph.

 

Apparently, if I fitted the speedo cable gearbox from an R1150RT to my bike
I could make it accurate. I quite like it the way it is. Ever the optimist.

The Citroen has a digital display which is pretty accurate according to my
GPS. I don't like it, especially when in autopilot on a motorway. Far too
easy for my speed to creep up to camera triggering speeds. The car is
loaded with all sorts of electronic gadgets but they omitted cruise
control. Fuckers.

 

My Audi has a cruise control where I think the speed set is more in
line with the built in GPS than the displayed speed on the odometer.

 

AOL. I only found out on the French trip that the speedo on the RT
actually reads true instead of lying in the usual BMW
fashion. Fortunately I noticed before plod noticed.

 

Just been checking the speedo/cruise control on our R36. The GPS
doean't actually display speed, but checking against our TomTom shows
about +5kph error across the board, so far. What worries me slightly
is that the TomTom also reads about the same amount _lower_ than the
many radar-based speed displays that are popping up in the villages
round here. Dunno if they're set deliberately high, but it wouldn;t
surprise me.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

My brother has an R1150R, which he bought new about 7 years ago. It's
currently having its 3rd ABS pump fitted. Logs show that the ABS has been
activated for 30 seconds over the last 5000-odd running hours.

 

I haven't had ABS on my R-GS for about 4 years. I haven't died yet.

It might just be a sensor, as it works for a short time after a hard
reset. It could be the pump. Apparently, if I bother to take it to a BMW
dealer they could plug it into a simulator that will diagnose the problem.
I can't be arsed to ride over to Bristol or Stroud, though.

 

@text.news.virginmedia.com:

text.news.virginmedia.com

does that work okay now? I tried it a while ago and it was shit. Went back
to news.virginmedia.com, which gets a bit slow and grumpy during peak hours