Re: old design was oilheads-digest V1 #47

[Robert Silas <robert.silas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lou,
However your e-mail was not meant to me, I just want to say that I agree
with your approach to biking.  I am riding a '92 R1100RS over 85,000 miles,
but my mechanical interest is in old bikes.  Currently I am building two
boxer bikes, 1938/1939 KS600 Zundapps.  These bikes, with their 600 cc
engine, max. rpm. 4800, H.P.=28, drive shaft driven.  It's a nostalgic
project, I rebuild those bikes which I built 55 years ago.

I did not take part in this thread lately, because I spent 52 years as a
design engineer, although not in engine design.  I know how many thoughts
and considerations, trial and error and re-trial and re-design goes into a
project.

All what I read in this thread, I am sure, was considered by the engineers
who came up with the oilhead engine.
But not the engineer who has the final word, the administration, the sales
and market research which are greatly govern a design.

BMW wanted to abandon the boxer engine, that's why the "brick" was born. I
have a '92 K75s, it's a great engine, in my opinion it's better than the
R1100s but lacks the suspension which the R1100/1150 are great for, among
other things.

Boxer engine survived on popular request.  No use to compare BMW boxers with
the "rice burners".  No matter in which form the boxer comes, they are all
touring machines, at best sport-touring, but never track-racing bikes.  In
this thread apples are compared with oranges.

However they are not the smoothest by far,  I like boxer engines, it's
personal.
Bob Silas
'94 R1100RS, '92 K75s + ........



- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Louis F. Pechon, Jr." <bmwlou@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <oilheads@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 11:27 AM
Subject: Re: old design was oilheads-digest V1 #47


> Robert
> Have you considered the fact a motorcycle is a pure pleasure item?  There
is
> no requirement to be practical or the "best design" but how an individual
> feels about his/her machine.  I love the old bikes, R60US, R60S, R90S,
R100S
> and the latest in my stable the R1150RT.  I even have a Norton 750
> Commander.  Talk about being behind the power curve in technology!  The
> marketing guys at BMW hit the nail on the head when they came up with the
> RT.  When I say they hit the nail on the head it was for what I wanted.  I
> am a MSF instructor and tell my students all the time the "best"
motorcycle
> in the world is the one you have the keys in your pocket and a full tank
of
> gas.  If the latest, greatest, most reliable, high HP output, fastest,
easy
> to maintain was a criteria for the motorcycle community, a Harley would
only
> exist in the museum.
>
> There is no such thing as a bad motorcycle, some are just better than
> others.  What makes a motorcycle good is a personal thing and can only be
> explained through passion.  If you must ask you will never understand!
>
> Lou Pechon
> R1150RT (The only oilhead in the stable of airheads)
> MSF RiderCoach
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <rennsport@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <oilheads@xxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 8:39 AM
> Subject: Re: old design was oilheads-digest V1 #47
>
>
> > On Tuesday, Jan 6, 2004, at 07:38 US/Eastern, Eckhard Grohe wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > How many 200,000 mile R1's are there out there?
> > >
> > >
> >
> > How any oilheads out there that produce 130 HP?
> >
> >
> > Robert
> >
> > 95 R11RS
> > 88 KRS Special

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