BMW R71

[RPondaRoad]

I found this at my local coffee shop this morning.  As I was getting off of my bike, one of the guys who were surrounding this old BMW R71 came over to tell me that my '18 RT was the great grandson of the bike that everyone was admiring.  The bike is owned by a man who introduced himself only as "Jurgen".  He told me that he was a collector of WWII memorabilia and that this bike had appeared in one of the Indiana Jones movies.  True?  I don't know...but apparently he rides the bike up to the coffee shop in Auburn, CA a couple of times a week.  

[RandyShields]

I can see the family resemblance.

 

[Missouri Bob]

Maybe. A few details lead me to wonder if his "R71" is of Russian or Chinese origin. The wheel hubs have a flange design I don't recall seeing on any BMW. The cylinder heads are also unfamiliar.* Yes, I know it's a side-valve motor. The oil filler at the front of the motor? Hmm. The headlamp's "brow" is unexpected.

 

* From BMW Motorcycle Buyer's Guide (1990, Stefan Knittel, Roland Slabon): "The R71 provided a bored-out version of the side-valve engine with a cylinder bore of 78 instead of 70 mm. ... It was quite easy to distinguish from the smaller version through the reintroduction of the old double-decker cylinder heads for better heat dissipation." The left head in the photograph is not of this design.

 

The bike may well have been in a movie. It would have been far less expensive to buy a relatively new Ural/Dnepr or a Chang Jiang than an R71.

 

Bob

[Missouri Bob]

Looking at a clip of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I can see that the motorcycle in question is an OHV Ural, and is neither an R71 nor is it Jurgen's motorcycle.

 

Bob

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilV5Qt01eyc