Is this a real BMW RS?

Being a Mono of course. Duh.

 

Could be. I think there's a disc rear - it would be on the nearside, and
there's no drum brake arm sticking down below the exhaust.

Looking at this one:

http://www.bmbikes.co.uk/photos/photophotos/1979 R100RS Blue-Silver.jpg

....you can see that the rear mudguard is a different colour. Otherwise the
paintjob and the rack seem the same.

There should be more plastic covering the handlebar mounts. The missing
ignition switch is worrying.

The only way to be sure is the engine and frame numbers. My feeling is that
it's a bitsa.

 

That's the killer punch. Even if someone had gone to the unlikely
trouble of moving it from the panel to the headlight, there'd be a hole
in the fairing, not a blanking plug.

I'm certain, given the seller's lousy record. Nine negs in 80 trades....

 

I suspect he doesn't know enough about it - he probably believes it's
genuine, and probably bought as such. I don't imagine for an instant that
he built it up himself.

OTOH he seems the sort who doesn't respond well to bad news - if you bought
it and subsequently discovered it wasn't as described, I'd be surprised by
any response other than "tough shit, **** off".

Still hankering after a decent RS, then?

 

platypus wrote:

Oh yes, certainly. But if I were contacted and asked if what I was
selling was genuine, I'd reply pretty sharpish - especially if I
thought it was pukka and someone was saying it might not be. We all
make mistakes. But he's ignoring messages, and I pity the poor sod who
does buy it. I'd be tempted to warn the current high bidder, except
that Ebay bans you for "interfering in autions".

Yes, I am. I'd have liked Hog's but I don't have the dosh for it.

 

Warn him via a throwaway account. Anyway, it's not interfering in my
book, it's simply raising a valid concern about the legitimacy of an
item.

 

OK, OK... I never claimed to be observant.

 

How do you get a throwaway account on Ebay? I thought they all had to
be tied to valid CC numbers and thus valid addresses...

 

I think eBay only need a CC number if you're a seller.

 

Not for buying. They won't accept a hotmail addy, but there's lots of
others.

 

Do you want a genuine, actual, original RS, or just a fast, sorted airhead
with an RS fairing?

 

I'd like a pukka RS, if only for the extra power. An S that's been
RS-ised, like I had before, would be OK.

 

In message

Of course. I was trying to work out what the real difference would be
between an R100RS and an R100 with an RS fairing and the simple answer
is 10bhp.

I'm sure I recall you saying before that the lower power engine was a
lot nicer though. My personal preference would be for a Hogesque Mono RS
despite the lower output but I guess there's a bit of a price difference

 

The smaller engines - the 800s - are nicer. All the 1000s are lumpy.

Well, Hog has done all the desirable mods to his to make it a bloody
good bike.

 

Get a mono RS, fit twin-plugged 40mm heads and appropriate exhausts. In
fact, you could do a 6-month series of articles on building the ultimate
airhead boxer: acquiring the bike, upgrading the suspension to Progressive
springs and a decent shock, upgrading the front brake to braided steel
lines, Motorworks cast iron discs and posh pads, engine mods 1, engine mods
2, paint job (2-tone grey with shark-mouth a la Curtiss P-40/Mako Shark)...

The possibilities are endless. Then you can either keep it forever or flog
it for an enormous profit.

 

platypus said...

Wot the Mick said

 

Tempting.

 

You really need to do better than that.

 

You know you want to.

 

This Mick?