Re: New Bikes

[Tpcutter@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 3/16/05 2:47:32 PM Eastern  Standard Time, 
lodahl@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
<<This morning as I was  refitting the silver-colored sparkplug cover on my
Bumblebee, the thought  occurred to me of just how difficult it's likely to
be to find these plastic  bits in 30 years.  And the electronics will be
simply a lost  cause!  I suspect we'll all be asking, "ou sont les  Beemers
d'antan?"  Well, parked in garages, awaiting the unobtainable  bits to finish
the restoration.  It seems somehow unlikely that we'll  see many 30-year-old
RT's humming along bylanes on pleasant Sunday  afternoons.>>

This is  HYSTERICAL!

I was a BMW dealer Service Manager from  1972 to 1978. Many other BMW 
- -related jobs since. 

When the /2 models were phased out, the complaints were EXACTLY the same "Who 
 will ever want to keep a /5 with those stupid chrome panels on the tank? It  
looks like a damn TOASTER!" And those new-fangled carburetors! What is the 
story  with that? How will they ever last? Nobody will ever be able to fix them 
when  they break!

Then came the R90S with a FIBERGLASS  fairing! That will never last. It will 
look like crap in five years, like a  Japanese bike! What junk! Nobody will 
want those! They should bring back the /2,  I would buy that if it came out!"

Then it was the K  models. "Fuel injection? Who will ever be able to fix 
that?" I even had  customers ask in total sincerity "Can you put carburetors on a 
K bike for me?"  (The answer is yes, and it ain't worth the trouble.)

Then it was ABS. Then it was ABSII, then the IABS. Now it's the CAN-BUS  
electronics. 

Fact is, we (or somebody) will figure  out how to service this stuff at home, 
and it will get de-mystified.  

I wish I had a zero-mile 1994 R1100RSL in Red. And a  1991 K1 in Red. And an 
R1150GS Adventure. All with ZERO miles, sitting under  lights in my beautiful 
private BMW museum. Indirect lighting, a fireplace and a  comfy seating area 
to sit and chat about yesteryear with the fans of  motorcycling in times long 
gone. I can think of many that I wish I had grabbed  and saved. If only my kids 
didn't need to eat, the mortgage got paid by somebody  else, and food grew in 
the yard. 

Why d'ya think I've  been in the BMW business for 33 years? Because I love 
them. All of them. But  especially all the different people that come with them, 
and all of their  individual ways of enjoying the sport of motorcycling.

Oh, BTW, the first RT was sold in the US in late 1978 (a 1979 model) , so it  
will be 27 years old soon. That's pretty close to the " It seems somehow  
unlikely that we'll see many 30-year-old RT's humming along bylanes on pleasant  
Sunday afternoons", and I see '79 RT's at every Airheads Gathering of any 
size.  

Gotta love it.


Tom Cutter
Yardley,  PA
Rubber Chicken Racing Garage T-shirts coming, inquire here...  

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