Boxerworks.com

Thanks for the replies, you guys really know your stuff! Good to know its not perfect, gives me some negotiation room. The rust im not super worries about as I think its lighter than it looks. It should come off with a bit of polishing.

Is this a $3000, $2000, or a $1500 bike in your opinion? Im leaning towards the middle number IF it starts and runs.

Thanks again, I hope to get her out of the garage and back on the road where she belongs.

Octarine wrote: Is this a $3000, $2000, or a $1500 bike in your opinion? Im leaning towards the middle number IF it starts and runs.

I'm out of touch with market values, but if the bike is solid, runs OK, and doesn't have issues that demand taking major components apart, $3K sounds good to me. This would mean a bike that will need some attention from you, but which you can drive home right now. The bike would be worth $1,500 as a parts bike I think.

Good luck. I'm interested in finding out how it went.


Ken

I'm buying a 1964 Vespa VNB 125 basket case from the owner this week so I'll take a couple more pictures at that time. I'm going to get the VIN number, better pics of the inside of the gas tank, underside of the tins to see evidence of repainting. Also going to check out under the seat to see if there is a paint code and try to find the VIN plate that is supposed to be on the right front head tube.

I might bring a battery and if everything looks good, talk him into letting me turn it over. Anything else I should look for besides that? The rust/corrosion in the pics looks worse than in person, I think it'll come off with a small amount of work

So I picked up the Vespa along with some super bonus parts Im not going to talk about:)

Good news is bike still looks dead sexy.

Bad news no vin plate that I can see. Owner may have it with the title but I'll cross that bridge if and when I get there.

Got and engine number of 6156032.

Info plate under left cylinder reads:

831145
US 247/n

Any thoughts? Im still kinda falling for the bikes awesome looks. Anyone near Chicago want to sell me a clymer manual cheap? It does show 90900 miles but it hasnt been abused. If the paint isnt original, it was done at a BMW dealer. I couldnt get the seat up due to the bags, a design flaw which really surprised me considering its a bmw. I thought they were good at that sort of detail. L

O---To get the seat up, take off the right side bag. You do this by pushing the button in the middle of the "buckle" that's on the back end of the bag, and pulling/lifting the bag away from the side of the bike---about a 2-second procedure. Have faith---the bike and its luggage are as well-designed as you once believed!

Octarine wrote:Got and engine number of 6156032.

Looks like a European R100RT, built in Dec. 1978:



http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do?vin=6156032

Octarine wrote: Bad news no vin plate that I can see. Owner may have it with the title but I'll cross that bridge if and when I get there.

Got and engine number of 6156032.

Info plate under left cylinder reads:

831145
US 247/n

I'm a bit confused. There's no VIN plate on the steering head R/H side? But there is a plate or something like it under the L/H cylinder? That would be new to me. I've not seen an ID plate under a L/H cylinder. (I have seen an VIN sticker on the lower R/H frame loop under the engine on a '91 RT. The gal at the tag office had to get on her knees in the parking lot to verify it. She was not happy.

But I digress. I can't imagine what a vin plate would be doing off the bike, unless somebody took it off to paint. But generally masking tape around a plate works just fine. I don't know what the laws are in your state, but an unattached VIN plate would seem to be a show stopper unless it could be reattached in some manner that looks like it could have been done at a factory. Without resolution of a VIN plate issue (if there is one) the value of the bike would go way down. The good news is that titled frames are available. You just have to swap all of the parts onto the frame.

Ken

Ken in Oklahoma wrote: I don't know what the laws are in your state, but an unattached VIN plate would seem to be a show stopper unless it could be reattached in some manner that looks like it could have been done at a factory. Without resolution of a VIN plate issue (if there is one) the value of the bike would go way down.

Ken

At the very least, it would make me very suspicious about title issues with the bike, and I wouldn't touch it until I'd checked out the title with the DMV.

Again, thanks so much for all of your help. Ive got the guy looking for the vin and title. The fact it was an rt makes me less enamoured of it, I like original bikes.

Well, a de-faired R100RT isn't the functional equivalent of a Vietnam-restored Vespa "bodge"---there isn't as much load-bearing area on a BMW that can be bondo-ed, so the basic bike is probably quite solid. A 12/78 build date would make it a '79 model, so it still has iron cylinder bores, rather than Nikasil, and at 90K miles, it could be getting reasonably close to a cylinder rebore. The VIN is the tricky part; the seller needs to find it unless he wants to part the bike out.

Konrad