BMW R75/5
The BMW R75/5 – aka ‘The Toaster’ – is a model worthy of raising a glass to, a classic that will work in the modern world.
As a 13-year-old watching the film ‘Easy Rider,’ little could Jim Thompson have imagined that five decades later, he would be following the same wheel-tracks of ‘Captain America’ across the USA, or that during that trip he would become the owner of this month’s test bike. The machine in question is a BMW R75/5, which rolled off the production lines in 1972, and one known by aficionados of the German marque as ‘The Toaster’ – a nickname given to the bike due to its likeness to the classic Dualit product.
West Country enthusiast Jim was on a lengthy trip from Peru to the USA with his friend Ben Mitchell on a pair of lightweight 250cc Yamahas when he came across the BMW at a dealership in Ocean City, Maryland, in 2017. With over 100 BMs for sale, Jim – who is always on the lookout to add to his eclectic collection – was spoiled for choice, but after several hours a deal was done and, along with a 1961 R27 single, a 1969 R50 and an early Moto Guzzi Ambassador, the Toaster was bought, crated up and later that year shipped to the UK. It now rubs handlebars with a variety of bikes – including the NSU Max featured in the February 2021 edition of the magazine – in Jim’s well equipped workshop, and I was delighted when he invited me to sample his 750cc horizontal twin, a model once described by journalist and author Bruce Main-Smith as a ‘Whispering Giant.’
But before I pressed the button and headed off down the North Somerset roads, Jim reminded me a little of his early days on two wheels.
“No one in my family had any interest in motorcycles but after Easy Rider I was hooked, and on reaching 16 I bought myself a Royal Enfield Crusader Sport, which was a bit of a heap.
The following year, 1974, I’d progressed to a Honda 90 on which I took my driving test. I switched to a Triumph Tiger 100 and got a job as a dispatch rider with the BBC (later he was a film cameraman with the Beeb) which took me thousands of miles. On the 40th anniversary of D-day (1984) I was sent to France to collect some film of the celebrations and although I didn’t realise it at the time, this was the start of my touring career.”
Jim’s first long continental trip saw him ride through France to visit some friends in Perpignan – a trip he made many times in the next four decades – and despite losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident when he was sideswiped by a car in 1999, the enthusiastic West Countryman has now motorcycled in five continents around the globe. Tales from his ride from Peru and many other trips could fill a book.
But now we will concentrate on the launch of his ‘Whispering Giant’ in 1969 and a brief overview of the German horizontal twins. The first BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) flat – fore-and-aft – twin, the M2B15, was launched in 1921, but the company itself can be traced back to the late 19th century when in 1896 the well-known German industrialist Heinrich Ehrhart opened a factory at Eisenach. Initially, this was to produce military equipment, but Ehrhart soon switched his attentions and resources to the production of bicycles and electric vehicles, their transmission (unlike other period machines) was not by conventional chain or belt but by shafts with a universal joint, a drive
“When they came, the new /5 series BMWs were available in three engine sizes, of 500, 600 and 750cc.”
system that BMW would become associated with for the next 100 years.
Although the M2B15 was the first BM to feature a twin cylinder engine, it was not the first to carry the German manufacturer’s now famed round logo, as in 1920 this honour was given to a machine called the Flink. This was powered by a 148cc single-cylinder Kurier two-stroke engine which was mounted in a loop frame, starting provided by pedalling gear connected to the rear wheel by chain, while drive to the rear wheel came directly by a belt.
By 1923, both the Flink and the M2B15 had been superseded when the first true BMW – a flat-twin with cylinders mounted across the frame, the R32 – appeared at the Paris show that year and the rest, as they say, ‘is history’. The success of the Boxer twin in both competition – on and off road racing, long distance trials, world speed events – and on the road is now legendary but it’s now outside the remit of this article, so we now ‘fast forward’ the next 40 years to the launch of the new range of the ‘stroke’ (/) 5 series.
After 15 years of production, it was time for BMW to pension off the now rather dated-looking Earles-forked R50 and R69, and, in the summer of 1969, the new /5 was released at the Cologne show. It had been built at the new works at Spandau in the western side of Berlin on the site of a former aircraft-engine factory, although a prototype had been tested by The Motor Cycle’s editor Harry Louis four years earlier. Weighing in at 445lb (200kg), the previous R69 model was not lacking in performance but it had become somewhat ponderous, so the essence of the new bike was it for to be leaner and fitter, while retaining BMW’s traditional quality. As had been exampled in the previous year’s (1964) ISDT, the factory’s specially prepared bikes, which sported telescopic front forks, a lighter duplex frame and an engine turning out a highly respectable 54bhp, hit the scales at 380lb, saving some 60lb over the R69.
