A freind of mine is thinking of buying a 1983 R80rt (I think!) for general tooling around and a bit of two up touring (europe). It has 60,000 miles on it.

I know nothing about BMWs so thought I'd ask on here. What are the R80s like? Good things? Bad things? Things to look out for?

Cheers for any info.

Matt

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*Disclaimer* - I am not saying my bike is better than your bike. I am not saying my way is better than your way. I am not mocking your religion/politics/other belief system. When reading my post imagine me sitting behind a frothing pint of ale, smiling and offering you a bag of peanuts. This is the sentiment in which my post is made. Please accept it as such!

No real reason not to buy it. when I bought mine I chose to get a 1985 monoshock model. The motor is all set up for modern crap fuel and there are no issues with the shaft on that model.

mine has 300,000kms on it. Had an engine rebuild at 180,000kms.
They are fairly agricultural in nature, simple to fix and really tough.
Parts are readily available, and fairly cheap.
Now remember that they are 24 years old and although they were top of the line then, they are a wee bit shy of todays bikes performance.
They are somewhat slow to do everything...like stop,accelerate, turn, etc...
As a cheap reliable tourer, that you can overload and abuse they are great.
Check all the regular stuff, rims, brake calipers/pads,cables,etc
some specifics are the transmission oil. check for water! it gets in through the speedo boot. Pull off the rear wheel and check the drive splines on the differential.
They need valve adjustments every 7500kms, and diff. spline lube too.
Lots of Fun in an Old School kind of way.

If it has been used and you found water in the gearbox don't be alarmed but use this to negotiate the price and afterward you should be fine with a fresh oil change and a new speedo boot, about $2 worth or keep it out of the rain.
Water in the box of a standing bike will cause a lot of condensation in the gearbox casing and because most parts are above the oil level you will find a lot of corrosion and the repairs might exceed the bikes value.

I bought the R80 in the end (thanks for your help) and have been more than happy with the riding experience!

Quick question on one thing though...

I've had a look at the air filter (which seems new) and the sparks don't have any tell tale problems...any idea why the bike doesn't seem to like motorway grade hills above 60mph (loses power) and shows a general reluctance to go above 75mph? It's much better at lower revs. This is my first old bike (it's 24yrs old, my last was a 13yr old Funduro), so maybe I'm just being over optimistic for a bike of this age. It's good at low revs but seems very sluggish at anything above 3800 revs. Any ideas on what to start looking at?

Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers.

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I'm not a Beemer bloke but one thing comes to mind -carb diaphrams - ok that's two things .
Assuming of course that compression is ok and timing is spot on .

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"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

When checking the diaphragm replace the main needles and needle jets.
You can't check them as the minutest wear on them will have a major effect.
You will know it is the needles and needle jets if the bike refuses to rev over 4000RPM but has lots of power in the lower revs and still runs evenly balanced. Damaged diaphragms will make the machine run rough and unbalanced as you start to accelerate and you will experience a lack of power through the rev range although it will get gradually worse as the revs pick up. Worn needle jets and main needles will almost have a certain cut of when you get the feeling that the bike refuses to continue accelerating.

The main needle is attached at the bottom of the piston and the needle jet will be held in place by the venturi directly above the main jet. The main needle fit through the needle jet. To get to the needle jet you have to first remove the main jet and venturi and the rest will drop out, or if heavily gunked up, will need a gently push with the tip of a screwdriver.
When buying the needle jet make sure you get the right size. Remove the ones on your carb and you will find the size stamped on the side 2.64 or 2.68 yours will probably be 2.64 If not, it could also be that they have been replaced by the wrong ones before.
Give me your bike model and year and I can check on the electronic parts catalogue what was supposed to be on your bike.