Have you ever tried to trace the history of your Airhead?

Paul Rochdale

Paul Rochdale

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Have you ever tried to trace the history of your Airhead? Well I was curious about mine as although it's a 1989 R100GS-PD, it wasn't registered here in the UK until 11 August 1993.

I contacted DVLA SWansea, filled out the appropriate form and paid (I think) the sum of £5, and waited.....

Today a wodge of paperworks arrived with some interesting conclusions. So lets go through the pprevios owners of G331 NPW-

6. Me

5. .....who bought it from Wayne Stuart Richards of Bury St. Edmunds on 11 December 2004

4. ...who bought it from Nigel Huish of Ilford on 7 March 1998

3. ....who bought it from Christian Beighton of York and Maidstone on 26 July 1997

2. ....who bought it from Stephen John E Gregory of King's Lynn on 29 April 1995.

1. ......who bought it from the Norfolk Constabulary, Norwich on 12 August 1993.

The bike was imported from Germany on 24 February 1993 and formally held the Berlin registration number of B-EL66.

So what can be learned from that? Well nobody owned the bike for long, a few years or so at the most until I bought it in 2004. That year I attended a BMF rally at Peterborough and bought a Surefoot sidestand from......Nigel Huish. Would you believe that? I understand he dealt in secondhand BMW parts. I wonder why the Norfolk Constabulary briefly owned it?

I intend to write to every previous owner and to try to discover a bit more about my bike's histry.
 
Do they give any details of who owned the bike in Germany and where it was registered there ?

The reason I ask is that I have a Honda Hawk which is ex USA and I'd be interested to find out where it used to live in the States.
 
Fortunately my Pd came with all the history in the paperwork that came with it.

My 78 100/7 has only had three owners from new and I know the other two.

I didn't know you could track the history through swansea though. Worth bearing in mind for other bikes :thumb2
 
Hustler

The earliest form that I have received from the DVLA is a Form C&E 386 'Motor Vehicles brought permanently into the United Kingdom' which amongst other information (engine no, chassis no, etc) mentions the foreign registration number 'B-EL66' , a Berlin registration number. Any earliest information must come from Germany. Perhaps between it's build date and the importation date it was owned by the BMW factory in Spandau, Berlin?

My R100/7 also has a two or three year gap when it was registered in Germany before being imported to the UK.

Rob

I don't have the actual form details to hand but it will be found on their website www.direct.gov.uk/motoring. You would need to give a reason for wanting to learn of the bike's history (historic interest, etc) and need to complete the form and pay a £5 fee.

(Later) It's a form V888 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...an-individual-for-information-about-a-vehicle

(Even later still) I have discovered that there are two Vehicle Registration Authorities in Berlin, but they appear to share the same email address, so I will send them an email tomorrow and see how far I can get.

[email protected]
 
Thanks for the reply Paul.

I think I'll give this a go as it will be an interesting little exercise if nothing else, and may even find a bit of the history of my bike.
 
ok in germany they only keep the data for veichels that havent been off the roade for no longer than 7 years after this time you need to du a full recomishion not cheep and the new log books only have the present and last keeper in the older logbooks have every keeper in so you had a beter idear on its background !!!!
 
Re seller no. 4

I remember Nigel Huish; I bought an R45 from him in the 1980's. I met him through the BMW club and used to buy a few second-hand parts from him as he used to advertise in the journal.

Unfortunately, I read in the club magazine that he had died.
 
My R100GS was bought in 1988 by a guy who lived in a village not 3 miles from where it's now located here on the Lleyn, small world really!!
 
bmdavis said:
Re seller no. 4

I remember Nigel Huish; I bought an R45 from him in the 1980's. I met him through the BMW club and used to buy a few second-hand parts from him as he used to advertise in the journal.

Unfortunately, I read in the club magazine that he had died.
Click to expand...
Small world.
I bought an R65 off him and various parts over the years.
An ... 'odd' fellow :augie but absolutely genuine and honest in my experience. :thumb
Shame to hear he's dead.
 
one of my first gs was the E reg one used in the BMW brochure .It was a bumble bee model riding up a dirt track , wish i had of kept that one :blast
 
BM...how strange, I also bought a bike from no.4 Nigel Huish...it was also in the 80's...and it was also an R45!!

Sad to hear he's passed away - a nice guy.

Mike


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Mines a 1993 UK R100GSPD - I have the history back to 06/11/00 when it lived in Scotland, including all bills etc. up to current date. It's amazing how much has been spent on it over the years.

Less detail before this, but from MOTs, it had done 12,652 miles by 1997.

Biggest surprise was a xenon headlight kit bought by previous owner in 2005 for £359!! It's never been fitted and is in a box I'm my garage after he gave it to me with the bike!

Mike
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If you give a helpful BMW dealer the frame number they can tell you the production date and where and when the bike was first registered.
 
As previously mentioned, Norfolk Police would not have bought a 2nd hand German reg m/c, its more likely it came into their possession 'by other means' and the machine auctioned off under the Police Property Act
 
Just looked up my 80ST

Produktionsdatum: 01.02.1983

V5 shows first registration at 24.08.1984

So it took 18 months to get from BMW Werk Berlin to the tarmac of an English road.

They produced 5963 of this model.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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