An everyday occurrence in SLC
Sometimes things just happen. I had gone to an early morning estate sale in the Avenues section of Salt Lake City a week ago. Once I got to the house I found out that what I was after–mid ‘60s Corgi race cars–had been sold before the sale had even begun. So it was just a big waste of time on my part. As I left the house I espied a museum-perfect 1967 BMW R69S with side car. That kind of made up for my disappointment.
Oops! Even Curbside Classics need current registration
There’s a certain bias at CC against mojocycles, which I pretty much agree with. But this thing looked as though it had left the BMW factory yesterday. No restoration, no repaints, no nothins. Virginal. I had to shoot it.
Black is so somber-how about a flamed iridescent respray?
I had pretty much expected the Corgis to be gone before I got to the sale. The house’s contents were unique to the point that the Salt Lake Tribune had run a feature on the sale a week before. Thanks Trib.
But this BMW, parked directly in front of the sale house, made up for my loss. I mean, what do I need with more toy cars? I literally have thousands of them. Wait, did I just say that? I must be losing my mind.
Good find Kevin. I cannot remember the last time I saw one of these rigs that turned out to be smaller than an R75. They just don’t die.
Still, my beating heart. Love classic BMWs of this vintage….
But this is not how it would have come from the factory; that giant touring tank is very much an aftermarket affair. And targeted to Americans and such, as distances between gas stations in Europe weren’t far apart. Th seat is aftermarket too.
Also, there’s little doubt that this is a restoration. Maybe Mr.Martin is used to back yard “restorations”, but in actuality, a proper restoration will make it look like it just left the factory. Actually, the problem nowadays is vehicles being over-restored, to the point where it’s obvious that it couldn’t have looked quite that way as it left the factory, especially from Detroit on a Monday.
These BMWs with the Earles front forks were considered the ultimate sidecar rig. The telescoping forks on the later ones for some reason are considered inferior. I’m sure Sykes will fill us in as to why.
In the 50s in Austria, motorcycle sidecar rigs were still being used as a cheaper alternative to a car. Our housecleaner used to arrive in a sidecar; I remember looking down the front window to see her climbing out, and her husband driving off. Of course, it wasn’t exactly a BMW R69S…..Probably a Puch or DKW, from the smoke.
My folks had a BMW mit sidecar when they were first married in Germany in the late 40’s early 50’s. My Dad loved that thing. I wish I knew where the photos were, but they got split up among all four of us siblings after my mother passed…
I don’t get the supposed CC anti-motorcycle bias, nor do I notice it. I would disagree with it if I knew it existed, but that’s just me.
Agreed; there’s no bias against bikes. They’re just not our primary focus. We’ve had a lot more bike posts here than the typical car site/magazine.
Just guessing but suspect the anti-bike bias is an anal extraction. Possibly not yours but something you heard. Paul put up with me for a whole string of bike articles before other considerations led me to stop. I am unsure how to pull them forth except via authors name or bike name but I know there are quite a few. Classic bikes are all over the place and the contributors send them in often enough to keep me awake.
Let me clarify it: posts with bikes get less interest/views than posts with cars. Usually a lot less. That obviously tells us something. It’s not our core area of interest/coverage, but that doesn’t mean we won’t do some from time to time. Like we do planes, ships and trains…
The pre-/ BMW’s are incredible machines. I still remember the year the wife and I were heading to Daytona Bike Week (trailering – two bikes was my excuse) and crossing the FL border on I-95 we (barely) passed a R69S in incredibly ratty shape, pulling a trailer with a rolling basket case R69 on it, and hauling a sidecar with a spare R69 engine in it.
Yeah, I was hauling two vintage Triumphs that trip. That guy made me feel like such a wimp, however . . . . .
And here’s a pic of the R69’s tank and seat as it left the factory.
Yeah Paul despite Kevins statement that bike is obviously restored BMW didnt paint that well and it has the wrong tank and solo seats were not fitted very nice bike though its been rebuilt with use in mind not display the way old vehicles should be done,
i spent way too much time getting my Hillman right in the metal before it was backyard painted and its panels are much more accurate than what Rootes achieved I even smoothed rough spotwelds so maybe I overdid it who car I no longer get bleeding fingers from the bonnet opening.
Hey, I’ve seen that bike before when I’ve come down to visit my folks (whom also live in the Aves). Awesome. Kevin, have you been to the Avenues Brewery yet? Rather good beers there.
Rather good beers…in Salt Lake City???
Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me there’s a bunch of Starbucks to be found!
And that there are people there who don’t drive minivans and SUVs!
(Okay, okay…please spare me from politically correct enlightenment about how cosmopolitan and “un-LDS” the capital of Utah can be. It’s just my feeble attempt at humor, directed at certain stereotypes about Salt Lake City…)
We don’t lack for brew pubs in SLC, nor Starbucks. The closest purveyor of high end coffee is Bad Ass Coffee Co. about a mile away from my home. We also have a Celestial Bean.
This is not to intimate that SLC is not Mormon central. It is, and will probably remain that way for years to come.
In the 60s in our town we used to ride by a Chiropractor’s office which was part of his house. For quite awhile we would regularly see a motorcycle with a sidecar parked on the street in front for obvious appointments. We always joked that if the person gave up the motorcycle or sidecar they would not need the Chiropractor.
This was a very expensive bike in the UK when new,there was also a lot of anti German feeling still about so it was quite a rare sight.The BMW was much smoother than any other big bike of the time(I think there was only British twins and Harley Davidson making bikes over 500cc).I once saw a black one like this and did a double take as a white one pulled up next to it looking like a negative.
Before the 1972 /5’s, black and white were the only colors available. The running joke at the bike was that BMW stood for “black mit white”. And before 1967, a BMW or a Harley Electra Glide were the only motorcycles available that could take you from NYC to LA and get you there without a complete rebuild along the way.
They’d still be my preferred bike of choice if I wanted to do cross-country on an antique motorcycle.
A bike like this hooked me on BMWs for life. Somewhere in a shoebox is a B&W snapshot from the early 70s of me sitting on a very similar /2 with my sister in the sidecar at the antique car show in Mt. Kisco NY.
Regarding the somber black paint, from the factory you could get the reverse color of ivory with black pinstripes which was very common, a bright green with white pinstriping (Polizei colors), not so common, and red with white which was very rare.
I have seen an R69S that a guy in Brooklyn repainted metallic olive green with a gold frame and gold pinstripes in the early 70s. It was very striking and apparently the guys at Butler & Smith really liked it, which may have driven the brighter colors of the /5 and /6 airheads.
It has been a long time since I have seen a bike with an Earles front fork. They were not much for a solo machine, but on a side hack, they were great. The braking torque is put into the swing arm and brake dive is almost eliminated. The Earles fork was also much stronger than telescopic forks of that era. When you turned the handlebars, the front wheel turned the same amount. These are beautiful bikes.
Earles forks found their way on to a lot of bikes,my physics teacher had a Panther(I think) Villiers 250 2 stroke twin with Earles forks.I remember my brother having to push him round the car park to get it started after the battery went flat (which happened a lot).Pushing this round with a 6′ 15 stone rugby player soon got him to stop smoking!
Hello akis from Greece,did anyone if the guy sale this bike?thanks!