Ken Fey of Louisville had owned this bike when it was nearly new and ridden it to Mexico. In 1973 Ken heard I was looking for a /2 and told me had just sold a good one to his friend Darryl Jones of Cairo, KY, just south of Evansville, IN. Darryl was a state trooper who ran a BMW dealership from his farm property, back before BMW got fancy about dealers. The R69US was in a barn shop with several other new and used bikes. It had 12,000 miles on it, looked perfect, and I got it for $1,200.
The bike had narrow Euro bars, and I changed to higher /5 bars, with /5 controls for the double mirrors and better switches. I soon found a used Wixom upper and lower fairing set for it, which gave excellent protection and were quickly removable. Removability of the lower fairing was a "plus" because of the frequent need to replace the rubber in the harmonic damper on the motor. The R69S motor had no center bearing and was prone to flexing under the extra 1000 rpm that distinguished it from the R60/2 motor. To allow for the flexing, BMW used a bearing with barrel rollers at the rear of the crankshaft. And to dampen the flexing, BMW added a heavy metal disk mounted in rubber to the front of the crankshaft. The rubber looked like a piece of garden hose about 1/2 inch long, and even though it was a very special rubber, it usually lasted me less than 1000 miles before disintegrating. This situation announced itself when the metal mass become eccentric (vibrating) and the points became covered with rubber dust (mis-firing). On the advice of several dealers, I removed the damper unit but was then afraid to use top speed. I never understood how John Penton used an R69S to set a coast to coast record in something like 50 hours, before the Interstate highway system was complete, with this rubber thing in there.
After a few years and 25,000 miles on the R69US, a newer R60/6 came into the family with better lights, turnsignals, and no rubbers to worry about. The Wixom fairing was sold off, and the bike was advertised for $1,000. After awhile one buyer came, a Lockwood Doench from Cincinnati. He later began entering the bike in shows, and a picture of him with a trophy appears on page 207 of Roland Slabon's book "How to Restore Your BMW Motorcycle":
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| Lockwood Doensch and my old R69US at Christmas at Indy rally, July 1980, Sugar Creek Park, Indianapolis. |