R60/2 vs R69/2

[Nado67]

I am a new BMW owner with having just bought a 1978 R100s and 1975 R90/6 on EBay. I am working in Iraq and always liked the looks of a BMW. Having an airhead doesn't appear that much different from the old aircooled VWs that got through college. I'll get my first chance on riding a BMW when I get home in Jan for R&R.

My question is what is the difference between the R60/2 and R69/2? There appears to be a production overlap. I have done some reviewing on-line of technical information, but nothing jumps out as different.

Both models are drawing high resell value on EBay.

Thanks,

Dave

[20774]

There's no R69/2. There was an early R69 (and rarer) and then the R69S. The difference between the R60/2 and R69S is really a matter of performance, with the R69S being somewhat more sporty. I think it got high compression pistons and has the vibration damper on the front of the engine...I don't think the R60/2 got one. The R60/2 might be geared better for pulling a sidecar and some would say it's better as a daily runner, although I'm sure they're both OK in that department. I've got a late production R69S. The nice thing about the late models (say mid 1968 and on) is that all of the mods along the way were incorporated in the bike. There was a period in the mid 60's or so where there was a spate of "butter heads", somewhat soft material and the spark plug insert tended to pull out. This affected a number of models. The best heads are the ones that are referred to as "LK" heads.

One thing you'll have to deal with on the pre 1970 models is getting the oil slingers cleaned every 30000 miles or so. The bikes do not have an oil filter and use rotating discs on the crankshaft as a means to filter out large particulates. If the slingers get full, potential engine damage will result. The only way to check or clean the slingers is to remove the crankshaft from the engine. That's a winter project for me this year. People do it themselves but I don't feel comfortable doing it. I figure I'm going to have it done this once because I'll probably never put another 30000 miles on the bike.

I'm sure others will chime in and correct me where I might have erred. There's an out-of-print book by Roland Slabon that provides a detailed breakdown on all of the models from 1950-1969. I thought the book was worth it...if you can find it.

Kurt in S.A.

[20774]

I tracked this down...might want to read through some of these posts...

http://www.boxerworks.com/phorum/rea...&i=6735&t=6735

Kurt in S.A.

[darrylri]

Kurt has it right. The R69 (1955-1960) and especially the R69S (1960-1969) were sport models. The R69S produced 42hp, while the R60/2 produced only 30 hp (but more torque). The R60 was intended to do sidecar duty.

Other than the motor, the only differences between an R60 (and an R50, also)and an R69S are the final drive ratio, the possibility of a sidecar transmission (with different gear ratios), and the steering damper (the R60 had a friction damper, the R69S had a hydraulic damper, and that knob has a red dot on it).

In 1968, BMW introduced the "US" models, basically the same bikes but with telescopic forks that would be standard on the /5 bikes in 1970, instead of the Earles forks that had been in use. Both were available in '68 and '69.

You can read about slingers on my web site, and I run the slash2 Yahoo mailing list, where you can find out nearly anything you might want to know about these bikes.