Category Archives: Motorcycles

About BMW Airhead motorcycles.

A new tire

Made in England, no less.

I generally alternate the make of tire on my 1975 BMW motorcycle between German Metzelers and British Avons.

One thing of note since moving to the hot Arizona summers from the Bay Area three years ago is that rubber and batteries take a beating over the warm months, where the garage temperature can rise to 130F. On my nephew’s suggestion – he is also a keen rider – this next summer will see me drain the gasoline from the tank and move the bike for display in the air conditioned indoors. The summer months are too warm for riding in any case, and this will save wear and tear.

Anyway, my last front Metzeler lasted but 7,000 miles compared to 12,000 or so in the Bay Area. My riding style is no different and pressure is maintained carefully, so I can only think it’s the heat that is causing the reduced life expectancy.

So on a rare rainy day in Scottsdale it was off to MotoTire with my wheel and new front tire for installation and balancing.




The old Metzeler ME33 Lazer, its tread down to 0.08″, is removed.
The rubber rim strip protects the inner tube from punctures from the nipple nuts.



On with the new – 0.18″ tread depth on the Avon AM26 Roadmaster.
The wheel with new tire is on the balancing jig.

While both tires are tubeless, I have to use tubes with the old, spoked rims on the bike, which leak air. It’s the one thing I would change on the bike if I could, as a puncture with a tubeless tire is far slower – and hence safer – than with a tubed one. Don’t ask how I know.

We will see how the new Avon holds up. I make it a point to buy tires online from a high volume dealer, meaning I get fresh rubber. The molding of this one back in the land of tea and cricket was just 4 months ago.

One strange quirk is that the factory always specified English inch sizes for tires of that era. The closest metric size does not fit well within the wheel well, making for lots of garage language when replacement is due.

I never cease to wonder at the speed and expertise of the mechanics who do this work. Ten minutes and $20 later the old tire is removed, the tube replaced, the new installed, inflated and the wheel assembly balanced. Amazing.

iPhone 11Pro snaps.

A tale of two tanks

Germania redux.

In the 1970s BMW airhead motorcycles were still very much the gentleman’s ride. Not super fast but comfortable, long legged and superbly made, in contrast to the garbage Britain was churning out and distinct from the increasingly ubiquitous Japanese offerings. The latter, affordable and beautifully made, killed the British motorcycle industry and almost saw off BMW, who migrated to garish colors and weird looks as part of their recovery strategy. Testifying to poor taste, that strategy succeeded and BMW Motorrad is a loud success today. I wouldn’t be seen dead on any of their modern machines.

In the early 1970s you could have your new BMW with either the small 18 litre (4.7 gallon) or 22 litre (5.8 gallon) tank. The looks were quite different and the latter extended the touring range to over 250 miles on a fill up. When I bought my 1975 R90/6 from the original owner in 1990 it came with the smaller tank. I tracked down a tired larger one for touring and when my body finally cried ‘enough’, ending my long distance riding days, I reverted to the small tank. In beautiful shape with pin-stripes hand painted by the ladies in the Berlin factory, it restored pride of ownership. The large tank was trashed, the paint crazed, the inside flaking and, worst of all, the pinstripes were ghastly stick-on types. Sacrilege.

If you want to see the ladies in action jump to 6:06 in this French video of the factory, made back in the day. It loads slowly.

Anyway, the small tank never looked quite right proportionally:




18 liter tank in place.

So I took out a second mortgage, took the trashed large tank down the road to Spooky Fast Customs in Scottsdale, and eight weeks later I had a pristine tank with a new liner, paint job and exquisite hand pin-striping:




With the 22 liter tank.

The knee pads afford a proper grip over rough terrain, and the proportions are better, looking more Germanic – meaning more functional and stolid – in keeping with the character of the nation and the motorcycle. Sure, my bank balance took a blow, but after 30 years of service it was the least I could do for the machine.

The GOAZ 2019 classic show

Some eye candy for the two wheeled aficionado.

The annual vintage and classic motorcycle show at the huge local Scottsdale, AZ dealer GOAZ was yesterday, and there was some really lovely machinery on display, not least my 1975 BMW R90/6 which, unlike many of the garage queens here, is a daily rider and in my 30th year of ownership.




One of many buildings at the dealership. This one has the best bikes!


Without a doubt this 1926 BMW R32 was the star of the show. Here’s the story.


