In the United States, all these Earles-fork and US-fork (i.e., telescopic fork) models from 1955 to 1969 are often lumped together as "Slash-2" BMWs, even though that is technically incorrect.

In the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", John and Sylvia Sutherland accompany Robert Pirsig, the author, and his son Chris, on a 1968 road trip from Minnesota to San Francisco, riding a BMW R60.

The driveshaft rode in an enclosed oil bath within the right swingarm, unlike BMW's previous models, and drove the rear wheel through an internally splined cup that meshes with a coupler crown gear keyed to the drive pinion.

Those delivered in the U. S. typically were supplied with a single "dual" or bench saddle, either the standard size or a wide version that came with chrome rear-quarter passenger handles.

There were numerous manufacturers of saddle bags and top cases for BMW twins in the 1960s including Wixom, British-made Craven, and leather saddlebags imported by Butler and Smith, who also offered several styles of luggage carriers for mounting behinds the passenger saddle.

It also offered several styles of windshields, safety bars, a spotlight, metric tool kits, and a mechanical tachometer.

Hella turn signals were optional (photo below left), and were mounted at the ends of the handlebars showing light both forward and back.

An oval shaped safety bar (photo right) was available for all 1955–69 BMW motorcycles from the American importer, Butler and Smith, New York.