1973 BMW R75/5

99.9 Point Concours Winning Bike, Meticulous Documented Restoration, Owned by Rocket Scientist for 25 years, Original Bill of Sale

This 1973 R75/5 is a 99.9 point BMW MOA national concours winning bike with 4,000 miles since restoration. The original owner was a rocket scientist at the Redstone Arsenal Propulsion Laboratory in Huntsville Alabama and used the bike to commute back and forth to work for many years. He owned it for a total of 25 years. When he decided to part with it in the late 90s, it was bought by a BMW MOA owners club member and restored to concours condition.

The restoration was extremely thorough and well documented, with a list of everything purchased along with the date, cost, and vendor. The previous owner was very meticulous about this sort of thing, and was a national BMW concours judge, so everything was done to make it a 100pt show winning bike. The receipts came to me organized chronologically as well, he kept every receipt for all work performed, as did the most recent owner for all service on the bike.

Here's a truncated list of the major work performed to the bike (full list comes with bike but was too detailed to write here):

Complete strip down to bare frame and degrease everything
Header pipes, steering damper, reflector pads
Battery box, headlight holder
Swingarm bearings, remove driveshaft and inspect
Bead blast fork legs
Misc. grommets, seals, boots, carb kits
Tank sealer
Bead blast engine covers
Steering bearings, clutch pressure plate, clutch disk
Timing chain, rings, flywheel bolts, engine and gearbox seals
Oil pan gasket, fork bushings
Ship speedometer to Overseas Speedometer
Powdercoat frame and all black parts
Hone cylinders, valve job, bead blast heads and cylinders
Install rear wheel bearings
Ignition points, rear drive gasket
Paint tank, fenders and headlight
Fork parts, spark plugs, foot peg rubbers
Headlight lens and reflector, fork springs
Stainless steel mufflers
Bead blast shock springs
New seat
New cables
Driveshaft boot and clamps
New Grips

The bike was sold a few years ago to another BMW MOA judge who cared for the bike, maintained it, rode it 4000 miles, and showed it. He won a bunch of awards with it (photos of trophies available), including 99.9 points at a national BMW MOA meet at The Biltmore. The .1 point off was for a small abrasion under the seat which is pictured below. The bike recently had a carb tune by well known BMW specialist Apex Cycle. The oil and filter were changed 200 miles ago, it sits on Avon Roadriders, and has a good battery. The bike comes with all the receipts, the original tool roll and rag, original krauser bags, a set of original bmw mirrors (not pictured but now mounted to bike.) Starts right up from dead cold, as seen in cold start video below.

Runs and rides absolutely perfectly, best riding R75/5 we've had. All electrics work properly, brakes were just adjusted and are the most powerful of all the /5 brakes we've experienced. The bike has been ridden since the 99.9 point score, but it is extremely hard to tell. There are two very small touchups, one on the rear of the tank down low near the seat, and one up near where the tank meets the neck.

Another great thing about the bike is that it comes with all the original purchase paperwork from 1973. The original owner traded a 1969 Honda CB450 for it. They gave him 600 bucks for the Honda and he paid 2645 for the BMW. On the bill of sale are optional accessories he requested and bought the bike with. These were: Roadrunner fairing, hard bags, luggage rack, and one other thing that I just can’t make out for the life of me (handwritten.)

The previous owner told me George Barber tried to buy the bike for the Barber museum in Birmingham. The bike won awards at nearly every show it entered. It would be hard to find a nicer R75/5.

The bike comes with krauser bags, its original tools, the original bill of sale, and all receipts.