By this point in time you have probably already heard that I am the 2nd owner of a 1975 BMW R60/6. The pictures above are representative of the first night that I had to work on the bike.
A little backstory about this bike, my neighbor actually texted me one night while I was at a friend's house wondering if I was interested in purchasing another motorcycle. My neighbor found the guy off Craigslist and was actually checking out a Mid-Century Modern table designed Eero Saarinen. While he did not buy the table, the table seller, Bob, jokingly pointed at the bike in the corner of the garage and said, "You wouldn't happen to know anyone interested in an old motorcycle, would you?"
And sure enough my neighbor, Al, did.... ME!
When I found out that it was an old BMW just like the bike my former professor drove, I just had to have it. I had always admired the styling of the front forks and boxer style engine, so I rushed over to take a look at it that very night.
When I got there, I saw a neglected bike(flat tires, rusted mufflers, dirty engine, mildew everywhere) with outstanding restoration potential. Bob told me that the bike had probably had not been ridden in 12 years. The bike sure showed its age, but was surprisingly complete. Bob was very proud of the fact that it still contained its original manual and toolkit. When he opened the seat to show me these treasures we found a MOUND of sunflower shells(I have never seen so many) with the toolkit and manual buried below. Clearly some sort of animal made this bike a home.
But I was not swayed, I still wanted the bike.
I actually offered him his asking price immediately when I saw it. Bob accepted it and told me that he would run to the store tomorrow to get a new battery for it so that I could just drive it home. I was shocked! I had anticipated trailering it home and putting hundreds of dollars into it just to get it running, but instead Bob was devoted to his bike and proved to me that he was happy that it was going to a punk-ass kid who would love his bike as much as he did that he put in roughly $200 just to give me a good start.
After multiple visits to Bob's house, once to try and install a battery that was the wrong size, and once before to take a look at the bike initially, Bob and I became good friends joking like I had known him for years. I actually intend to bring his bike back over and show him that I got it running the first full day of owning it, and offer him one more ride for old times sake.
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