This choked me up. Glad things worked out the way they did. I know this old bike of my dads will live on.
Weiss und Blau: R51/75 History Now Complete!: The life and history of my 1950 BMW R51/75 Until recently, I only new half of the story of my R51/75. But through a random twist of fate...
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Lot on my mind on a dreary day.
In March after a lot of reading over the years of various motorcycle sites and publications I decided I wanted a bike as in Motorcycle. Along the way. I have found a few Blogs/Forums I periodically read. Most are travel related. Some are "scene".
Few of them are:
http://thevintagent.com/
http://advrider.com
http://lecontainer.blogspot.com (some motorcycle content)
http://bmwcaferacer.com/
http://www.caferacerculture.net
http://www.returnofthecaferacers.com/
http://weissundblau.blogspot.com/ Blog of Scott Williams who has one of my dads old bike.
http://miles-by-motorcycle.com Enjoyed his Alaska trip and need to finish reading it.
http://themotolady.com/ I ran across a Post she made about a friend of my parents, Dot Robinson and been following her and her Monster build ever since.
She recently turned me on to Jason Cormier's http://www.odd-bike.com
So I did end up finding a rough around the edges 1995 BMW K1100LT AKA Brick in BMW circles in March after quite a bit of shopping.
Here is is parked at The Barber Vintage Festival.
So today Ive been reading back posts on Jason site and this one got me thinking.
http://www.odd-bike.com/2013/06/in-praise-of-slow.html
I'm very late into becoming a street rider. I dont have a full year under my belt with an actually Motorcycle license. 20+ years ago I rode dirt bikes often with Friends and occasionally take one of their Hurricanes or Ninjas for a lap around the block.
His post makes me feel better about my approach to riding again. I'm really not fitting in with the Cruiser crowd that several of my friends are in. I'm sure not into the assless chaps crowd and they seem to have a propensity of parking at 10 under in the fast lane the couple rides I have taken with them. I have zero desire to try to keep up with anybody on a sport bike and honestly most of my friends are beyond that as well. I like the building part of the Cafe Craze but "Ton up" and racing from Bar to bar isnt working for me either so I find myself riding solo mostly becaeu I have as yet to find a group that rides how I do.
My Parents rode and in fact that's how they met as they were both members on the Highwaymen MC Detroit (before they were a gang). My old man parked his 1961 BMW R69s not long after I was born. It was last tagged in 1967...I have its tag. It sat in the corner of the garage under a blanket till the early 80's after my father passed when it was sold expressly to keep me off of it (and I'm trying now to get it back). I guess that "I'm a parent now and have a responsibility to my Family" thing kicked in with Dad. He did have a couple wrecks, one he was very lucky to survive.
Lord knows I spent enough of my youth running around with my hair on fire. Mom managed to keep me off bikes (to the best of her Knowledge) with stories of her bouncing off Guard rails with the scars to prove it that I was regularly shown and stories about their friends crashing like Bob Leppan crashing the http://www.gyronautx1.com/ at 274mph almost loosing his arm as why I shouldn't ride.
How a World speed record crash was relatable to the street I'll never know but thats how I most ofter heard about it. The GyronautX1 was a BIG reason why I made the trip to the Barber Vintage Festival to see the bike that I had heard so much about in my youth.
I also had 20 years of threats of divorce from my wife (her dad had somebody pull out in front of him and laid him up for a long while) if I ever thought about getting a bike. So in March I did the only reasonable thing (in my twisted mind) and bought a bike. It just finally came to a head and I despite everybody's threats and warnings. So far I have not been served by my wife. Shes letting me have my mid life crises just not very happy about it.
As I was shopping I was looking at a BMW K1200RS and after talking with the owner who was a well seasoned rider in his 60's he pretty well talked me out of it with much of the same wisdom as Jasons post story. "Buy a bike for how you want to drive. If you buy a bike like this your going to drive it like an idiot. Every time I get on it I find myself looking down and seeing that speedometer tickling 100mph. It just feels better and better the faster you go. Its not a bike you have any business buying for your first bike. It will get you in trouble".
So I mostly took his advice. Bought a Sport Touring bike instead. It better reflected my desires for a bike I could do some traveling on but still be fun in the twisty roads we have in the Appalachians just north of me without dragging floor boards. Yeah I probably should have got a smaller bike but thankfully age has brought me the maturity to understand my short comings as a rider and to take it easy and "slow" as Jason put it.
