Charge/Neutral Light Cover - R25/2

[Kurt in S.A.]

Does anyone have a picture of the housing on the headlight that covers the charge and neutral lights?  Mine departed the bike this afternoon, but I did manage to recover what was left; thankfully nobody ran directly over it.  It had been loose, but I really hadn't looked closer at it.  All I have left is the frame, the gasket, and most of the lens material still in the frame.  I'm not sure what the inside was supposed to look like and how it is held in.  What part numbers do I need to replace this?

Thanks...

[Kurt in S.A.]

[berndr253]

Hi Kurt,

does that help you along?

Bernd

[rolf]

Bernd: 25/2!

[berndr253]

Joh,
and here it is - the picture of the headlight housing of the 25/2

The main-light housing of the 25/3 is often used in the 25/2 machines - can you tell us what kind of housing you have installed??

Bernd

[Kurt in S.A.]

Hi Kurt,

does that help you along?

Bernd

Bernd -

Your first picture is it...I have the small triangular green/red lens affair.  I think I'll have to use some kind of hot iron to melt the plastic from the inside to secure it in place.  Now I'll get one ordered.

Thanks...Kurt in S.A.

[berndr253]

Hello Kurt,

good to hear that the picture helps. Fitting and fixing that plastic thing inside the light housing would be possibly with silocone rubber or something like that like a flexible glue.

Regards

Bernd

[Kurt in S.A.]

Bernd -

Got it...I remember people suggesting using some kind of sealant.  The thing that really bugged me about losing this is that this might be an original 59-year old part...rats.  :-(

Kurt

[Kurt in S.A.]

After doing some checking, it appears that my '52 model has the updated headlight bucket because I have the kidney-bean shaped red-green lens behind the speedometer.  Looks like my bucket was changed over the years.

I called Vech in Mississippi, who is my usual supplier of parts here in the US, and he has an unrestored '52 in his museum.  His light arrangement is just like a photo I got from Jean-Daniel...red light to the left of the key, fuse to the right of the key, and a single green lense at the rear of the bucket.

So, I find out something about my bike...the headlight bucket is not original!!

Kurt

[berndr253]

Hi Kurt,

may be that the headlight housing is not very original - but nearly! So don't worry about that!

Bernd

[rolf]

Or look at answer 2!

[Kurt in S.A.]

Or look at answer 2!

Answer 2?  Not following...  I looked at the listing on this website which is a table overview of changes for the singles.  As we're surmising, the R25 had the charge light left of the key and a fuse to the right of the key.  The R25/2 just added the single neutral light behind the speedo.  For the R25/3, they dropped the two items by the key and included the heart or kidney shaped lens behind the speedo for charge and neutral.  My bike is a June 1952 build so it is either 1) a parts bike with '53 parts that may have become available or 2) the bucket has been changed out.  The latter is probably the case.  My headlight bucket also has the dished out area under it for the horn mounting.

Kurt

[berndr253]

Rolf boo boo(e)d by writing "look answer 2". What he surely wanted to say was "look answer 3". But nevermind you are correct with your statements relating the "housings".
May be an indicator can be the gear-box. Surely the "neutral" light will not be installed earlier than the neutral indicator was installed inside the gear-box. So if you have an indicator inside it can be assumed, that there would be an indicator light also.

Your bike was built shortly before the 25/3 was produced and I can imagine, that the headlight case of your 25/2 was sold with that bucket. So I would say, that this bike is the original one and nothing was changed in the meantime except some bulbs, oil and so on.

Bernd

[Kurt in S.A.]

Bernd -

You might be right...they were really cranking on building these bikes back then.  So, possibly, a summer build might have gotten some "future" parts.

Not to stray too far from this, but the idea of model year versus build year is always something of a head scratcher, especially for bikes before 1970.  I appears that BMW would build bikes several months before the "release" date...makes sense in order to have the product in the dealers in time.  BMW kept closer records from 1970 on, but didn't have model releases prior to that.  In looking at on-line listings, they just show the range of VINs over a range of time...no breakout in terms of model years.  And to some degree, before 1970, there wasn't much change from year to year as it was beginning in 1970.

I think that beginning with the /5s, bikes sold from September of one year to August the next year were considered the "next" year model.  For example, my /7 was built  9/77 and is a 1978 model.  I think they may have built '78 models as early as July 1977.

The other confusing factor may be the differences between US bikes and all the others.  Probably, though, back in the '50s, BMW wasn't really looking much to the US and just getting things going for their own market.  Someone on another website said the R90S, which was first released as a '74 model, actually was released as a '73 model in Europe.  I'm still trying to understand all that.

Kurt

[rolf]

Rolf boo boo(e)d by writing "look answer 2". What he surely wanted to say was "look answer 3". But nevermind you are correct with your statements relating the "housings".
No, answer 2 is answer 2...the   treat opener didn't answered himself...look at the head of the answers....there you can see the listing


May be an indicator can be the gear-box. Surely the "neutral" light will not be installed earlier than the neutral indicator was installed inside the gear-box. So if you have an indicator inside it can be assumed, that there would be an indicator light also.


Nonsense...the /2 and (!) the /3 has a neutral light, what will you say with this explanation, it is senseless....if you don't know the difference...remember Dieter Nuhr


Your bike was built shortly before the 25/3 was produced and I can imagine, that the headlight case of your 25/2 was sold with that bucket. So I would say, that this bike is the original one and nothing was changed in the meantime except some bulbs, oil and so on.

So, you would say...ok, you can    ...but also nonsense

Bernd

[berndr253]

Grizzling weisenheimer  

Bernd