1973 r75 /5 Toaster SWB

Welp, I bought another BMW (I told myself I didn't need one and should go for more variety.)
I owe a certain inmate a beer on this one for posting the CL article a couple days back. Article had the bike for $1000 up in Ohio (I'm in Atlanta) and I figured, hey, with gas this bike is still only around $1300. I called the guy and he promised the bike to me eventually. Got the brothers truck and loaded up the girlfriend and some snacks.
20 hours later and I'm back home with the rescue!
First impressions were that she looked pretty rough. Rust on quite a few spots on the frame, the dreaded fairing, king and queen seat and quite the dirty dirty motor. For some reason, the paint was in increeedible condition and the headers looked almost new. I scratch my head and look down at the odometer, 19,800 miles. That can't be right, this bike looks more like 119,800 but with really nice body work.
I had my major suspicions so I pulled the rear wheel and notice some incredibly dry, incredibly new splines
That tells me the bike matches its odometer...pulling the top end will really tell me, but now the body pieces and headers being so new make sense.

Anyways, I don't have a fancy camera set up any more so cell phone pics will have to do for this project.
Since these pictures, I've pulled the fairing off and the carbs.
The plan, thus far, is to just get it running as cheaply as possible. That includes new fluids, carb rebuild, new tires, tank relining (POR15...that tank is nasty inside.) The normal maintenance and tuning: Valve lash, carb sync, points gap and timing.
She also came with a snazzy looking set of Samsonite luggage (not Krauser!) and rear rack. All of that will be for sale if any wants to claim dibs and send an offer.

Awesome.

And I hate you.

I'd love to get me a /5 toaster!

Ditch the fairing and the seat, and you're good to go.

What's that button by the headlight?

Way to go Blaine!
Oooh a late 73 with long wheel base! Best of the best!
Right on.

It starts with an 'S', Swim, Swammy, Slippy, Slappy, Slimmen, Slommen, Sweeney, Swinson, Swan, Swanson? Oh yea, it's right here! Samsonite! I was way off! I knew it started with an S though!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ev-BtPMM8

Fairings already long gone. That button was for 2 MASSIVE freight train horns. I'm totally saving those. Maybe one on the r90, one on the r75. You can see them on the picture of it in the truck, up front and under the fairing.

One looks great, the other clearly was left with gas in it...maybe even water. I'm letting the screws on the diaphragm cover soak for a bit, they were seized up pretty good.





This is all for sale. Message me with an offer or if you have any clue what they're worth. The luggage is missing what appears to be a pin on the top of the rack that secures the luggage in place.

Have no idea what any of that is worth.

I do have that same (almost) rack for sale in the other flea market. No one seems interested. :huh My rack is intact and has the makers decal. From the "Rack Factory" in Long Beach CA.

Ive got a 73 toaster LWB myself they are. Such pretty bikes. Congrats on the score. Mine is a 7.5 out of ten, maybe an eight. It runs like a top, but could use some more cleaning here and there. Your gonna love it.

Pete

Great Score!

I recall someone on here posting about wiring looms being on the cheap for the /5 series. Anyone have a link? I know MaxBMW charges about $64, anything out there cheaper?

Way to go, looking forward to following. Tank does look nice. Your title says SWB but a couple replies say LWB. Which is it? From what little I know the pictures look like a LWB. Reason I ask is I've got what I believe is a /5 LWB stock seat I don't really need, could post pictures if you'd be interested. It's in pretty decent shape with the chrome bar too.

I'm not sure where people got LWB from. Maybe they misread the title or are seeing something in the pictures that clearly makes it LWB and I missed it. The VIN pulls up that the production date was January of 1973...to my knowledge, that makes it SWB.

Someone with way more knowledge than me is probably going to correct me, but I think the way to tell in pictures is if you can tell the swing-arm has an extra inch or so welded on. Which from the pics looks like it does. (but honestly I could be way off!)

Edit: Another way to tell I suppose would be swapping the seat with your r90 and see if it fits. Since we know that'd be LWB.

I can see that it's an LWB in one of your pictures. If you look at the swing arm, just fwd of the flange that the final drive bolts to, there is about a 2" tube extender welded in there. SWBs don't have that. Nice bike for $1000! There was a similar one on my local CL for the same price about a month ago. I e-mailed him five times, and he never responded. I'm guessing he got about 1000 replies in no time flat, and realized he wasn't asking enough.

It 'looks' like a LWB to me ... Does it have the 2" (Edit: From 3", thanks wirewrkr) spacer welded in at the flange on the swingarm? I thought one of the pics looked like it. does it have the same wheel base as your 74?

Yup, looks like a LWB to me, too.

Also, I think I read somewhere that the LWB /5's have a large battery holder, and the SWB a small one. Can anyone confirm that?

That would be a 2" (50mm) spacer, not 3.
And yes it is definitely a LWB.
It was probably added. Once upon a time it was popular to do this. In those days the kit to do it was a hot commodity at BobS BMW. We couldn't keep the used parts on the shelf, they sold so fast.

Not from the factory. They didn't change out the holder until the /6 came along in the late summer of 73.

While we're at it, what's the scoop on the toaster tank? I've always read that they only came on 72s, but I see them all the time on 71s and 73s. Of course, they're easy to swap around, but it seems to be so widely done, I'm dubious that BMW only supplied them for a year.