Switzerland is a neutral country, meaning it doesn’t engage in armed conflicts, but it does maintain a military force for peacekeeping missions. And, apparently, in 1969 the Swiss military procured BMW motorbikes from neighboring Germany.
This 500cc example is claimed to have been imported directly from a Swiss military base several years ago and titled in the U.S. The seller includes “US” in their description, most likely as a nod to the telescopic forks, which were built for the U.S. market and the model designated R50US. The forks may have been changed at some point as it’s unlikely, though certainly not impossible, that the Swiss army would have spec’d anything other than the sidecar-friendly Earles fork. The rest of the bike bears out the 1969 birth year and foreign citizenship, and while the seller states “100% Swiss Army motorcycle,” there are obviously some deviations from original, including the seat and 12-volt electrical conversion, not to mention the inexplicable “vamp skull ghost airbrush” applied to the Hoske fuel tank.
Nice /2s typically sell around the $10K range, so our seller may be reaching for the stars at $19,750 or offer. Find this unique R50 in Chicago here on Craigslist.