Motor cycles; the poor man's transport...

In some parts of the world this is still true - where would the Philippines be without tricycles and habal-habals?

But could somebody tell the Bavarian Motor Works?

Three hundred and fifty quid for a rear brake disc!

"Ve haf vays of having a laugh...?"

It wasn't that long ago in the UK either. My father recalls stories of going to the seaside with Mum and (at that time) 4 kids in a sidecar. He eventually upgraded to a Reliant Robin with 2 more kids added to the family. Japanese motorbikes for me

I think they may have just seen you coming there, that seems extremely expensive, could have bought your own tricycle for that.

BMW have always been like this. back in the 70's I remember going into a dealers for a battery for an R90S - the dealer produced two - the official BMW job and a pattern spare - he pointed out to me that the moulding flaws on the plastic case were identical - I bought the pattern spare, at less than half the price.

This is not a current model - it's a 21 year old K75RT, and again, there's a pattern spare at less that half the price, but this time I splashed out because, well - brakes are brakes...

Trouble is, there is a lot about this particular bike that I like - on the open road. It's in beautiful cosmetic condition for its age. I like the old BMW switchgear, the clunky clutch, the best centre stand in the business, the luggage, and so on. ( It's just a swine in car parks - and for some unbelievably stupid Bavarian reason the top box is hinged at the rear...!)

Michael Dunlop pictured with the BMW S1000RR Superbike that he will race in 2014

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/m...dunlop-confirms-2014-plans-with-bmw-1-5871120

BMW won the 1939 TT with a supercharged bike...the very exotic and somewhat unsuccessful AJS watercooled supercharged V4 was intended to get the Senior back for Britain but WW2 intervened and afterwards the FIA banned supercharging for bikes.

Absolutely super to look at the above bike but it looks a tad uncomfortable, its all machine with no extras

A bit of motorcycle history trivia - the AJS V4 was the first bike to lap the TT course at over the ton; the bike did eventually win a race in Belgium after the war ridden by Jock West who was one of BMW's team in 1939. Supercharging was banned after that.

Looking at the picture I can't help thinking how modern it looks, like a 1980's Japanese superbike if you don't look at the girder front forks and the plunger rear suspension!

Now we have electric (zero emissions) bikes doing over a ton. Getting faster year on year.m

Its that need for sound that perpetuates the need for the petrol engine.