Louis was full of praise for the prototype and after galloping around Bavaria, he wrote in his period report ‘…a sheer joy to heel through fast corners, to switch from one angle of lean to the other in an S-bend, to take it round tight hairpins, it really was a joy to ride. Trouble is, a long wait is certain – like Rolls-Royce, the Munich men set their sights high and won’t be hurried.’
Harry’s prediction proved to be spot-on and it was almost five more years before the /5s hit the showrooms. When they came, they were available in three different capacities: 500, 600 and 750cc and all were very similar within the engine, as they all used the same stroke and were identical externally as far as the cycle parts went. Power outputs were 32bhp@6400 for the 500, 40 for the 600 and 50 for the 750, giving the big bike a top speed of an estimated 114mph.
Period road tests left a prospective buyer in two minds, as there were plenty of compliments regarding the /5s’ ability to cover a big distance quickly without straining either the rider or the machine, but some writers suggested it was slow for its size and that the handling was not as good as the previous Earles fork model.
The /5 remained in virtually the same specification for three years, and then, in 1972, our test bike appeared, with chrome-plated panels on each side of the petrol tank and similarly finished side panels, to hide the battery. To most BMW owners, the new model looked somewhat ‘garish’ and did nothing to enhance the superior looks that the German company were so famous for. It quickly become known as ‘The Toaster.’
They say that ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ and after reading a Vic Willoughby test on and appraisement of the R75/5, Jim decided that he wanted one. He takes up the story of his ‘appliance’s’ subsequent arrival in the UK.
“There’s no doubt that the chrome on the side panels and petrol tank are not to everyone’s taste – a bit like Marmite I guess.”
“When I spied The Toaster at the dealers in Maryland, it was bought very much ‘as seen’ and I didn’t have the opportunity to road test it, but on its arrival in the UK, it didn’t take much to get the R75/5 fully roadworthy. The carbs were bunged up with old fuel and these were sonically cleaned by our local BMW man Chris Hawkins. After getting the bike registered and on the road, I soon discovered that one of the criticisms from the period road tests was that there was quite a jump between third and fourth gear in the four speed box, so when the bike was with Chris, I got him to change this over to a five speeder I had spare in my workshop.
“The front brake shoes had to be replaced – they had gone hard through the years – and I had to replace the speedo head and tyres but other than that the R75 is very much how it left the factory 50 years ago.”
There’s no doubt that the chrome on the side panels and petrol tank are not to everyone’s taste – a bit like Marmite I guess – but, personally, I like the combination of the traditional black tank and white pinstriping and the ‘shining bits’ on the big German twin. On the launch of The Toaster, there was also some criticism that the capacity of the fuel tank had been reduced from the previous 22 litres – which gave the touring rider a range of 200 miles – down to 17 litres, although the bigger tank could be obtained to special order.
It was not one of BMW’s most successful machines and it was dropped after just two seasons to be replaced by the bigger capacity /6 model in late 1973, which means that good, low mileage bikes like Jim’s are now quite a rarity. So what’s it like to ride? On a fairly chilly morning, it just needed ignition and petrol tap on, a whiff of choke, followed by a press of the starter button to bring the big twin bursting into life. Main-Smith was correct when he christened the bike a ‘Whispering Giant’ because at tickover there was just a gentle ‘burble’ emanating from the long upswept silencers.
First gear was engaged with the typical BMW ‘clunk’ and we were soon on our way through the country lanes and onto a decent section of lightly trafficked A-roads. Here, the sweet-sounding R75 really came into its own; from 3000rpm, the machine really took off and in no time at all, we were up to the 60mph national speed limit, with plenty more to come. The five-speed gearbox was excellent, as was both the handling and the braking from the twin leading shoe stopper at the front and the eight inch single leading show component at the rear.
Suspension is taken care of by BMW’s own hydraulically damped telescopics – giving 8.4 inches of movement – at the front, with a pair of three-way adjustable twin shocks at the rear. My only criticism would be levelled at the high – American specification – handlebars, which could ideally do with a touring screen to make it an easier ride for the windblasted pilot. After my trip around some of the best motorcycling roads in the UK, it was time to return the bike to Jim and reflect on my ride.
The Toaster might be nearly 50 years old but it does both go and stop like a more modern bike and for me it’s one which ticks most of my boxes for a perfectly usable, everyday classic; like toasted bread, it takes the basic and just adds that little bit extra.
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