Few of them are:
http://thevintagent.com/
http://advrider.com
http://lecontainer.blogspot.com (some motorcycle content)
http://bmwcaferacer.com/
http://www.caferacerculture.net
http://www.returnofthecaferacers.com/
http://weissundblau.blogspot.com/ Blog of Scott Williams who has one of my dads old bike.
http://miles-by-motorcycle.com Enjoyed his Alaska trip and need to finish reading it.
http://themotolady.com/ I ran across a Post she made about a friend of my parents, Dot Robinson and been following her and her Monster build ever since.
She recently turned me on to Jason Cormier's http://www.odd-bike.com
So I did end up finding a rough around the edges 1995 BMW K1100LT AKA Brick in BMW circles in March after quite a bit of shopping.
Here is is parked at The Barber Vintage Festival.
http://www.odd-bike.com/2013/06/in-praise-of-slow.html
I'm very late into becoming a street rider. I dont have a full year under my belt with an actually Motorcycle license. 20+ years ago I rode dirt bikes often with Friends and occasionally take one of their Hurricanes or Ninjas for a lap around the block.
His post makes me feel better about my approach to riding again. I'm really not fitting in with the Cruiser crowd that several of my friends are in. I'm sure not into the assless chaps crowd and they seem to have a propensity of parking at 10 under in the fast lane the couple rides I have taken with them. I have zero desire to try to keep up with anybody on a sport bike and honestly most of my friends are beyond that as well. I like the building part of the Cafe Craze but "Ton up" and racing from Bar to bar isnt working for me either so I find myself riding solo mostly becaeu I have as yet to find a group that rides how I do.
My Parents rode and in fact that's how they met as they were both members on the Highwaymen MC Detroit (before they were a gang). My old man parked his 1961 BMW R69s not long after I was born. It was last tagged in 1967...I have its tag. It sat in the corner of the garage under a blanket till the early 80's after my father passed when it was sold expressly to keep me off of it (and I'm trying now to get it back). I guess that "I'm a parent now and have a responsibility to my Family" thing kicked in with Dad. He did have a couple wrecks, one he was very lucky to survive.
Lord knows I spent enough of my youth running around with my hair on fire. Mom managed to keep me off bikes (to the best of her Knowledge) with stories of her bouncing off Guard rails with the scars to prove it that I was regularly shown and stories about their friends crashing like Bob Leppan crashing the http://www.gyronautx1.com/ at 274mph almost loosing his arm as why I shouldn't ride.
How a World speed record crash was relatable to the street I'll never know but thats how I most ofter heard about it. The GyronautX1 was a BIG reason why I made the trip to the Barber Vintage Festival to see the bike that I had heard so much about in my youth.
I also had 20 years of threats of divorce from my wife (her dad had somebody pull out in front of him and laid him up for a long while) if I ever thought about getting a bike. So in March I did the only reasonable thing (in my twisted mind) and bought a bike. It just finally came to a head and I despite everybody's threats and warnings. So far I have not been served by my wife. Shes letting me have my mid life crises just not very happy about it.
As I was shopping I was looking at a BMW K1200RS and after talking with the owner who was a well seasoned rider in his 60's he pretty well talked me out of it with much of the same wisdom as Jasons post story. "Buy a bike for how you want to drive. If you buy a bike like this your going to drive it like an idiot. Every time I get on it I find myself looking down and seeing that speedometer tickling 100mph. It just feels better and better the faster you go. Its not a bike you have any business buying for your first bike. It will get you in trouble".
So I mostly took his advice. Bought a Sport Touring bike instead. It better reflected my desires for a bike I could do some traveling on but still be fun in the twisty roads we have in the Appalachians just north of me without dragging floor boards. Yeah I probably should have got a smaller bike but thankfully age has brought me the maturity to understand my short comings as a rider and to take it easy and "slow" as Jason put it.
Time to admit it...I've lost that loving feeling
Ok, a lot of catching up on a dreary rainy day.
Its been over a year since I had a near miss on my bicycle that shook me up more then I realized at the time.