That’s actually a horizontally opposed BMW twin! Note the exposed drive shaft to the rear wheel.


Four speed hand gear change.


Original speedometer. Andreas Veigel also made car clocks …. and photographic enlargers!


Hope and a prayer front brake.


Single seat and pressed steel luggage rack.


My 1975 R90/6, now with 68,000 miles, bought from the original owner in 1990 and ridden daily.


Crunch time. Some tasty Kawasakis.


Classic 1960s 2-stroke Lambretta, with exhaust scent to match!


Quadrophenia and The Who live.


Badge city.


How you know a bike is British.


Lockheed was into the bike brake business.


Jewel-like 1966 Bultaco Metralla club racer.


Moto Guzzi’s design goal was to make sure no one knew what all those warning lights did.


Gorgeous Ducati Mike Hailwood replica with cooled rear shock cylinder.


In the 1970s Honda was king. This is their 1976 flat four water cooled tourer.


The engine is low in the frame for stability, and bulletproof.


Not content, they then designed this wild CBX 6-cylinder marvel.


Then this exquisite 400cc four.


The dealership spares no expense.


The horse with two wheels, a modern Indian.


Beautiful leatherwork on the Indian.


Someone brought along a classic Healey.


Subtlety is not the American designer’s strong point ….


…. but charm is abundantly on display here.


Spooky Fast Customs will paint whatever your heart desires.


Classic pre-war Indian detail.


There were some 100 classic bikes on show.


Vespa no longer makes two strokes, but they do have a fine line of scooters.


Italian Ducatis are all about speed.


Twisted custom.


It’s a lifestyle for some.


Yours truly at the show. No tattoos yet. Photo by Wende Gooch.

All snaps SOOC (except two which had verticals corrected and one with UWA distortion removed) on the iPhone 11 Pro.

The season begins

Back on two wheels.

The Scottsdale motorcycling season runs from September through April. The other four months, with daily temperatures over 100F, are simply too warm for comfort and safety.



First ride of the new season, yesterday.

This is a special year for my 1975 BMW R90/6 as it marks the 30th year of ownership, having been purchased from the original owner in 1990.

Each season brings its own issues. This year the left carburetor proceeded to leak all over my boot; quickly detached – a five minute job on an opposed twin – removal of the main and idle jets as well as the float needle, a blast of compressed air to clear the clogged passageways, and all is well. No Garage Language required. Cleaning the boot will take longer. Quite why the Germans never managed to emulate Mikuni’s superb Japanese carburetors for reliability and trouble free service beats me, but then they never made a good horizontally opposed air cooled twin either. I’ll take that trade off. The stock Bing carbs have been overhauled twice in the 45 years since the machine left the Berlin factory.

Bikers are generally obsessed with changing things but the BMW ‘airhead’ twin was pretty much right out of the box. The rear shocks were not the greatest and I replaced them with Konis three decades ago. Lighter wrist pins (‘gudgeon pins’ for English readers) improved throttle response and alcohol-proof carb floats see to it that the introduction of ethanol in fuel did not result in malfunction from dissolved polystyrene floats. The other major fuel problem was the removal of lead tetra ethyl from gasoline, meaning that the cooling effect of lead on valve seats was lost and the seats started running too hot, eroding with use, reducing valve clearances in the process. I had the seats lined with stainless steel and valve clearances have been rock steady ever since, meaning some 25 years now. Finally a 50-state legal headlight modulator makes sure that the headlight flashes in daylight riding, in the forlorn hope that left turners do not take me out. So far, so good.

Other than that there is a near total lack of electronics in the machine, meaning I should survive the electromagnetic wave from the forthcoming North Korean nuclear attack, albeit somewhat irradiated. A couple of relays for the starter and the headlight switches see to it that nothing fries, and these are $2 parts easily replaced should they ever fail. One has in the past three decades. The ignition is by mechanical points and I carry a spare set in case anything fails – it never has. There’s one diode for the clutch switch and that fried a while back, replaced for pennies. This allows starting in gear when the clutch is disengaged – nice if you stall at the lights. Not, you understand, that I would ever do that.



Ignition points work just fine, and it’s not like carrying a spare set is onerous.

