Posted in Motorcycles on 04/04/2020|
What a lovely combination! Just the right thing to saunter through a sunny spring landscape… if only there was no pandemic about.
A 1965 BMW R60/2 with a 1953 Steib sidecar
The bike is for sale at 2dehands.be (I don’t expect this link to work for a long time). I hope it finds a caring new owner – unfortunately I don’t have neither the money nor the storage space to be able to call it mine.
Posted in Motorcycles, R1100S on 04/12/2019|
I can’t help it: when I see a BMW R1100S for sale online, I have to check out the pictures and the specs. These days, a user called Julien is selling this Randy Mamola edition of the R1100S. It cannot be denied: the bike is looking fine after about 15 years on the road. It’s a bit too flashy for me – I don’t go racing every weekend, or ever.
Nice bike, nice picture!
Will it fetch the asking price of 6000€ ? No idea. Will its new owner like it? Sure hope so!
Posted in Motorcycles, R1100S on 13/10/2019|
Over at the Pelican Parts forums, Craig Carr calls this “the best color scheme ever” for the BMW R1100S. Who am I to disagree?
Photo by Craig Carr. Click on the picture to see the large version.
Posted in Design and Art, Motorcycles on 29/09/2019|
Stefan Rohrer is a German sculptor, whose name I never would have known were it not for the picture that accompanied the announcement “Bikes und Blumen” (“Motorcycles and Flowers”) on the Motorrad website:
A sculpture called “Schwalbe 2007” by Stefan Rohrer- Photo by Thomas Schmieder (Click on the image to see the large version)
I suppose scooters fascinated him greatly in 2007, because he did something similar with a Vespa scooter as well:
A sculpture called “Vespa 2007” by Stefan Rohrer (Click on the image to see a larger version)
Posted in Motorcycles on 09/09/2019|
While walking around the center of Beaune, at the heart of the Bourgogne wine region in France, we passed the motorcycle of a seasoned traveler – and it wasn’t a BMW but a Royal Enfield ;-)
Click on the image to see the full-size version on Flickr
Beaune is certainly worth a visit – the Musée de l’Hotel-Dieu is a must-see, the Musée du Vin was a pleasant and interesting surprise. But be aware that the town has become a tourist trap.
Posted in Motorcycles on 06/09/2019|
Peter Simms says he has the perfect motorcycle, and there is a Brightside Media video on YouTube to prove what he says. BoingBoing pointed me to this video. Yes, it’s about a BMW motorcycle: the iconic R90S. A motorcycle that has “done” 240.000 miles – that’s well over 385.000 kilometers. And also the motorcycle that brought Peter Simms to his spouse – a nice touch.
Posted in Motorcycles on 04/09/2019|
During our holiday I spotted a few remarkable motorcycles. This BMW 75/5 was parked near the Grinzane-Cavour castle in Piemonte (Italy). Bikes that look this good are usually only on display in museums or collections. This one seemed to be coming straight from the factory, even though it is more than 45 years old! Too bad the pilot was not in the neighbourhood; I would have loved to talk to her/him.
Click on the photo to see the big picture on Flickr.
Posted in Motorcycles on 02/08/2019|
From “To Wave Or Not To Wave; Is That The Question?” (on ADVRider.com):
All your brothers and sisters riding motorcycles are part of your family. Over the years, we’ve developed a “cultish” like requirement whereby we are peer pressured to openly express our love to our extended family.
It’s called “The Wave”. You know, the signal that tells other riders that you recognize their sense of adventure, the freedom of the open road, and that yes, they too are cool.
I did not know there were so many different ways to greet fellow-bikers! Beware of the ‘ADVRider Inmate wave‘, though…
Posted in Motorcycles on 23/07/2019|
BMW has just proposed a new motorcycle model, based on what BMW calls the “heritage” line: the ‘R nine T /5‘. This model is built as an tribute to the /5 series, the line of motorcyles from 1969 on that allowed BMW to counter the Japanese competion of that era.
The ‘R nine T /5‘ may be a nice and modern bike, but I still prefer the look of the source of its design – especially in this picture from Flickr user ‘Elmar‘ (click on the picture to see it – and the bike – in its full glory).
