I've been riding friends' bikes for a few months but I wanted to get my own bike, so I did my research and found that I should be able to afford an older BMW. I couldn't ever get used to the looks of the R-series, so I picked a K bike and decided the K75 would make a good intro into BMW-World.
I bought a 1990 K75S with 29,000 miles on it. The bike had sat on Craig's List for a few weeks while all the other K75s were getting snatched up in days if not hours. Hmmm, should have been a clue...
The guy I bought it from had purchased the bike for his wife. She had a bad experience in traffic and only rode the bike once so it sat in their garage for a year. The good news was that he was a BMW rider, had been to BMW tech school and had a close relative who had owned a BMW dealership.
I brought a friend with me to check out the bike before I bought it. He noticed worn footpegs, an oil seep somewhere in the engine (oil in the bellypan) an a whining, almost turbo, sound coming from the swingarm. While he was riding the bike around the block, the engine experienced bad throttle response, then died and wouldn't start. We tried jumping the battery and ended up getting the solenoid stuck so that connecting both battery terminals resulted in the starter's running. Eventually, we got the solenoid to disengage, gave up on that battery and took the battery out of the seller's other BMW. He had kept a trickle charger on both bikes through the accessory port, so it was odd that the battery was dead, nicht wahr?
I did go ahead and buy the bike. It was a BMW, after all and I had just replaced the battery.
Once I had the bike home, I rode it casually for a couple of days and was planning to take it into a locally renown mechanic to have the bike looked over. I should have done this before buying the bike but I figured buying a BMW from a BMW guy, how wrong could I go?
I did notice that there was no fuse in position #5 and looked in the Owner's Manual to find that that fuse is to power the optional accessory port. No wonder the trickle charger had failed to charge the battery while in the previous owner's garage! I thought I was a good detective for figuring this out.
The weekend came and I was ready for a longer ride, but after warming up the bike for 10 minutes, it died and wouldn't start again. I hadn't bought a battery charger for the bike yet, but I was planning to get one. So, I took the battery to a good BMW repairman, he load-tested it and found that it was technically charged up to 100% but that it was only 33% under load. I bought a gel battery from him for $150 and a Battery Tender Plus with BMW socket adapter and figured I was out of the woods.
A buddy of mine wanted to check out the bike and he's a serious sportbike rider. He hopped on, gunned the throttle, took off hard, shifted up into second then third, made it to the end of the block and ... nothing.
The final drive went kaput after my having the bike in my possession for exactly 16 miles (and one block).
Now, the bike is in the shop waiting for a final drive and driveshaft to be shipped. It turns out that the rear main seal is leaking a little bit, but not something I really can't live with as long as I clean the belly pan once in a while. One of the fork tubes is seeping, so that's getting fixed. Once I'm done repairing what was wrong with the bike, I'll be in it for about $1150 in repairs and parts plus $2800 for the original purchase. Is this a $4000 bike?
As the title to the thread says, "Please tell me this will get better." I really want to ride, not worry about whether I'm pouring money down a hole. I knew the K's were susceptible to final drive failure and a battery will die if not charged properly, but is there anything else I should worry about?
Hook a brother up with some good news.
I bought a 1990 K75S with 29,000 miles on it. The bike had sat on Craig's List for a few weeks while all the other K75s were getting snatched up in days if not hours. Hmmm, should have been a clue...
The guy I bought it from had purchased the bike for his wife. She had a bad experience in traffic and only rode the bike once so it sat in their garage for a year. The good news was that he was a BMW rider, had been to BMW tech school and had a close relative who had owned a BMW dealership.
I brought a friend with me to check out the bike before I bought it. He noticed worn footpegs, an oil seep somewhere in the engine (oil in the bellypan) an a whining, almost turbo, sound coming from the swingarm. While he was riding the bike around the block, the engine experienced bad throttle response, then died and wouldn't start. We tried jumping the battery and ended up getting the solenoid stuck so that connecting both battery terminals resulted in the starter's running. Eventually, we got the solenoid to disengage, gave up on that battery and took the battery out of the seller's other BMW. He had kept a trickle charger on both bikes through the accessory port, so it was odd that the battery was dead, nicht wahr?
I did go ahead and buy the bike. It was a BMW, after all and I had just replaced the battery.
Once I had the bike home, I rode it casually for a couple of days and was planning to take it into a locally renown mechanic to have the bike looked over. I should have done this before buying the bike but I figured buying a BMW from a BMW guy, how wrong could I go?
I did notice that there was no fuse in position #5 and looked in the Owner's Manual to find that that fuse is to power the optional accessory port. No wonder the trickle charger had failed to charge the battery while in the previous owner's garage! I thought I was a good detective for figuring this out.
The weekend came and I was ready for a longer ride, but after warming up the bike for 10 minutes, it died and wouldn't start again. I hadn't bought a battery charger for the bike yet, but I was planning to get one. So, I took the battery to a good BMW repairman, he load-tested it and found that it was technically charged up to 100% but that it was only 33% under load. I bought a gel battery from him for $150 and a Battery Tender Plus with BMW socket adapter and figured I was out of the woods.
A buddy of mine wanted to check out the bike and he's a serious sportbike rider. He hopped on, gunned the throttle, took off hard, shifted up into second then third, made it to the end of the block and ... nothing.
The final drive went kaput after my having the bike in my possession for exactly 16 miles (and one block).
Now, the bike is in the shop waiting for a final drive and driveshaft to be shipped. It turns out that the rear main seal is leaking a little bit, but not something I really can't live with as long as I clean the belly pan once in a while. One of the fork tubes is seeping, so that's getting fixed. Once I'm done repairing what was wrong with the bike, I'll be in it for about $1150 in repairs and parts plus $2800 for the original purchase. Is this a $4000 bike?
As the title to the thread says, "Please tell me this will get better." I really want to ride, not worry about whether I'm pouring money down a hole. I knew the K's were susceptible to final drive failure and a battery will die if not charged properly, but is there anything else I should worry about?
Hook a brother up with some good news.