The stock Bosch starter looks like it came from a Panzer tank, being massive and half decent. (I use the kick starter when feeling especially macho). Newer Nippondenso starters from Toyotas have been fitted to many airheads as they use less battery power and are lighter to boot. I’m sticking with the original, and have had the solenoid rewound once for very low cost when it ceased engaging the toothed wheel on start-up. An aftermarket front fork brace replaced the poncy stock plate, something BMW recognized as later models had a far beefier brace. The stouter brace eliminates head shake at speed. And to keep those in cages awake, the weak Bosch horn has been replaced by two Italian Fiamms with a relay. These will wake the dead, or even the mindless in SUVs, while doing a good job of draining the battery.

Those elegant spoked rims are made by Weinmann, which continues making spoked wheels for high-end bicycles to this day. I replaced the mild chromed steel original spokes (really, BMW!) with stainless steel ones as they were beginning to rot. Sadly, those spoked rims require the use of tubed tires, far less safe than modern tubeless ones, though rubber has greatly improved over the years. I use either Avon, Metzeler or Michelin, all still available in the stock English sizes specified by an otherwise all metric factory. Go figure. I reckon on 8-10,000 miles a set. Trusting one’s life to Chinese tires, given that nation’s regard for life, is not my glass of Löwenbrau. I don’t waste money on synthetic oil and the consumption of 1500 miles per quart of 20W/50 dino remains as it was 50,000 miles ago. Gas use remains a frugal 45mpg, same as it has always been. Sadly, the high compression engine dictates the use of premium octane fuel.

Wear and repairs? Not much to talk about, really. I’m on my third set of head bearings (I use Japanese ones after poor experience with the aptly named German FAG brand), second clutch plate and third set of good old fashioned Bosch single copper electrode plugs, still available if you search. The Getrag gearbox has yet to be opened and as with all airheads makes a massive clunk on shifting from first to second. More Panzer legacy, I suppose. I consider it a feature, not an issue. The seat vinyl cracked a few years back and it was a simple matter for a professional to replace it with the original material. While the bike came with the small BMW café fairing, that broke when the machine jumped off its stand in the Northbridge earthquake in the San Fernando Valley (January 17, 1994) so for long distance riding I fit a National Cycle screen to reduce neck fatigue from wind blast.

I have never needed to replace the drive chain as the bike does not use one. It is shaft driven like a RWD car. On the other hand, the cam chain was replaced at 60,000 miles and proper timing was restored to the motor as the original was somewhat stretched.

Oil leaks? Nada, Zilch, Zero, This is a German motorcycle, not an English one.

The 30th anniversary of purchase will be in June 2020 and I rather fancy my chances of getting there. Mileage is approaching 70,000.



Hand pinstriping tanks and fenders in the old Berlin factory.
This is the closest you want any woman to your bike.

iPhone7 snap. Fräuleins courtesy of BMW.

Old and new

With the Porsche Club.

The cool mornings here in Scottsdale see me mounting the old steed for a desert run to procure the morning croissant. My gas cost exceeds that of the French delicacy and with the mercury at 44F this morning the old leather jacket with a Thinsulate liner was indicated. GoreTex may be just the thing for breathability, but it does not cut through the cold on an unfaired machine.

As luck would have it the local Porsche Club was having a get together at the grocery store of choice and when I pulled up on the old Airhead conversation naturally ensued. We share a heritage of horizontally opposed air cooled engines, although the cooling air for the bike is naturally provided to the protruding fins on the cylinder heads, that for the 356/911 set is courtesy of a massive fan mounted on a vertical axis in the engine compartment out back.


My 1975 BMW R90/6 at a recent old bike show.

BMW bikes and Porsche cars abandoned air cooling for the most part in the ’90s in the face of rising horse power demands and efficiency, and most serious Porsche and BMW bike men maintain that the world pretty much ended about that time.

There was a nice study in contrasts in this part of the parking lot.


2019 GT3 and 1965 356.


The $200k 911 is worth less …. Lots of nice P cars in the background.
And yes, the ‘bra’ on the 356 is an abomination.

The green GT3 is the last normally aspirated 911 available. All the others from the regular model through to the Turbo use twin turbos to keep pollution down, which also takes out the gorgeous sound of the normally aspirated six. Porsche (and BMW) have traded charisma for competence. Turbocharged engines run so much quieter that Porsche now pipes artificial sound into the cabin to reassure the poor schnook at the wheel that he is driving the real thing. This is engineering?