ETK says "1998/06" for mine. It has >56K Miles now. No major problems but I've kept up with the maintenance. I've never held it wide open to see what it would indicate because of the somewhat optomistic speedometer.

Now that I have a GPS Unit I may or may not try it. I guess it's not important to me how fast the top speed is...I can keep up with my riding Buds and that's all that really matters.

15 S's on Cycle Trader
 

The BCR's are the highest priced. There are a couple of damaged 04's with lower prices for obvious reasons, but the lowest price for a clean runner was the 1999 BMW R1100S$4,995.... just one source.... but it takes the air out of the theory.

http://www.cycletrader.com/find/search-results/Type-Motorcycle/Zip-50265/Make-BMW/Price-0,/Year-1998,2005/Keyword-R1100S/Sort%2DYear:DESC/Radius-any/

Bill, that is a beauty. I don't remember seeing one with the yellow and silver with black engine case. How many did they make in that color? Top speed surely does not really matter, and I speak of it only as a reference point. Curious as to how fast a stock R11S would go if one had a far enough straight a way? Tail wind, down hill even? Hell, I'm like a lot of others on board here.............and remember well when we talked very quietly when speaking of running a HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR! Hushed tones, very low........

Hawkeye, I looked at that one and it is a DAWG..........you would not even touch it. Run hard and put up wet many times, modest drops on both sides. 39,000 plus miles. Rear seat shell gone. Three owner till now. Harley trade in.

Don't know,not many. I have only seen em in pictures, never in person. I think they were in 99 only.

can't tell that from pics....
 

No service records? 39K doesn't seem like a lot for S. Traded for a Harley....:confused: I bet that person is disappointed. I love my S but blew a chance to get myself an 05 BCR non-ABS , still kicking myself because it fits the me better for the type of riding I really do as compared to what I thought I would be doing. Still the heated grips keep me happy and when I get caught in the rain am glad I have the ABS, but rarely need it, but it only takes once.SmileWavy

Hi,

The top speed aspect, was that anything to do with the discussions over which final drive ratio we all had?

I seem to recall that there were two.

Adrian

...prices over here...
...a few examples...

- 1999, 25.000 miles, asking price 5200 Euros : http://link.marktplaats.nl/231713477
- 1999, 23.000 miles, asking price 5200 Euros : http://link.marktplaats.nl/231713477
- 2001, 21.000 miles, asking price 5999 Euros : http://link.marktplaats.nl/232392116

- BCR 2003, 16.000 miles, asking price 8750 Euros : http://link.marktplaats.nl/231854847
- BCR 2004, 15.000 miles, asking price 9250 Euros : http://link.marktplaats.nl/225590904
- BCR 2004, 19.500 miles, asking price 9850 Euros : http://link.marktplaats.nl/234034695

My 10/1998 DDP is still a puppy with just under 50K on the clock. She never ran more than 135 indicated and does not pull very strongly or quickly. But she is not modded for performance, no chip, no pipe, no problem. We are bonded for life!

tried it once
 

147mph indicated on speedo and still pulling, the tach was just sitting a few clicks under red line and not moving. Everything stock.

Man I need a private stretch to try this again, not on public roads though....

I know these speedos are off and didn't have GPS at the time, so I guess I will never know the top speed of that run not to mention she was still pulling when I cut the throttle.... Not sure of my ratio either.

Hey Jim, now don't you buy that old 98 junk, get the latest technology, the best that Bee Em Double You has to offer! Why settle for less?

My black '99 S shows a build date of June '98. Based on that, I assume it was one of the first units brought to the US. I purchased it in June of 2007 from BMW Motorcycles of Atlanta with 10350 miles on the odometer, and have put 7000 miles on it since. Jim, this of course is the same bike you have seen when we've run into each other at Dusty's.

your VIN will tell you where yours is in the US import queue. My VIN ends with xxx89 indicating it was the 89th unit on the US market, at least I think so.

don't know if it confirms the VIN theory but I have a 6/98 bike and mine ends 0271.

I see, 045 here allthough that is not really important to me, all things considered it is still a great bike for my purposes.

The very very early bikes (mine was built before sept 1998) did have a different part number motronic - can't remember where I got that info from & I've no idea whether it was significant in any way. Never had any hunting/surging, still feels completely youthful & it has certainly matched all the big numbers mentioned on here - and gone beyond with lennie's bits. Maybe they fixed the speedos on later bikes!

here's the data on motronic versions:
(13 61) 1 342 982 - very early production version
(13 61) 1 342 509 - ditto (my bike)
(13 61) 7 652 086 - main version fitted to pre August 2000 models
(13 61) 7 655 473 - main version fitted to post August 2000 models
- note that this info is itself so old that it predates the arrival of twin sparkers.
Many thanks to somebody called Andrew Stemp who was a member of a UK R1100s site, who provided the info.

VIN numbers do not contain information regarding queues for specific countries. The last 6 digits indicate the sequence of the vehicle for production as it rolled off the manufacturer's assembly line. Successive numbers do not necessarily mean the same model, nor are they necessarily for the same country. They definitely are not related to a countries order queue. The are only related to production date.

For more information on VIN numbers and what information that is in there, go here: http://www.***************/bmw-auto-parts/bmw-vehicle-identification-numbers.html

Dr, there is still plenty around, and like I said, price depends on milage. The BCR's are the ones that are holding price. The 2003 Randi Memola are fetching 15 to 17,000AUD and so are the 2004 BCR, just wish I got one when new.

For the US at least: June '98 was the first month for series production, so all of y'all have pretty early bikes. Only 16 VINs were issued before June.