From Dan at jh@sedlakinteriors.com


Most of the time you hear of people getting ripped off buying what they think are original BMWs only later to find they have an old Russian or Chinese bike. Here is a case of the reverse.

I went to look at a bike fully prepared to find a 1950s M72. What I found was an original R71 with a number of Russian parts. The frame serial number is two places off from the engine. The serial number is six places and flanked on each end with the round BMW emblem. This was not easy to see because of six layers of paint. As I did my normal inspection I found raised BMW part numbers cast into the aluminum parts. Much of the electric was rewired. The headlight bucket is original and marked but the key switch is an early Russian one. All in all I have found the bike to be about 25% Russian, I think. The bike has a clean title as a 1939 BMW R71. The serial numbers are noted on the title as well as the original import paperwork from the Netherlands. The sidecar is unfortunately Russian but in the trunk I found the original Gretzen carbs. The float bowl caps are threaded with no hold down screws. They list the model number on each carb. The ones it came with were two strange carbs marked "Made in Czechoslovakia."



Of course there is some bad news also. The bike has sat since it was imported in 1985. One of the original rims is totally bent and there is some front end twisting from a packaging accident where the box was dropped. It also appears that the thing was never run with an air filter so the cylinder walls are grooved and very worn. It is a shame too because the pistons are original. I did not know all this when I purchased the bike. I made a few cursory inspections and figured it was salvageable. So the bike, extra parts and Russian sidecar cost me $3,000. I figured that it was worth that given the amount of conversion done to it. This will be my winter project. I plan to restore as much of the bike as possible using the original parts. However I am not going to waste my time spending vast sums for original knick-knacks to make it 100% correct and original. I do plan to document the restoration and photograph as much as I can of the little things we don't always get to see on an R71. Except for the photos on your web site, I have never seen an original R71. I think I can safely say that I got my moneys worth on this deal and I really do not feel I took advantage of anyone because I thought it was fake too.