BMW's & Baby Boomers

[Beemer1150]

Well, in theory it's because on a bike I don't have to queue for the ferry on my daily commute, just ride to the front and hop aboard.

But everyone knows that's just an excuse...

A lot of things and people spread over many years must share the blame for the two-wheeled obsession, a series of 'seminal moments' really, rather than one 'big bang'

Start by blaming the fact that way-back you could ride a bike at 16 in the UK but had to wait till 17 for a car... then blame all my biking friends from my schooldays and the rose-tinted memories of ride outs we had as newly independant kids... more blame attaches to a friend who gave me a ride on his new 700 Silk back in the 70s when I thought Id been 'cured' years before... blame that darned Pirsig man too (still have a very tatty copy)... but most of all blame me - I like being alone with my thoughts, trying to get the ride just right and, OK I admit it, blasting past the cars!



And why a Beemer - just because I've always wanted one - is there a better reason?

[threebucks1996]

Some very interesting stories. I am 39 and bought a 2005 V-Star Custom a year and a half ago. Before that, it was a Yamaha dirt bike when I was a teenager. Loved the V-stars looks and low seat, but after riding it for 6 months my legs were hurting and back as well. I didn't think I wanted a motorcycle with standard seating because thats what the "old guys" rode. My dad collects/restores old BMW's and I really didn't find the BMW's all that attractive until I saw the Rockster. I rode the Buell Ullysses, Honda 919, and a Rockster and wanted to ride a Kawasaki Z 750S but could not find one to ride. They all were standard seating and the BMW just seemed solid and comfortable. Bottom line is that a used '03R for a really good price at a dealer...couldn't pass it up. The more I ride this thing, the more I love it! I haven't been on a long trip yet but have one planned for June. I really can't wait. This bike fits my lifestyle and it really is just an all around good bike. I can only have one...and I am really glad this is the bike I have!!

[riceburner]

I can almost feel my blood pressure drop the minute I hit the starter button. Because from that point forward I can and must focus on the one thing that I am doing at that moment.

I can very definitely sympathise with that, and I can only suggest that you make it a daily occurence, rather than weekly.

[MIXR]

KMACR - You wanted some thoughts on the shift to touring.

I rode long distances in my youth, mainly on a Kawasaki 900 or Ducati 750 SS. We travelled 13,000 kms in three weeks in the seventies, on a couple of Z bikes. Camped out by stringing a tarp across two bikes parked side-by-side with a ground sheet in-between. We often slept under school verandas or under bridges if it was really wet or under the stars if it was dry, and lived on burgers for lunch and a can of baked beans heated on a fire at night for dinner. We drank copious quantities of Green Ginger Wine or cheap Port to ward off the mozzies and snakes. We travelled with little more than a change of undies and T-shirt, a toothbrush and a ratty sleeping bag, all wraped up in the groundsheets. Life was very simple and very enjoyable.

I had a huge break in touring when I found a good woman and planned marriage and kids. I didn't stop my bike riding, as per my earlier post. These days, I travel farther, faster and longer than I ever did. I carry much more gear because I am wiser to the things that can go wrong. I still prefer sleeping in my bike swag than a motel, so long as I can grab a hot shower every second day or so. I discovered that 'Baby-wipes' are the next best thing to a hot shower after a day on the bike and a camp-out. A good, refreshing wipe-down of the body with a few pleasantly scented cloths and you are ready for bed, after a large scotch whisky and view of the setting sun.

What is touring? For me it's getting on the bike with a destination in mind but the journey to be enjoyed. I will happily ride for days, breeze through my intended end-point, and find an alternate way to get home. There used to be a BMW advertisement doing the rounds a few years ago - It said something like "Two weeks holiday - One week to get there and one week to get back". That's touring.

I am heading towards retirement, being the wrong side of half a century old. My job pays reasonably well, I have few debts to worry about, my bike is a weekend toy, and I work to support my wants rather than my needs. I get away at least once a month on a long ride. I get away at least twice a year on a 5 or 7 day touring run, staying in a cheap country pub near good motorcycling roads. Those bigger trips are with a bunch of very likable mates.

