BMW r80rt 1994 help me gauge if it is a good one please (Pics)

[vteec]

hello
I am in the process of acquiring a 1994 BMW r80rt from Germany.
A friend of mine who is not into bikes sent me these pictures, the dealer told him it is unrestored, genuine and never crashed.
It has 23k kms which the dealer say are genuine. But the service history was lost by the previous owner. Bike has had four owners in total.
I asked my friend to check with the dealer of there is rust, and they replied yes but just a bit and it is normal for a 21 year old bike.
I will not be able to go and see this bike.

It looks in a great condition from the pictures.

There is a toggle switch which I think is not original on the left hand side fairing underneath the radio.
What do you think it is please?

You are the experts

Help me out, shall I buy?

 

[Qmouse]

The photos are not working for me.

 

[JJH]

The photos are not working for me.

Or me. But what price?

 

[Rob Farmer]

Looks like a nice genuine bike to me. The toggle switch could be to isolate the radio when the bikes not being ridden to save the battery but obviously this is just a guess.

the only down side is the r80 engine is a bit underpowered for pushing the RT fairing through the air. I had one and it would slow down in a strong head wind. The r100rt is so much better.

It has the air injection system fitted that never worked well. You can remove this by plugging the heads and fitting a uk air box lower.

 

[vteec]

thank you for the replies.

hi rob farmer, I thought that german and uk bikes all had same specifications, as in, EU. what is the air injection system please? never heard about it. thank you.

 

[B Murr]

1994? I think the switchgear suggests 1984. The air injection system was an attempt to reduce emissions by drawing fresh air from the airbox into the exhaust port so that any unbirthday gases would be burnt by the fresh oxygen being supplied to the hot gases. I've heard suggestions that its biggest effect is to add heat to an area that's already very hot and this increases risk of burnt exhaust valves.

 

[Rob Farmer]

The sytems called a passive air system (PAS) more about it here http://www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/airheads/plug_fresh_air.shtml

It's the two grey pipes that leave the air box just behind the inlet pipes. The pipes run to tappings in the cylinder heads exhaust ports, there are two vacuum driven valves inside the airbox that use the vacuum from each carbs inlet duct to open each valve. You can just take the pipe off, plug the cylinder head and put a couple of bings in the holes left in the airbox but it looks messy. For a few quid it's worth buying a uk airbox and make a tidy job of it.

 

[Rob Farmer]

The switch gears right for the bike. They made that model up to 94/95

 

[B Murr]

The switch gears right for the bike. They made that model up to 94/95

Indeed you're right Bob. Just had a look at some others and see that same switchgear. I know the R100gs had the new k series switchgear from 1990 onwards and wrongly assumed they'd have fitted it across the range. As an aside, which is the better switchgear in terms of reliability?

 

[Rob Farmer]

I can't say I've ever had any issues with any airhead switchgear. I did have a light switch fail on my 78 r100/7 but the bike had done 200,000 miles and was 32 years old when it stopped working which was fair enough. I fitted 81-84 switchgear bought on ebay and it's still working.

 

[airhead_eire]

I can't say I've ever had any issues with any airhead switchgear. I did have a light switch fail on my 78 r100/7 but the bike had done 200,000 miles and was 32 years old when it stopped working which was fair enough. I fitted 81-84 switchgear bought on ebay and it's still working.

I've had the different types too and never had an issue with any of them.

 

[chopper_harris]

I have many scans of BMW dealer brochures, which may be useful in identifying features by model year.

If you PM me an email address I am happy to send to you.

 

[davegs]

The last twin shocks were made in 1983, had, one gutless, brake less, but RT's have brilliant fairing rode mine home in a snow storm!!. Monoshocks had slightly less power!!.