Post-Sale Update: After 46 bids on eBay, this BMW K75S sold for $3,450.
I will concede that BMW K75 is not the sexiest motorcycle that’s ever been built – I remember that the editors of Motorcyclist once called it “the two-wheel equivalent of Birkenstocks.” With that said, I have a soft spot in my heart for these bikes, which I consider to be some of the most reliable motorcycles ever built (and there’s a certain charm in that, right?)
Story Time: I bought my K75C from the original owner who had maintenance records with about 75,000 miles on it over 20 years, and then that bike taught me about motorcycle touring…which is probably why I’m so fond of it. When the bike was 25 years old, I took it on a Iron Butt B2B ride from Canada to Mexico in less than 24 hours. It was rear-ended severely enough to end up as a salvage title, but the bike kept on ticking. After 4 years and another 70,000 miles under my care, I sold it to someone who’s hopefully still enjoying it. I only had one problem with the bike – a GPS wire that I installed shorted, so it wasn’t even the bike’s fault. It doesn’t matter how exciting your bike is if you can’t rely on it when you’re thousands of miles from home, so you can probably guess that I loved my K75.
While we’re talking about reliability, there’s really just two things you should worry about with this bike. Make sure that the driveshaft splines are lubed and that the radiator fan hasn’t seized. The latter is a problem because the K100 and K75 share the same cooling system. Because of that, the K75’s is over-cooled, for a lack of a better word, and the fan rarely gets used. They occasionally seize, but no one really notices until that one day when you do need the fan!
Though this specific BMW K75S (VIN: WB1057204l0152145) isn’t perfect, it has very low mileage (11,239) and it comes well-equipped with the OEM tool kit, Fox adjustable rear shock, Luftmeister pipe, crash bars, plus saddlebags and the hard to find trunk. There’s some cosmetic wear, but this is a fantastic example of the K75S who wants to ride.
Find this BMW K75S for sale in Ringgold, Georgia with bidding up to $1,225
As a bonus, reader JP C. shared with me a link about some retro-inspired K75s created by Larry and Carol Romestant. They’re not my bag, but maybe you’ll enjoy?