I have started doing one very significant trip each year. Usually long distance stuff, with an old biking mate from the seventies who is like-minded. Our first was the trip around Australia last year in fulfilment of a 30 year plan to do just that. I posted it in the rides section last year. It was something we both had planned way back but never did, at least not the full lap of Aus. We have now. 16,000 kms in 21 days riding, 22 days away. This year is a trip of 7,200 kms in 9 days, all riding. My retirement plan is to do more of the same!

That's my story about retirement and touring. Hope you write a book about all the feedback. It would make interesting reading.

[Just-Beeming]

'Touring? It's work, you know....touring.'

I gotta pack all my sh*t on the bike, ride for hours and hours in terrible heat or bone chilling cold. My shoulders get sore, My visor fogs up and my nose needs wiped, my butt gets sore ...where are the bathroom stops.
I gotta watch my gas. There are bugs, sleeping on the ground you know.


It's such ...WORK.

When can we go again?

Let's go further this time!

[SlideRuyle]

I am 53 and got back to riding when I was 50. I graduated high school in 1971 from one of the public schools on the south side of OKC, but I had attended 9 years of catholic schools. Catholics are in the minority here in the belt buckle of the bible belt and that made me used to being different and maybe just a little contrarian. Couple that with the tubulent times and you create a personality that generally prefers to run against the grain. I think this is why after a year of riding a vstar 1100 I sold it and got the bmw. I am somewhat conflicted in that I let golf get in the way of riding - I have a 5 handicap. The daughter of one of the regulars in my golf group had to change her wedding plans since her first choice of dates fell on the weekends of the OKC amateur (I play in the tournament as well). I am not trying to start another golf discussion but I think in general we boomers feel like we can't sit still so we have hobbies or do volunteer work. For the most part I think we boomers have done better than our parents which allows us to indulge in activities like touring. I remember route 66 as a kid and it did not strike me as odd that two guys without apparent means of support drove around the country in a corvette. This was something that you could do when you grew up.
There is another thing that adds to some of our rebellious nature is that our parents would not let us have a motorcycle when we were in their household -- you'll shoot your eye out mentality. I got my first motorcyle within two months of graduating college and had several until the first kid came along and I sold it to pay for a patio cover.
I think that is partly why some of us boomers don't get bikes again until the last child is in college. We were busy coaching soccer, being a band parent, watching tennis matches etc.
It all worked out for me as I am an engineer and I suceeded in warping both my daughters suficiently that they graduated from engineering school -- OU and Tx A&M.
I am collecting all the stuff to take that long trip and I now have good reasons. One daughter is in grad school in Illinois and the other is working in NY.

[wncbmw]

MIXR - my life and plans appear to mirror your own! My retirement is a ways down the road yet but with a fair amount of vacation time and the empty nest looming, I will be taking more trips and I plan on my retirement being even longer trips!

Of course, I have to plan a few non-bike journeys with the wife also. And she retires this spring!

[KMACR]

Hearing some really great insight to this wonderful sport/hobby/lifestyle. I appreciate it all and am anxious to hear even more. Each post seems to take us to a new level of reflection, appreciation, or understanding.

Re-entering riding as I did almost 25 years since my last (and first) bike was quite a step for me. A couple of observations I've made about that---

1.) Knowing what I know now after having the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Rider Course under my belt, I'm amazed that I even survived back then in the crazy 1980's. I truly was a rider without a clue. Lack of safety gear (other than a helmet) and only a basic notion of how the bike operated painted a huge target on me to which I was totally oblivious. Luck, for whatever reason, held with me until such time life and coerced me to sell the bike and not return to 2-wheeled frivolity for another quarter century.

2.) When I did start thinking about wanting to ride again I came up with every excuse not to. I really looked at riding as such a selfish indulgence, a luxury if you will, and dismissed the idea as often as I thought about it. It wasn't until pressures of the career got intense and I began exploring ways of separating from that world--or rather the "corporate-headache-level" side of it--- that I gave riding another chance. I loved what I did and was very good at it, but big-corporation thinking was taking over the smaller people-oriented successful company I had known for many years. It was turning a passionate, team-oriented work style and personable environment into divided internal approaches, a characterless indifference-driven quest for numbers. The big business mold. Perhaps that's the price of success.

