K100RT Guidance sought

[Blueman2]

Normally hang around with the Triumph crowd but my sister is considering a 1985 K100RT and is asking what I think.  Any suggestions on where to find info?  I am already looking at advrider.com, any others?

I am mostly interested in what to watch out for in terms of possible gotchas.

Bike has 25k on it, asking US$2800.  I may get to see it next week.

Thanks in advance for any info or suggestions.

Blueman2

[lanispet]

Forum- "K-bikes" at http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/index.php
Other useful links:
http://www.ibmwr.org/ktech/fyk-purchase-faq.shtml
http://www.ibmwr.org/ktech.shtml
http://maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/fiche.asp
http://www.motorcycle.co.uk/BMW/K-Series-K75-to-K100/index.html
http://www.motobins.co.uk/services.php#BMW

Good luck!

(i've got one, but i've only owned it for about two weeks, and it isn't running, so i can't provide a lot of practical insight... but i'm good at internet searches :lol)

[HankB]

The '85 was sometimes called the "FYK" for Finest Year K. This was a bit tongue in cheek.I don't recall the reason, but there were some minor problems that a lot of them experienced. Speedo head problems are all I can recall. I think BMW made a lot of improvements in the first few years, though some of these were retrofitted to the older bikes.

The '85 also had a different cam and was the highest horsepower of the 2 valve K bikes.

Check the tech pages at ibmwr.org and maybe ask on the mailing list.

HTH,
hank

[cbsnbiker]

Major weak area: splines. They need to be lubed regularly--a fact not in the owners manual.

Otherwise, it's a solid bike. The engine is practically indestructible.

[WBill]

Yeah: Lube the splines about every time you change rear tires: front and rear of the shaft.  And don't use the stuff BMW recommends for your lube.  Use Honda Moly #10.  Word of experience.

Another weakness of the breed, not often mentioned, was the speedometer/tachometer cluster.  That's about 900 bux, new, but many failures are really the result of a loose relay just below and to the right of the fuel tank.