In 2004 I visited Europe in June and July. Sascha told me that an acquaintance was restoring a 1928 R52 for sale — was I interested in seeing more about it? You don't have to ask me twice.

Wolfgang greeted us at his house. He had several old bikes parked in his spotless living room. One of them was the R52, which was nearing completion. It was beautiful to behold, with new paint and crisp pinstripes, the plating shiny and everything so clean. Beyond that, the motor was restored by a professional company and came with a two year guarantee! That's simply unheard of!

But I told myself not to get carried away. The €15,000 asking price — almost $19,000 at the time — helped me resist temptation. I took many photos.

Back at Sascha's flat, I spent hours poring over the photos and comparing them to photos at BMW's Archive web site, to photos I'd taken of other bikes from that era and to what I could discern from Knittel and Slabon's BMW Buyer's Guide. It was more than a bit like Clyde Tombaugh flashing pictures back and forth when he discovered Pluto.

It turned out that there were many problems. I made a list that stretched beyond 3 dozen specific items. Here are a sample:

• What's Wrong
  • Pinstripes on fenders and tank. Wrong shape, wrong size, wrong pattern. They look like they are masked or taped.
  • Single lever on right handlebaris wrong, it should have two levers for air and gas, in one unit. Levers should bolt through handlebar, not be part of the right grip.
  • Kill button and headlight dip switch shouldn't be an integral part of the grip. They should both be separate items, clamped to the handlebars. The kill button should be on the left side.
  • Spark advance lever on left handlebar should bolt through handlebar, not be clamped on.
  • The fork spring appears to be from a different bike, wrong number of blades.
• What's Questionable
  • The mufflers appear to be welded to the headers and the tailpipes, but originally these were separate (and separable) parts.
  • How strong is the repair to the gear shift lever? It's a shame that it wasn't done more cleanly.
  • The short fork linkage arms are plated but should be painted.
  • The rear axle looks much longer than in any photos I have and the head looks longer than the drawing in the parts list.
• What's Missing
  • Horn, horn button
  • Battery tray, battery, battery tie down, and rubber battery cushion
  • Speedometer cable
  • Lever on the front wheel backing plate for the brake
  • Centerstand spring

Needless to say, this cooled my ardor further. A week later, we got together. I went through most of the items on the list. I hoped to lower the price enough so that the cost of fixing most of the problems could be taken into account. Wolfgang admitted many of them, but would not budge on the price. I could easily see seven or eight thousand dollars of work and parts to fix things not done and things done wrong, which would boost the effective price of the bike past $25,000. That was simply too much money for me, since one can always count on more work and expense where one cannot see. I walked.

I was disappointed, but also felt that I had saved myself from bigger problems. Then, I got a call from Scott in the US. I had told him about seeing the R52. He told me that there was another one for sale from S. Meyer, a vintage dealer in Hillesheim, which is not too far away from Sascha's flat in Karlsruhe. Sascha called and we made an appointment to go visit.

There we met Uwe Meyer and got to see and photograph the R52 he had for sale. It was a complete, running machine with an older restoration. No guarantees about the engine, unfortunately, but the price was also significantly better. It actually had many fewer things wrong with it. Fred Jakobs at BMW Mobile Tradition (now Group Classic) told me that the motor was from 1929 and the frame was from a 1928 R52 — no surprise there. A week later I signed a contract and took a copy home with me. A month after getting home, I wired the funds and Sascha picked it up for me and stored it.

And showed it around. I got some brief videos of the bike starting and running. I got pictures of visiting friends sitting on it. And I got photos of the bike in various vintage exhibits.

ADAC Exhibit in front of the Karlsruhe Schloss

Odenwald Vintage Rally

Scott visiting Sascha and my R52

Then I started getting photos of a different sort; the kind of things anyone who buys and rides vintage bikes knows are coming and dreads. Photos of things that are broken or were not fixed correctly (and are therefore, still broken).

Broken stud holding the clutch pressure plate

Final drive mounting tab was broken and then glued together

This is not the only place that had a lot of gasket sealer