Anyway, by that time good friends in my work world were turning me on to BMW motorcycles as a possible "vacation/therapy" option, and coupled with the discovery of the Long Way Round documentary, I was primed to experience the revelation of biking. I had motivation for escape and it beckoned in the form of two wheels and a BMW logo.

FATE AND PROJECT GENESIS
I acquired my R1150R in October of 2005. Five months later, and after 24 years, the company and I separated. Strangely, at a time when I thought the world should be crashing down around my shoulders, I felt just the opposite--a tremendous relief. A wonderful spouse welcomed the development. She was ready for me to step out of the corporate scene for good even at the expense of adjusting our lifestyle. Though I still take on the occasional ad/marketing creative project, I make sure they are not ones that will consume me and draw me back in.

I spent some time "hanging out" at the local BMW dealer getting to know people and watching customers. I saw people just like me walking in and delivering a common thread in their stories---"used to ride years ago, had life, kids, and career and now have more 'me' time--time to ride again". That's when the idea for this project hit me. I wanted to in some way document the boomers to bikes phenomenon.

People's circumstances and motivations to ride may be different but it all boils down particularly to this collective boomer generation consciously deciding to make the most out of the years ahead. I'm glad to be a part of that and I look forward to many more posts or PM's here from my fellow R-riders. Please continue. I--we, want to hear more!

[12bar1]

As far back as I can remember I have always had two wheels under me. It was either a bicycle or some form of motorcycle. In high school I had everything from a Vespa to a Bonneville. When I got drafted I got sent to Panama and played around with a 125 and a 250 CZ. To stay fit I rode my bicycle all over the Canal Zone . While I was there I borrowed a sportster from my room mate and shipped a BSA Gold Star 500 home when I got out in 1974. The whole time I was in Panama I dreamed about coming home and riding across America with my riding buddies, unfortunately that did not happen. By the time we were all home life started getting in the way of dreams. I sold the BSA but still rode my bicycle a lot. One day I read an article in Bicycling magazine about this amazing ride on Going to The Sun road in Glacier National Park. I promised myself some day I would make that ride. I figured my chances of touring on a bicycle or motorcycle were limited but this might be a goal I could reach. In 1999 my wife and I took a 7 day bicycle tour through the Rockies that included Going to The Sun Road. We were hooked it was the most relaxing vacation I have ever had. We started planning our next trip immediately. In the planning process I mentioned it would be cool to do the same trip again but this time on motorcycles. After the bicycle tour we had a chance to spend a week in San Francisco. Every time I go out west I get bike fever and this trip was no different except for one thing. We were staying about 2 blocks from Fisherman’s Warf and would get coffee in the morning and wander down to check out the bay. One morning when we left the hotel I was greeted with a sight that took my breath away. Parked in front of the hotel was a Ducati trailer and no less than 20 bikes lined up on the other side of the street. I looked at my wife and said “look honey they are all my size”. This time when I came home the fever would not go away and I started shopping. One day we were in Tampa and stopped by the BMW dealer there to do some window shopping that is when I fell in love with the Roadster. When I turned to tell my wife this is the bike for me I found her sitting on an F650CS with a huge grin on her face. To make a long story short she wanted to ride but not behind me. She wanted her own bike and we ended up with the Roadster and the Scarver. About two years later she traded her F650 in and now rides a roadster also. For us riding allows us to escape the everyday world and go out adventuring. It doesn’t have to be a world tour or a long vacation although that would be fun. All we need is a Sunday morning and a full tank of gas to find parts of our own back yard we haven’t seen yet.

[Samiam]

I'm too old to be a proper boomer, being born in the early 40s. My motorcycling background includes mopeds in the 50s, a Cushman, a Zundapp, Triumphs and Harleys. I was attracted to an R90s in the early 80s since a friend had one. Gosh, it was so quiet, well mannered and fast!

