Two BMWs - the old and the new

[Dizerens5]

My R65, which I find a really good rig ("a delightful ride" might not be going too far) is my 2nd BMW. My first I bought in 1971: I was 31 years old and it was my first brand-new bike though I had been riding 500s and up since I was 16 (it was legal in those days). I mean it was the first time I had enough credit at the bank for a branny. It was an R60/5.
It was a catastrophe -  still today, the worst bike I have ever owned. It sweated oil from every joint face. The battery split and leaked. The front brake drum got oval. The oil in the shaft constantly leaked into the rear drive and ended up on the tire. The gearbox had to be replaced. Etc. Worst of all: the handlng was awful, like riding on a jelly, rolling like a ship on corners. And when I had the tires replaced, long before they wore out, I found that one front wheel spoke had not been ground down, it was 1/8" into the rim, had chewed through the rim tape and was well on its way through the tube. 30 minutes before I had been going 60, I still go a bit cold thinking about it. Yet my R65, built only 7 years later to the same general design, is a beauty in every way. What do you all think of this? Were all the /5 series bad? Or only the 600s? Or only mine?

[Lucky_Lou]

Maybe 71 was a bad year for lots of stuff i bought a new mini and it was a pain in the A** spent more time at the dealers than in my garage got rid after a couple of years of trying to sort out the suspension problems (it liked to go round corners sideways) I bought a Ford Escort and never looked back.
Lou
ps believe it or not the worst car i ever bought was a Mercedes C200  (1998) never again!!! got a Honda on the drive

[Dizerens5]

I had that R60/5 for 3 desperate years. The BMW club reported on a visit to the Berlin factory, mentioned that there was not one German working there below the level of foreman. Mostly immigrants from Mediterranean lands. Now I read just a few weeks ago that BMW management at that time were accustomed to Munich's qualified and motivated workforce - and had to get accustomed to Berlin workers who were largely unskilled and unmotivated, being there only for the high pay in that then-isolated city. Maybe that was related to the bad build quality of my /5. I forgot to mention "the last straw", when I finally removed the oil pan to clean it out, I found lying there a very battered 13mm nut and washer. That was it. I screwed the oil pan back on and sold the bike. I don't know where the nut came from (big end cap?) but I kept it for years!

[Barry]

Lou

Mercedes lost the plot from the C200 onwards. I've had a 190E for 15 years now and it's easily the best car I've ever had. At 20 years old it's still rust free and 100% reliable.  

Modern cars scare me they are much too complex. There are many tales of unreliability. My sons cars are always breaking down and they keep bringing them back to me to fix.  Most of the faults seem built in Ignition coil failure seems to be almost universal. (Honda excepted of course)

[nhmaf]

Most folks that I know claim that 1973 is the good year for the /5 models.

[Dizerens5]

It looks like by 1973 BMW management got the Berlin quality control issues straightened out!

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Hmmm, couldn't speak to the '71 issues but I did have a '74 R60/6 that was a very reliable runner.  My theory on any kind of vehicle is that you want to buy a vehicle built on a Wednesday.  On Monday the plant workers don't really want to be there after the weekend.  They are tired, hung over, or whatever.  On Friday, the plant workers don't want to be there because they are looking to get out of the plant and off doing whatever it is they want to do.  But on Wednesday, it's far enough away from both Monday and Friday that they do good work.

My '97 Ford F-150 truck is a solid Wednesday Truck.  Just came back from a 1,400 mile round trip ride to Barber's Vintage Days and now have over 314,000 miles on the beauty.  She didn't miss a beat the whole way. [smiley=cool.gif]

[nhmaf]

I'm flirting with possible disaster at the moment by contemplating a purchase of a mechanically good, but paint-challenged, low mileage R90/6..   The disaster would likely be a marital one, not a mechanical one...

[Bengt_Phorqs]

I'm flirting with possible disaster at the moment by contemplating a purchase of a mechanically good, but paint-challenged, low mileage R90/6..   The disaster would likely be a marital one, not a mechanical one...

And women wonder why we say "...but my wife just doesn't understand me."  That is an incredibly myopic view of the world.  If you buy the bike, a good winter project to be sure, then you will be home more often and certainly close enough for the various honeydoos that she is going to provide you.  Remind her that you don't drink to excess, don't gamble, are a good provider, and certainly don't chase other women.  Then ask her how many pairs of shoes she has.  My theory of marital happiness is that there is a direct correlation to the ratio of a woman's shoes to the number of a man's motorcycles.  There should be balance in all things.

[Dizerens5]

It probably doesn't matter, Bengt. As they say: if it has wheels or wears a skirt, you'll have problems.

[Altritter]

Modern cars scare me they are much too complex. There are many tales of unreliability.

Very true! (That's why I keep a '66 VW Käfer beside the R65 in our garage.)

The owner of the independent garage that works on our cars and my R65 (sometimes), and routinely repairs Mercedes, tells me horror stories about the hyper-sophistication of recent Benz designs. Seems that Benz is one of the worst in that regard. Mercedes autos have sensors for just about every conceivable condition or malfunction. That's fine when it works, but when something causes a sensor to malfunction or burn out, the result is a chaotic, expensive diagnostic exercise. Because of this, the most influential consumer research magazine in the USA gives many recent Mercedes models a "much worse than average" reliabllty rating.

[Lucky_Lou]

(quote)The owner of the independent garage that works on our cars and my R65 (sometimes), and routinely repairs Mercedes, tells me horror stories about the hyper-sophistication of recent Benz designs. Seems that Benz is one of the worst in that regard.

This was my problem with my Merc it was the year they introduced  their infrared key system.Most of the time it simply didn't work not a problem you may think!!! you can still enter the car with the key.
Only problem with that was the alarm and immobilizer system were
linked to the infrared so you set the alarm off and couldn't go any where anyway.
This was almost a weekly occurrence i got fed up of being looked at like a car thief in Sainsbury,s car park.It wasnt my only repetitive gripe with them either they seemed to be under the impression i should be grateful i had a new Merc!!
Lou

[Barry]

My Merc has a good old fashioned hydraulic auto gearbox. Never had the slightest trouble with it. Even the Bosch Ke fuel injection is 90% mechanical and will get you home if the "brain" fails.