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| 1974 BMW R90S in factory style "Silver Smoke" paint |
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| on the road, 1974 |
You guys that pay attention to my ramblings might
recall I bought an R90S new in late '73 when they first came out.
House of Yamaha / BMW in Santa Monica, CA got in two of them, I bought
one and Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers comedy duo bought the
other. I was 22 years old, had a decent job working for UniFilter, and
good credit. I was 22 years old living in So. California just about 10
miles from Mulholland Dr. and the Rock Store, and had a new BMW R90S under
me. It was a sweet moment in life. The bike left eventually, as they tend
to do in my life, but the fascination with the machine never did. I
have a model of it, I have all the major magazine articles, I have the
original sales brochure the dealer gave me in '73, and I have a lot of
great memories.
After the Gold Wing left back in June I got it into my head that I should get another R90S, maybe recapture a bit of my youth and enjoy owning a now truly classic BMW. Wonder of wonders I spotted one on Phoenix Craig's List a week or so after I started looking. What were the odds? They didn't build vast numbers of the 90S and 40 years on they don't just turn up in your town every week. They are around, some very nice ones, too, but usually far away.
So I went to look at the 90S in Phoenix. The price was too high, the bike needed some stuff, and the owner
did not seem real flexible. My gut told me to walk away so I did but not
without some regret. One fellow on the R90S group on Facebook commented after I related that story "In
two more years it will cost you twice as much." He may be right.
R90S values are climbing and pristine examples or museum quality
restorations are bumping $20k.
So yesterday out of the blue I get an e-mail from the seller offering
to lop $1000 off his asking price. I did the logical thing and wrote
him back offering $500 less than that. We settled on $1250 off his
original asking price. I met up with my
buddy David and we went up to get the bike and I rode it home last night.
Then:
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| late 1973. Life was good even if I wasn't smiling |
Today:
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| 2014. Life is still good, maybe better. |
I think the R90S has held up better than I have, it's become a true classic, I've merely become a little bit eccentric. I could use some fresh
paint and an overhaul but will have to rely solely on my charm to get
me by.
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| The R90S cockpit, complete with quartz clock, was a revolution in 1974 |
This bike looks better in the pics than in person, it does have some
cosmetic issues and some mechanical faults but nothing major. New
shocks first, the ones on it are flat. The forks are off a later model
and need to be changed out to be correct. The odometer is kaput and
that will be a little more problematic to resolve, I think. Near as I
can tell the bike has about 50k on it so the motor should be good for a
while. It rides very nice, I have no complaints, so I can wander around
on it while I sort out the mechanical and cosmetic issues over time.
The paint is near new and is very nice, not quite "correct" but close
enough. The previous owner didn't have it pinstriped so that's on my
list; the bike should have some simple gold pinstriping as they came that way from the factory.
Riding it home last night in the dark I had a lot of thoughts running
through my head. I was making a mental list of the stuff that would
need to be addressed even as I recalled riding my original 90S to Canada from
SoCal in '74, to Colorado in '75, and doing 922 miles of twisting roads
one Saturday in an old event called the California 1000. I have lots
of history with the 90S and racked up a lot of little stories. The bike
means something to me, it's not just another bike like so many I've own.
I'm not clear how much I'll ride it, the riding position is still young
and I am not, but I think the riding I do should be thoroughly
enjoyable. I have no quibbles with the functions of the bike, some
things are obviously 40 years old but nothing about it comes up short
enough to spoil my fun. The adventure continues...
In other news, I got married at the end of 2016. A good friend asked me early in that year "What are you looking for in a woman?" I wistfully, or perhaps cynically replied "A woman who loves motorcycles, photography, dogs, and guns." "Yeah" said my friend, "Good luck with THAT!" And we both laughed. Such women live with herds of unicorns in far off and exotic places and so can never be discovered. But to my amazement such a woman wandered into my life; she saw my bird photographs on Facebook and was impressed enough to send me a private note. We met up only to talk photography and she proved to be quite real -- and also young and pretty. We were married 6 months later. It would be grand to win the lottery, but finding Stina is much better.
