1976 BMW R90/6

Heres the reason for ditching the V Star at my parents house on the way back home last weekend. I needed something to tow a trailer so I could pick up a new bike!

Here she is a 1976 BMW R90/6. I found the owner on ADVrider.com from a thread where I only half jokingly said I was looking for an airhead to work on and he said he had one. He was in Kansas and I’m in New Mexico, so a month later and we met up in Walsenburg, CO to do the deal. I would have liked to have found an R90S model with the dual disks better carbs and lots of stock performance mods. But for me intending on eventually converting this to a cafe style bike down the road I think its better to start from a plain R90 so the BMW purists dont scream as yet another collectible S model disappears.

The bike came as you see it, in what appears to be good condition with mostly some cosmetic flaws and mostly sound mechanicals. There are a few issues here and there, and more that I’ll find as I go through a rebuild like any bike of this age is sure to have. It came with both fairings, the hard bags, passenger back rest and a big box of parts. I think I got a good deal.

I had a opportunity to get a flawless ’77 R100 two years ago for $500 less than this one but it did not come with all the extras. I still wish I could have gotten that one as it belonged to the guy that runs the Ruidoso Rallys and who’s father lives down the street from my parents so I knew that one was in perfect running order. Unfortunately I had just bought the new Yamaha 2 weeks earlier and just couldn’t get it. So here I am 2 years later finally coming home with that classic BMW I’ve always wanted.

I love these Supertrapp pipes that I’ve never seen on any airhead before. I have seen a few pictures of ones converted to 2 into 1 Supertrapp exhaust but never like these. The bends look perfect and it fits just right over the rear brake petal so I’m assuming these must have been made specifically for BMW’s I’ve just never seen them before. It also came with 8 more disks for the pipes, I’ll have to play with adding and subtracting them after I get the rest of the stuff sorted to better tune the bike. More disks gives you better high RPM pull and less gives better low range power, or maybe the other way around.

The Krauser hard bags were rebuilt and theres a few spots that have been patched. The repair on the right side feels a little tacky to the touch still, it feels like there was not enough hardener added to the mix, but still very strong and usable. Originally there would have been black rubber pieces that go around the edges and hold the thing together and the previous owner red tape when he rebuilt them. If you didn’t know better it looks like its meant to be that way, and looks good. Maybe it’ll give me a bit better visibility. I could put red reflective 3M tape over it too.

I think Cece likes it. She says it rides way smoother than the Yamaha.

Info and notes from talking with Jerry the previous owner:

• First owner must have owned it for at least 25 years before he passed away. Son inherited it and rode it for a short time and decided to sell it. Jerry bought it and set about fixing it up, in the mean time buying an old GoldWing to ride while fixing this one and decided that was much more comfortable.
• Bike has about 70K miles on it, previous owner before him claims speedo was replaced around 64K. Jerry put about 6K more on it. (New speedo has 13K on it so the math sounds a little off, oh well. I guess only my ’07 vehicles will remain with known mileage)
• Bike has been repainted except for the frame, which has scratches from the luftmeister fairing. (Blue paint in good shape, a few nicks and deep scratches here and there, will probably repaint it again at some point and powdercoat the frame.)
• Original transmission had a noisy 3rd gear and needed rebuilding. He found one off a R75/6 of same year with 34K and put that in along with the clutch plate and spring.
• Center stand mount is stripped on left side.
• Last winter replaced rear main sear, oil pump seal, push rod seals, breather valve, inner and outer seal in the differential. (I can confirm after riding it a bit no leaks in all the usual places, thats most of the work right there)
• Needs a new rear tire, also has a wider tire on there that needs to be deflated in order to clear the drive shaft. (Sounds like a V Star heh)
• Comes with both fairings, also the lowers for the luftmeister that he believes were off a /7 as they didn’t quite fit properly and needed some trimming. Also comes with the Krauser hard bags and passenger backrest.
• Supertrapp mufflers came on it that are a little louder than stock but not obnoxious 🙂
• Recently replaced cables. (already showing a bit of wear in spots but in good shape, choke cables still need to be done)
• He suspects he put $2500 in parts into it but didnt keep track as he wasnt intending on selling it (good for me, looks like a lot of the major stuff has been done)

Heres a few pics of Jerry’s with the “barn door” fairing as they are so affectionately known and the bags and back rest.

I dont like the styling as much and that backrest is just huge. Looks like it used to have passenger boards on at one time also. I’ve never had a bike with a full fairing and since this one came with one free I guess I might as well try it out and see how much better the wind protection is with that on and see if I like it after sorting out any mechanical issues first. Maybe we can do our next summer trip on this instead of the cruiser.

The weather on the way back was bad, really bad. It rained hard almost the whole way back. I had thought of maybe going by Sipapu to the BMW rally also going on this weekend on the way back but with the weather this bad never mind.

This massive building that looks like an old fort we saw in Trinidad, CO on the way back is actually an old abandoned dairy a guy told us who was sitting out on his porch when we drove up his driveway. There was no roads any closer to it. Pretty neat, too bad there wasn’t a spot to get a 3/4 shot of the building except from the Interstate that was down to one pothole ridden lane with no shoulder due to construction. I don’t know how we missed this on our July trip.

Going down the road behind a nuclear waste truck on the way to the WHIPP site, yay fun. We tried to get better pics of the radioactive sinage but Cece’s camera doesn’t focus too well through glass.