Adventures on your vintage motorcycle!

[Carlo]

I've been taking a trip every year for the past 5 or 6 years with two friends, all of use mounted on BMW R69/S motorcycles from the late 50's-early 60's.
Usually four days and three nights, anywhere from 500 to 1000 miles total distance covered. The last 4 years or so, including some distance of off-pavement riding, ranging from well graded gravel roads to unimproved jeep track.
A lot of modern motorcyclists and vintage purists are shocked that we're "abusing" these old bikes, but this was what they were built to do (google Danny Liska, if you want to really see an adventure!), and they're very good at it.
We've had more fun on these trips than we ever had on our more modern "adventure touring" bikes.
The following pictures are from several trips taken over the last 4 years or so. (the ones with the knobby tires on our bikes are within the last three years)

And what kind of adventure would it be if we didn't have to fix a motorcycle on the side of the road? Nice thing about these old beemers is that you can still do that!

 

[number6]

Great pics! Those Beemers are great bikes!.

Paul.

 

[de Stokesay]

I'm a member of the Saskatchewan section of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group and we have had several summer events called Geezers on Wheezers. Many of the people who go on this are older guys with ancient motorcycles and the plan is as many dirt roads as possible and at most 100 mile days, usually lasting 4 or 5 days. The Geezers run last summer (2012) was of the various sites of the 1885 Northwest Rebellion. This might not seem like a great challenge but you have to keep in mind that we're talking about some pretty old bikes. We have had a 1929 Indian, a WWII Norton, a just-postwar Ariel and other primitive iron. Good fun though.

de Stokesay

 

[Moonshine]

AWESOME! Looks like you guys have been having a great time! Out of curiosity, what broke on the old Bemmer? And are parts hard to source/expensive? Your pictures are making me fill like a poseur with my 2006 KTM 950 Adventure just sitting in my garage!

 

[Interbak]

Hey de Stokesay,

Good to see another CVMGer on the board. I have read about your G on W rides in the club news letters, sounds like a blast. Oldest thing I could bring to the party is my '62 Norton ES2, almost modern by your standards.
keep 'em rollin'.

Brian

 

[MikeKardec]

That's not abuse, that's homage! Well polished atrophy in a garage is abuse.

 

[de Stokesay]

Hey Interbak,

You never know who you'll come across on this forum do you. Right now I only have parts of motorcycle rather than whole running motorcycle. I'm working on a 1941 Matchless G3L in army trim though and if things go well I'll get the engine and gearbox into the frame with wheels this summer. It's been a long project but I'm looking forward to getting it back on the road. Which section are you in?

Best,

de Stokesay

 

[Carlo]

AWESOME! Looks like you guys have been having a great time! Out of curiosity, what broke on the old Bemmer? And are parts hard to source/expensive? Your pictures are making me fill like a poseur with my 2006 KTM 950 Adventure just sitting in my garage!

Oops, this looks like a drive by posting, with me ignoring 4 month old comments.
The magneto coil packed in. The only spare we had on hand was an old one that was also defective. Rescuing the downed bike was a whole story unto itself, involving a drunken cowboy with a jeep and a trailer, some tense negotiation, sweetened with offers of beer on completion of the rescue. And about 40 miles of bad road littered with Busch Bavarian 12oz empties. Among other bits of modern cowboy lore; it's better to not have empty beer cans in the back seat if the local sheriff's deputy pulls you over.

We each bought new spare magneto coils immediately after getting back to civilisation, but of course, the next two years have had no magneto problems.
Oh, and parts are available from numerous sources in the US, or from a company in Germany that's authorized by BMW to supply parts for older models. You could literally build a brand new one out of the catalog if you wanted to.