Toaster /5's

These are our R75/5 BMW's. The black one is a late model 1973 which utilizes a longer frame than the early 73's. BMW achieved this by adding to the sub frame. This allows a little more clearance for your shins at the carbs and improves the handling characteristics. I found this bike in a pawn shop in Kalispell MT. years back. It had only 19k miles and had been in proper storage. It had a Califia fairing and period Wixom saddle bags. I used the fairing for a few years but had to remove it to access the wiring in the headlight bucket. Once removed I decided to leave it off. I really liked the protection and storage space it afforded but decided that the limited access to the headlight wiring could be disastrous on the road. The Wixom Saddle Bags were good looking but their storage capacity was limited. I sold them on a 71 R75. I wish I would have held on to them now. The period solo saddles are "Tuetonic 1000 miles saddles" made in Chula Vista CA. You don't see too many of those.

This bike has been ridden around 40000 miles since I purchased in the mid 90's. Has been completely bullet proof so far and has never failed me. We used to ride two up but the capacity for two up touring and camping gear grossly over loaded the bike. I was eating up rear tires in under 4000 miles. We decided to find another /5 toaster and by chance my nephew had one for sale with only 29000 miles.

This was my nephews bike. It was a Glacier Blue model. It is an early model 1973 /5 short wheel base. The original paint was totally gone, stained and faded. The seat was a duct tape recover model. I dis assembled the bike and went with a cranberry color. (Just had to thumb my nose at the purists) My wife has put thousands of miles on this bike and it has also been bullet proof. The final drive was worn and I installed an available higher geared 34:11 drive. This allows lower rpm at highway speed but was a detriment at 14000 feet in the Colorado Rockies. The thin air combined with the tall gears caused us problems on steep grades. This bike is not ridden much any more by my wife and sits most of the year. We get it out and exercise it on a regular basis though. The push rod tube seals on both bikes are weathered and seep a little oil when the bikes are cold. After warm up they seem to "heal" up from swelling and seepage is minor. They will require attention. (I have been telling myself that for ten years, but the seepage is so minor...a true procrastinator.)

I plan on swapping R90/6 heads and cylinders soon on the black bike which I hope will help power issues while pulling the side car rig. I have the R90 carbs but they are fouled with sour gas and have some circuit blockage. I haven't tried to soak them out yet. I ran an ad on the Internet BMW site with the hope of swapping the R75 carbs for functional R90 carbs. Have been considering selling the SWB bike but can't bring myself to do it since it has been in the family for so many years. The Toaster bikes were not well received when the hit the model line up. They are now more sought after and a toaster tank with good chrome panels will bring hundreds of dollars on Ebay. A lot of the side battery cover panels fell off on the road due to the rubber band mounting system. They are also bringing big bucks on Ebay. I installed a big 6.2 gallon tank on the black bike to add range for the side car but will probably keep the original toaster tank as a spare. I have never done anything other than normal maintenance on both bikes. They are a true testiment to German Engineering.