From: Frank Cachia <r90s@... in Australia.
Mac: Please amend your statement re production of R90S's. The first R90S
rolled off the assembly line in 1973.
Frank: Very good point!!! I am glad you brought up PRODUCTION date of
R90ss versus model year designation. There has been some talk about this
topic and it has been confusing to some people.
What we are talking about here is the MODEL year that a bike belongs to
versus its' production date.
My statement in the egroups R90SWORLDNET is that R90ss were produced for
MODEL years 1974 to 1976. In the US (I can only speak to the situation here
in the US, it may be different in the Rest of the World or ROW) it is true
that R90ss were produced for model years 1974 to 1976 only. However they
were manufactured or produced from 1973 to 1977.
Let me explain.
Back in the '70s, typically the vehicle manufacturers started producing the
new model, the next year's model, about August or September. (For the
Germans this generally coincided with their return from vacation in
August/September.) So for instance if they made an R90s in Aug of 1973 it
would be a 1974 model even though it was manufactured in Aug of 1973.
Also they would make 1976 R90ss from about Sept of 1975 through until about
August of 1977. Then in Sept of 1977 they would start making 1978 bikes
until the following August of 1979.
Strange but true.
Example: I own a 1977 R100RS that was made in 5/76 (it is a "pre-production"
bike, BMW didn't officially start making 1977 R100RSs until 9/76). Even
thought it was made in MAY OF 1976 it is a 1977 model year bike which is the
first model year for the R100RS.
I have heard from some people who claim that their bike is a different model
year than you would think from the serial number, and I do think that some
"games" were played either by dealers or the motor vehicle division of the
state where the vehicle was registered. So there are some bikes out there
which are wrong in their model year designation, if you go by the
registration paperwork for the bike. In other words the registration
paperwork says the bike is a 1976 R90s but looking up the serial number in
BMWs' serial number sequence says the bike is actually a 1975 R90s.
(This serial number sequence can tell a lot about a bike too such as country
it was produced for, etc. But that's another story.)
One guy who owned his bike from new told me his dealer said back in the
1970s "Come back and buy this bike after the first of the year and I will
make it the next model year bike."
SO the question I have always had was this: Did BMW specifically state in
any of their paperwork sent to the dealer for a new motoryclce what model
year it was?
And yes they did. I was able to find a current dealer who had records back
to the '70s who was also in business back then. They produced a copy of the
original CO (Certificate of Origin) or MSO (Manufacturer's Statement of
Origin) for a 1976 R90s. (CO and MSO mean the same thing and are
essentially just the "birth certificate" for a vehicle, stating the
manufacturer name, model designation, serial number, model year,
horsepower, etc.)
And the CO specifically states "Model Year: 1976". This particular copy of
the original CO came from Butler & Smith, the US importer of BMW
motorcycles at that time.
So BMW definitely did tell the dealer what model year each bike was.
Regardless of and separate from the production date. So a bike could
definitely be produced in 1975 and be a 1976 model year bike, for instance.
I would have to think the "rest of the world" or ROW would have had a
similar system of designating the model year of each motorcycle since that
affects the used market value of a vehicle, the mix of different parts on
each bike (for instance '74 R90ss had solid discs, later years did not) or
whatever.
However I cannot guarantee as to how the ROW designated model years versus
production dates for BMW bikes . I can only guess that there had to be a
similar system of designating model years versus production date as there
was for the US bikes.
Much of the above information I have stated I have learned from the years
that I worked for Ford Motor Company here in the US. All the manufacturers
basically use the same system as BMW in terms of model year versus
production date.
So for the US at least all motorycles were designated by the BMW factory as
belonging to a specific model year, and that frequently differed from the
production date year.
This has been a long standing point of discussion and confusion. Thanks
again Frank.
Hope this helps out some.
What does anyone else know *for sure* about this?
Best,
Mac Kirkpatrick
Glenmoore, PA USA