(c) Elmar – Click on the picture to see the original on Flickr.
Posted in Motorcycles, R1100S on 24/04/2019|
Flickr user “Classic Dreams” has an extensive collection of pictures from all kinds of classic motorcycles. The albums are about bikes from Indian, Zündapp, Harley-Davidson, BMW, and more – even Ducati makes the list ;-)
And sure enough, the BMW R1100S is one of the subjects. Classic Dreams‘ photos of the R11S do a great job of illustrating the elegance of this particular model. Here’s a sample illustration of the lightness that the design of this bike projects, with the rear wheel perfectly and fully visible when looking at the left side of the motorcycle. A fine bike, yes indeed, shown off perfectly in these excellent pictures!
This is just one of the pictures in the R1100S album of ‘Classic Dreams’ (click on the picture to see them all)
It’s clear that the BMW R1100S is indeed a classic bike, at least in the eyes of “Classic Dreams” – and in mine, of course ;-)
Posted in F800GT, Motorcycles on 22/04/2019|
Yes, I took to the road with my motorcycle during the (four-day) weekend. What motorcyclist would not do that, given the splendid weather we had for Easter? Most cyclists did the same, by the way ;-)
(Click on the image to see the big version on Flickr)
Posted in F800GT, Motorcycles on 15/04/2019|
The weather is not yet perfect, but I have taken out my bike for a couple of little rides the last few days. It’s nice to be back on two wheels, in preparation of the summer and the extended bike trips I already have planned. Fun when riding a bike, that’s what this picture I found on Flickr also shows:
Picture titled ‘BMWs on the Angeles Crest’ by ‘thelostadventure’ (Click the image for the full version)
Posted in Motorcycles, R1100S on 25/11/2018| 1 Comment »
Most motorcyclists know it: no matter what bike you’re riding today, there’s always another, very special bike that no other can replace. Perhaps you rode it already, perhaps you are just wishing you owned it. Readers of this blog know of my love for the BMW R1100S, and I’m just adding this post as further proof of that fact.
Pelican Parts user ‘LGB’ expresses this feeling very succinctly: “It was fun while I owned it… sold to a friend. Now I’m looking for another.” I can dig that, and his bike was truly made for touring: it even includes additional lights low on the fork – nice touch!
I’m not (yet?) looking for a replacement for my F800GT. But the R1100S remains in my heart, that’s certain.
Posted in Motorcycles, Society on 14/11/2018|
Past Sunday saw us ride our annual Autumn Motorcycle Trip – us being a dozen like-minded bikers of different walks of life. Usually we plan this trip in October, to hopefully enjoy the last summer-like days of the year. But we had to change our plans this year, and the weather forecasts weren’t too great. It is November, after all.
But somehow the ten of us managed to ride the whole trip with just a few drips of rain, not enough to don our rain gear. Better: we even had a few minutes of nice sunshine, right in the middle of the Dutchess Hedwigepolder (sorry, in dutch only) in the Netherlands.
Yellow is the best colour for a motorcycle in this autumn sun!
We went there for a last visit – on a bike – to a part of the Schelde estuary that will soon be returned to the river and the Northsea, in order to diminish the risks of floods further up the river. Combined with the “Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe” the Hedwige and Prosper polders will be converted to a single natural reserve. Perhaps I will be able to go there on a bird-watching safari in a few years?
Posted in Motorcycles on 22/10/2018|
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon on my motorcycle. My tour included a visit to the dutch Hertogin Hedwigepolder, a piece of land that will be “given back” to the river Schelde in 2019, together with the belgian Prosperpolder. It was a bit strange to see that were so many people cycling and walking on the remaining roads and dykes, on a piece of land that will soon be mud and water. But migratory birds will be happy in the future: there are already large flocks of geese that use the meadows and the creeks as a stop on their travels.
I snapped a picture of the marker that indicates the border between the Netherlands and Belgium on the dyke next to the Schelde, wondering whether there will still be a way to get to it a year from now…
(A larger version can be see on Flickr –
just click on the picture to go there)
