BMW people. Learn me R80RT

Ok, so I might be accidentally buying a BMW R80RT, 1988.

I have Italian bikes, have owned Japanese and British but never the last member of the Axis motorcycle family.

A friend is wanting me to buy his 88 R80RT at a good price due to some personal circumstances. I want to buy it so that if he has remorse down the road and wants to buy it back, there won't be any problems.

In the event that I end up keeping it, are there any things that I should be watching for on these bikes? I've never heard anything bad said about them. 

From the outside, they look about as uncomplicated as my 'Guzzis. Just some saggy jugs. 

They have some idiosyncrasies, but they are mostly at Guzzi levels of complexity. The R80 is generally a sweeter running bike than the R100 and less likely to leak oil from the cylinder base gaskets. It's not going to set the world on fire as they have something like 50 zbhp, but point it a the horizon and it'll keep going much longer than your backside will tolerate.

Other than the typical old bike problems, check for leaky carbs - the older needle tips dry out and don't like ethanol - and oil leaks from the drain hole at the the Joni of engine and gearbox. If you see oil there, the RMS is having a bad day and you get to take a lot of the bike apart just to get the gearbox out.

Oh, and diode boards go bad, and then it won't charge. They're almost but not quite a consumable and upgraded versions are available. 

Thanks.

He did say it has a charging systme issue and I know it uses the same bits as my LeMans. I think I have a regulator around for it.

Charging system issue is likely the diode board or possibly the alternator itself. I'd check the diode board first - no idea how much crosses over from Guzzis for electrical bits.

Check Snowbum's website, I'm pretty sure he has information about how to test the various parts that make up the charging system.

Also, if you buy the bike, buy the correct wrench for the exhaust nuts. Those are notorious for seizing onto the heads and using a not quite correct wrench can damage the nuts. They're a pain to get off if that happens, although you're probably better placed than most people to deal with this issue if it happens.

The charging systems are actually the same between the two bikes. Rotor, stator, brushes, everything. The upgrade for the earlier Guzzi alternator is to swap in the larger BMW alternator or the later Guzzi one.

Thanks for the tip on the wrench, I'll buy one for sure.

The wife unit approves of the purchase so I'm going to look at it tonight.

And? Is there a build thread yet?

Lol...

I bought it.

I'm going to get a battery, make it run and ride it to see if I like it.

If I like it, I will upgrade the alternator, if I don't, I'll just fix it.