I quit bikes in the mid 80s and took up flying. I got my landbound thrills from sportscars and never missed motorcycles until a couple of years ago. I was dismayed to see so much bodywork on the modern machines. A large part of the pleasure of motorcycles for me was the very machineness of the thing. You could see the engine, the suspension, all the shiny bits and sporrans were out in the open. I grew up on "bare bikes" and decided nothing else would do for me. There aren't really many bare bikes that are really "practical."

I looked at Ducatis Harleys, the FZ1 pretty seriously but each had problems in availability, suitability or usefulness. Then, I remembered that R90s and went to the BMW dealership. Unlike Harley and Yamaha, I felt right at home; the staff was friendly and knowledgable. The Roadster caught my eye as an almost ideal bare bike: huge payload, lots of touring options, nice system cases, adequate power, quiet; gosh, almost a modern day R90s!

At this point in my life I can afford the best and the Roadster fit the bill for me.

[MIXR]

KMACR - You have three very different threads running here.

1. How did we get into motorcycling?
2. What is our philosophy for touring? and (the new one)
3. Why do we ride?

I could write my own book on all that!

[KMACR]

KMACR - You have three very different threads running here.

1. How did we get into motorcycling?
2. What is our philosophy for touring? and (the new one)
3. Why do we ride?

I could write my own book on all that!

Hey MIXR,

Only three? I must be slacking off. Seriously, it's been interesting to hear people chime in on the topic and follow the discussion path as one door led to another. I guess in the end I wind up hijacking my own thread. But the info has been wonderful! I hope to hear more..it really seems to be moving people to think and post their revelations about riding and the our affection for the BMW R1150R.

[leoquattro]

KMACR,
like you I too went back to bikes after few years: I started biking at 14 and until about 25 or so I refused even to take a car driving licence (there were different licenses at that time).
I enjoyed too much riding a bike, whatever the weather, wind in my hair (much more hairs at that time!), doing things that I wouldn't even conceive allowing my son doing now. You were even wearing a helmet in the 80's, I wasn't, since in Italy at that time it was not the law (I must say it was much more fun).

I still miss those little things which made biking even more enjoyable than now: most important factor is the availability of time, time spent in doing your own maintenance and repair, time spent pushing your bike out of gas because there was not enough money than to buy few liters at the time: this is somewhat I'm trying to find back again.

Probably biking allows you to be back with yourself again, a feeling very similar to what I feel when I am on my boat, dedicating time and care to yourself, something that at a certain age (I am 53) you start to feel you deserve.

Riding around Rome or the Italian countryside with no real destination, just for the fun of it or because there is a road with few bends to enjoy.

Maybe is a little bit selfish (I enjoy riding with my son or with my wife, but riding solo is a different story) but taking a longer route to go to the office because there are few bends and less traffic brings that little freedom and joy that at my age you can appreciate better.

Hoping of not having bored you too much, have fun with your bike and talk to you all soon,

ciao
Leoquattro

[tor1150r]

Now over to touring....
During my first year riding (2003) I participated in charity rides and hooked up with a group who rides a couple of times a week. This was great! I met many people and learned a lot about riding and honed my skills. A few of my new friends were instructors - which helped immensely.

I began reading about other rider's travels. Drilled through web sites by Helge Petersen, Chris Scott, and others. I began to think about longer trips as my Sunday afternoon jaunts left me wanting more. I planned weekend trips and was lucky enough to marry a woman who enjoyed riding with me as a passenger.

Then came the maps, GPS and software. WOW!
I became disenchanted with the group rides. Too many bikes. Too many stops. Too much indecision as when/where to go.

The solo miles racked up and so did my desire to tour more.
In 2006 my wife and I took a 3-month trip across Canada. We still miss the road to this day.

The thought of getting the bike out on a Sunday is great. But the dream & process of planning our next extended adventure sets our sprits on fire!

[KMACR]

The insights and reminisces have been so encouraging to read. Everyone seems to enjoy taking a moment to think about the "big" issues in life----why we ride and what the heck inspired us to consider this delightful sport, hobby, or whatever in the first place.