On the way home from work I have a long down hill that if I peddle my ass off I can clear 40mph. A speed that has no business being done on a sidewalk (beside it being illegal to ride bicycles on side walks). Smiling at kids in the back of mini vans as you pass them in the chicane and the bottom of the hill always a hoot. 1/4 mile of mostly flat before I have to start climbing the hill out of the valley where I can keep up a solid 20mph before my legs and lungs start screaming. Then I switch to the side walk (yep illegal) and I peddle my fat ass up the hill at 6-8mph.
I time my trip through the valley so that I am between main pulses of traffic. It usually works out well. People who manage to get between the main pulse can change lanes and get past me without really having to slow. Everybody happy. I'm not one of those jerks that filters at lights just to make 20 cars have to pass me in the next 1/4 mile. I let them get past me before I take the lane and try to get off the road to let people pass if they cant get around. 5 years and it has worked pretty well.
So I was recently having more and more close calls always in the same spot in side of a curve just a few hundred feet before I took to the side walk to climb out of the valley. Had a complete JACKASS plumber decide to roll coal (floor their diesel to get it to pump out black smoke) on me instead of changing lanes. Speed racers going fast catch me on the inside of the curve etc
The one that got me shook up was a little old lady with a even older little old lady in the passenger seat in a white mini van. The lady really needed to park it. She no longer had the skill set to be driving.
She was fixated on the lines and staying between them come hell, high water or a bumper...on a Bicycle I had none of the above. So despite me using the right half of the lane she centered it. If I didn't see her coming who knows what would have happened but I did and I got so far over to the right I could no longer peddle because my right peddle would have hit the curb. I'm beating on the side of her van to get her to change lanes (there was nobody else around to prevent it) and she just kept on coming. I slap the mirror flat so it doesn't hook my handle bars as it comes past. I look down and see this frail old lady in the passenger seat looking up at me like I was doing something wrong as I beat on the car and its over a second later. I managed not to crash despite her best effort to kill me.
I was so damn mad I was screaming. She didn't stop. In fact I bet if you asked her I attacked her car she was minding her own business,. It ate at me the rest of the summer and fall and Thanksgiving week I pretty well stopped riding to work. She ruined my love of cycling and my cherished bikes have sat collecting dust for a year.
I need to ride. I rode to improve my health. It worked. I was in the best shape in the last 30 years. Ive gained 35lb since I stopped but I just cant get that desire back.
Its been over a year since I had a near miss on my bicycle that shook me up more then I realized at the time.
On the way home from work I have a long down hill that if I peddle my ass off I can clear 40mph. A speed that has no business being done on a sidewalk (beside it being illegal to ride bicycles on side walks). Smiling at kids in the back of mini vans as you pass them in the chicane and the bottom of the hill always a hoot. 1/4 mile of mostly flat before I have to start climbing the hill out of the valley where I can keep up a solid 20mph before my legs and lungs start screaming. Then I switch to the side walk (yep illegal) and I peddle my fat ass up the hill at 6-8mph.
I time my trip through the valley so that I am between main pulses of traffic. It usually works out well. People who manage to get between the main pulse can change lanes and get past me without really having to slow. Everybody happy. I'm not one of those jerks that filters at lights just to make 20 cars have to pass me in the next 1/4 mile. I let them get past me before I take the lane and try to get off the road to let people pass if they cant get around. 5 years and it has worked pretty well.
So I was recently having more and more close calls always in the same spot in side of a curve just a few hundred feet before I took to the side walk to climb out of the valley. Had a complete JACKASS plumber decide to roll coal (floor their diesel to get it to pump out black smoke) on me instead of changing lanes. Speed racers going fast catch me on the inside of the curve etc
The one that got me shook up was a little old lady with a even older little old lady in the passenger seat in a white mini van. The lady really needed to park it. She no longer had the skill set to be driving.
She was fixated on the lines and staying between them come hell, high water or a bumper...on a Bicycle I had none of the above. So despite me using the right half of the lane she centered it. If I didn't see her coming who knows what would have happened but I did and I got so far over to the right I could no longer peddle because my right peddle would have hit the curb. I'm beating on the side of her van to get her to change lanes (there was nobody else around to prevent it) and she just kept on coming. I slap the mirror flat so it doesn't hook my handle bars as it comes past. I look down and see this frail old lady in the passenger seat looking up at me like I was doing something wrong as I beat on the car and its over a second later. I managed not to crash despite her best effort to kill me.
