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As a younger motorcyclist, I found BMW by chance. In the summertime of 2003, I used to be cruising alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway on my 1998 Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200 Customized, a violent jackhammer of a motorcycle that was crude, loud, and spectacularly uncomfortable. The solar was about to set as I pulled right into a motorcycle-friendly campground. After parking my bike, I noticed a big crowd gathered round a blazing hearth, listening intently to a presentation. I approached curiously and was quickly in rapt consideration myself.
The audio system had been Chris and Erin Ratay, who had been wrapping up a four-year, 101,322-mile circumnavigation of the planet aboard a pair of BMW F 650s, a visit that earned a Guinness World File for the longest distance traveled by a pair on two bikes. I had stumbled upon the final cease on the Ratays’ “final journey” earlier than they returned house to New York.
In fact, the globetrotting couple shared attention-grabbing tales of journey journey, however the theme they saved coming again to was the indestructability of their BMWs. Their bikes had been on show, and everybody at camp scrutinized them fastidiously. After 4 years traversing 50 nations on six continents, each F 650s appeared as if that they had been dropped from an plane at 30,000 ft, crash-landed on jagged rockface, set on hearth with napalm, after which run over by a battalion of Abrams tanks. But each began immediately and ran with the precision of a positive Swiss watch.
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Juxtaposed in opposition to my primitive Sportster, the distinction by way of trendy engineering and stout reliability couldn’t be clearer. I started learning BMWs and fell in love with the R 75/5 that Clement Salvadori wrote about within the pages of Rider (Retrospective, April 1991; I additionally not too long ago wrote my very own Retrospective: BMW /5 Sequence – 1970-1973). I quickly had a 1973 long-wheelbase Monza Blue R 75/5 Toaster in my storage, and it was a revelation. Regardless of its age, it was so quiet, so easy, and so steady at pace. That bike, with its quirky air-cooled flat-Twin “boxer” motor and weird however sensible styling, was my gateway drug into the fantastic world of BMW bikes. And what a journey it’s been!
Over the previous 20 years, I’ve owned or co-owned 11 BMWs ranging in age from a 1971 R 60/5 to a 2020 R 1250 GS. I’ve put properly over 200,000 mixed miles on them, touring all around the U.S. and Canada. All of them have been supremely practical, which isn’t stunning given the corporate’s storied historical past of engineering improvements. BMW has given us hydraulically damped forks in addition to the primary manufacturing variations of a nostril fairing, a full fairing, a single-sided swingarm, anti-lock brakes, and naturally, BMW’s proprietary Paralever and Telelever suspension programs, amongst many different improvements.
BMWs are typically overengineered, typically to a fault, however the firm’s rabid fan base of high-mileage riders has come to respect the model as consultant of a few of the best bikes accessible at any value.
Nevertheless, what I respect greater than the bikes themselves is the BMW group of riders. They’re a wildly various group of largely professionals, skewing closely towards the mental and analytical gearheads that I really feel most at house with. Each BMW group I’ve hung out with emphasizes driving competence and security. BMW is a marque that appeals to critical riders, as mirrored by the odometers one sees at any of the model’s large rallies: 100,000-plus miles on bikes which can be just a few years previous is a standard sight.
100 years of steady manufacturing is a stellar accomplishment for any firm, particularly for a model that has been thought-about a distinct segment producer for a lot of its historical past. However in recent times, BMW Motorrad has branched out past its conventional touring and journey bikes to supply fashions equivalent to high-performance sportbikes and electrical scooters, which might have been unthinkable once I began driving BMWs 20 years in the past. It’s going to be fascinating to see the place the subsequent 100 years take us!
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