Below are the photos of one of the 5 or so Ryco oil filters obtained through the BMW motorcycle club of QLD that I have retained.
After nearly 25 years I may have in fact done the club an injustice. In my fury and umbrage at the time I was simply not open to an alternate explanation and simply blamed the BMW club and Ryco.
First the photos.
1. I checked this number in the current Ryco database, it is no longer available.
2. How the kit was supplied, iirc there were normally only two small "O" rings supplied and one large black one.
3. Now here is an interesting thing that prompted me to make some phone calls, there is a spring in there that would positively stop the filter from collapsing.
I rang a friend, who is still a member of the club who told me that I only had part of the story, and, more to the point, that I was utterly wrong.
The story goes that originally a club member worked for Ryco and they authorized a production run of "compatible filters" after conducting extensive tests on genuine articles. The run was successful and the filters were sold to club members at a very significant discount over the BMW genuine filter. So successful in fact that further production runs were authorized and the filters were sold to BMW clubs elsewhere in Australia and overseas. Apparently there was never a single instance of failure with these filters.
I stopped using them as it was simply not worth the discount price to fit them to a R100Rs - I went back to using the "bendy" filters and gritting my teeth at the price.
My wife and I sort of lost touch with the club for a few years and it wasn't until the late 80s that we rejoined. Shortly after that I purchased some filters, the filter in the photo being one of them. Arpound the same time i also purchased filters for our mower.
Now this is very difficult for me to admit, but it seems in the cold light of hindsight that I did in fact fit an airfilter, but it was all my own work, the result of my inadvertence. as you can see fromt he last photo, whist a very much "younger' device, you can see how with metal ends it could be mistaken for a BMW oil filter.
I owe the BMW club of QLD a vicarious apology it seems. But not the Ryco filter company. In the early 90s Ryco moved all manufacture offshore to China, their filters have not been worth using as anything more than paperweights since.