I was so damn mad I was screaming. She didn't stop. In fact I bet if you asked her I attacked her car she was minding her own business,. It ate at me the rest of the summer and fall and Thanksgiving week I pretty well stopped riding to work. She ruined my love of cycling and my cherished bikes have sat collecting dust for a year.
I need to ride. I rode to improve my health. It worked. I was in the best shape in the last 30 years. Ive gained 35lb since I stopped but I just cant get that desire back.
Some catching up to my neglected blog,
My lead for dads R69s Is solid. I have talked to John Landstrom, owner of Blue Moon Cycles in Norcross GA. John worked for George Wagoner of Wagoner cycles, the metro Atlanta BMW Dealer in the 80's who had bought dads bike in 83.
Seems John went to work for Wagoner cycle works in 1985. George was true to his word when he told mom "this is such a nice bike I'll be keeping this one for myself". It was perfect when it was sold.
John was nice enough to fill in the blanks between 1983 and now.
At one point George crashed it on his way to an event in Chattanooga TN. John was following. Seems he went into a corner hot dragging the center stand and low sided it. The Tank was destroyed in the crash. George repaired it and kept it till he passed in 1995 (fell off a ladder). The bike was sold to settle Georges estate.
John ended up becoming the Metro Atlanta BMW dealer and set up shop in Norcross with Blue Moon Cycles.
John continued to service the bike and was friends with the owner. Unfortunately around 1999-2000 that owner cashed the bike and died in the crash. His widow had John rebuild the bike and it became a shrine to her husband for 10 years. She finally decided to part with it and had John broker the sale.
I found what I believe is the ad is still floating on the internet.
http://www.motorcycle-house.com/Motorcycle-makes/BMW/1961-BMW-R69S-105209051.html
So john remembers everything right up to the point of "who has it now". I believe this may be more of a case of the following:
A. Bad for him to be passing out customer info.
B. I don't have the funds to buy it right now just want to know if it ever becomes available. Hes a business man and I'm sure he wants to be part of the transaction if it goes on the market.
I cant blame him for either.
I'll pester John again soon. I do hope to get it back one day.
If by some weird chance of fate my very few readers comes across it the VIN is 655028. This is what it probably looks like today. This is from the above ad link John had placed for what I believe is the bike.
My lead for dads R69s Is solid. I have talked to John Landstrom, owner of Blue Moon Cycles in Norcross GA. John worked for George Wagoner of Wagoner cycles, the metro Atlanta BMW Dealer in the 80's who had bought dads bike in 83.
Seems John went to work for Wagoner cycle works in 1985. George was true to his word when he told mom "this is such a nice bike I'll be keeping this one for myself". It was perfect when it was sold.
John was nice enough to fill in the blanks between 1983 and now.
At one point George crashed it on his way to an event in Chattanooga TN. John was following. Seems he went into a corner hot dragging the center stand and low sided it. The Tank was destroyed in the crash. George repaired it and kept it till he passed in 1995 (fell off a ladder). The bike was sold to settle Georges estate.
John ended up becoming the Metro Atlanta BMW dealer and set up shop in Norcross with Blue Moon Cycles.
John continued to service the bike and was friends with the owner. Unfortunately around 1999-2000 that owner cashed the bike and died in the crash. His widow had John rebuild the bike and it became a shrine to her husband for 10 years. She finally decided to part with it and had John broker the sale.
I found what I believe is the ad is still floating on the internet.
http://www.motorcycle-house.com/Motorcycle-makes/BMW/1961-BMW-R69S-105209051.html
So john remembers everything right up to the point of "who has it now". I believe this may be more of a case of the following:
A. Bad for him to be passing out customer info.
B. I don't have the funds to buy it right now just want to know if it ever becomes available. Hes a business man and I'm sure he wants to be part of the transaction if it goes on the market.
I cant blame him for either.
I'll pester John again soon. I do hope to get it back one day.
If by some weird chance of fate my very few readers comes across it the VIN is 655028. This is what it probably looks like today. This is from the above ad link John had placed for what I believe is the bike.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Small world. I'm 99% sure I just found one of my Dads motorcycles.
http://weissundblau.blogspot.com/2012/12/r5175-racebike.html
Dropped this gentleman a Email a second ago.
Pictures I have the bike from the early 60's.
http://weissundblau.blogspot.com/2012/12/r5175-racebike.html
Dropped this gentleman a Email a second ago.
Pictures I have the bike from the early 60's.
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