I was riding in a cage yesterday as a front seat passenger and all the while was thinking how much better the trip would be if only on the R. Being able to feel the road and take in so much more of the landscape through the peripheral vision afforded us on our R's speaks much to the why's and wherefore's of riding.

Separation from the everyday world is provided through the anonymity of riding gear and the free, spontaneous nature of this two-wheeled conveyance. It's no wonder descriptors like "therapeutic", "meditative", and "zen-like" crop up as people articulate why they motorcycle. I just know when I pull up to the garage at the end of a ride, great or small, I have such a sense of accomplishment, appreciation, satisfaction, and just the notion that it was yet another "good day".

The R1150R is, for me, the perfect bike. It is weighty enough to hold its own in the wind, it's nimble and fun enough to navigate rural roads, city streets, and highways and byways, and is powerful enough to provide a soothing sense of confidence wherever you ride. Add to that the fact that it has such a beautiful aesthetic quality and it just doesn't get much better.

To all of those who have posted on this multi-thread, I thank you. The insights have been appreciated and I've been honored to share your reflections. I encourage those who haven't yet posted to give it a go. I've enjoyed every one and hope that feeling has been shared by every viewer. Please feel free to post or PM. This is undoubtedly one of the best online discussion forums on the web.

[leoquattro]

Congratulations KMACR, nice pictures of your bike!
Leoquattro

[KMACR]

Thanks, Leo. That means alot. I'm shooting both candid and a little more art-directed shots of the bike for the book. Everyone has been great in their posts and comments. This is a great forum.

[Max Continuous]

At 40 years old, I am on the back side of the boomer generation. I think I am a Gen X candidate.

I started riding motorcycles over 20 years ago as it was the only transportation I could afford. I was learning to fly at the time and had no money for anything but needed to get out to the remote airfield.

Years later, I ride for relaxation. I fly for a living cruising around the countryside at 40,000 feet with every gadget one can think of at my disposal. Riding my Beemer is like flying an open air biplane. Back to basics. I think this is why I prefer a naked bike to anything else. I don't want ABS or any other bells and whistles. I don't ride with an MP3 player either. I enjoy the solitude and adventure along with the simplicity that my 1150 provides.

The BMW is my first Boxer. I have always had V twins or inline engines. The first thing I noticed was a predominant "twist" of the bike when I reved the engine. This due to the fact that the pistons were horizontal pointing away from the bikes centerline along with the centrifugal force of the flywheel. It was very disconcerting and totally new to a guy used to having everything on the centerline. Now I love it! It is so unique and totally adds to the experience for me.

Like a piece of ART, the 1150 is an acquired taste that just increases its appeal to those who appreciate it. I have never had this experience with any other bike. My Victory Hammer is total eye candy but does not come close to the BMW for appreciation. Anyone want to buy a Hammer?

[KMACR]

That's great to hear about your return to riding being so rewarding, Max C. And I'm particularly pleased by your reference to riding as like flying "an open air biplane". Since I and others, no doubt, had made a similar realization along the way, I had dubbed my book project's title: "Land Flight". It does so aptly describe the sensation when cruising through nice twisty roads or just headed out straight on some open highway.

The project itself is "getting off the ground" nicely. More trips are being planned, photo's reviewed and still being shot and more being worked out. I hope to capture a bit of the essence of "why we ride" and in the course of things, spreading the word a bit more about this wonderful bike of ours. It can take us as far as we want to go with a confidence and reliability not every bike can match. I really feel it's more of a "partner" in this endeavor than simply a means of transportation.

It's nice to hear how people who "get it" describe their thoughts and articulate the intangible that drives us all to be so enamored with motorcycling in general, and specifically, this delightful ride we call the "R".

[Max Continuous]

KMACR

I wish you all the best with this endeavour and judging by your skill as a photographer and your talent to articulate thoughts into words, I am sure this will be a great book.

Please keep us updated because I would love to purchase a copy.

Cheers

Max