Rekindling An Old Flame

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you may be swept off to."
Bilbo Baggins

Rekindling An Old Flame

posted 04/26/2008
Sometimes, love strikes when we least expect it. When I first saw her it was in a motorcycle shop in October of 1973. I was living in Portland Oregon and only a half a block from the BMW motorcycle dealer. I was just starting a new job. I had just bought a house. I was just married.

Saturdays would find me arriving at the BMW shop around noon. Mornings were reserved for the Harley shop where the owner handed out free donuts and coffee. "Free" sounds mighty good to starving college students so all of my ner-do-well biker trash student buddies and I would rendezvous there each week and munch our way through as many of the shops profits as we could under the watchful eye of the owner's wife. She considered us money wasted. .

Her husband, Floyd, considered the money spent on donuts cheap advertising. He knew that we would eventually find jobs and want newer motorcycles. His hope was that the Saturday Donut = Harley shop equation would work to his favor by becoming a weekend habit and that we would buy a Harley when the time came.

We did have brand loyalty, or at least snack loyalty. To this day I still love donuts but my newest Harley is only a 1947. I bought it from a kid who tried to sell it to Floyd one weekend. The kid was headed into the Air Force and wanted to get $225 for the bike but it was in pretty bad shape.

Floyd laughed at him and said "Nope!" As soon as this happened, I floated a loan from my one solvent friend and bought the bike on the spot from the kid. That was in 1969. I still have that bike.

A couple years later I moved into the house on Mill St. by the BMW shop. The house belonged to the BMW dealer and he rented it to me for a very fair price. Over the years I've owned close a dozen BMW's so this is a brand loyalty that did stick with me. They have always served me well though they were a bit pricey. BMW has always been quite proud of their bikes and the parts they sell and the cost of both reflect this pride.

Al and Mary Stimac at Rose City Motorcycles sold me my first good helmet and treated me like family though. Al was smart enough not to try to sell a helmet to a young, invulnerable man. Instead, he sold it to my Mom and I got it as a Christmas present. It was winter, it was cold, and it was a present so I wore it.

That helmet saved my life two years later when a lady in a station wagon claimed that on a sunny day, with me on a yellow motorcycle with my headlight on, I was invisible! She pulled right into me, broadside...SMACK!

I was doing about 35 and the pavement wore a hole all the way through the outer layer of fiberglass and all the way through the inner foam liner. The asphalt stopped just short of my skull though and while I limped a bit for a few weeks from other scrapes and bruises; I suffered no major damage to my head.

One day I was washing my motorcycle in front of the Mill St. house. It was a pretty spring day and I was looking forward to an afternoon ride when a pretty girl walked out of the house two doors down with a cup of tea in her hand. She was bold. I was defenseless. She became my girlfriend and soon after, my wife. I still have that same Fearless Wife.

Now you can imagine my quandary when I walked into Rose City BMW on that October day and was suddenly smitten! She was German, well proportioned with lovely curves! She had 900cc and 75 horse power! The all-new BMW R90S sport bike had finally reached Portland and I was instantly in love! "A machine?" you say. "All this is about a machine?"

Well yes, it is. I'm a guy. I'm from Mars. Guys have these weird obsessions for 'things'. Even in prehistoric days we obsessed about things.

"Hey, Oog! Check out this new flint point I have for my spear. It'll beat that ol sharpened stick your still using any day of the week. Hell man, I wouldn't be afraid to take on a saber tooth now." The Clovis point led to the wheel, the wheel to the internal combustion engine, the engine to the motorcycle, and the motorcycle to this day in history. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Up till 1974, the BMW company was known for it's stolid but reliable, usually black bikes with white pinstripes. They would go forever compared to any other brand of motorcycle in their day. Acceleration was leisurely but given time, like a plodding tortoise, they would always get to their destination. Other brands were faster. Other brands were much faster!

But Harleys vibrated parts back unto the earth from whence they came. Triumph's had powerful but short-lived engines. The Japanese bikes were mostly two-strokes and hence, disposable. Only BMW's ran and ran and ran...and then, in 1974 they decided to get rid of this conservative image.

The new 90S model had a custom paint job and bodywork so well designed that it was recognized as an instant classic as soon as it hit the showroom. The engine was more powerful than any BMW in the previous 50 years. Handling was excellent, brakes good. And the price reflected it!

In 1974, the list price was $3430!!! In today's money, that would be about $17,000. This was more than many entry-level cars and way beyond the means of a substitute teacher with a new wife, a just purchased house, and college loans to pay off. Some old flames walk away; others we walk away from, with regret, wondering what life might have been like. I sighed and walked.

Had I stayed in Portland things might have been different. The owner of the BMW shop wanted me to race a 90S! He was prepared to sponsor me in regional races and furnish the bike and cover all my expenses. This was very tempting but then reality struck with a sudden job offer on some island in northern Washington State. I had to look it up on the map as I traveled up I-5 to sign a contract. I thought of it as a temporary job until I could get back to family and friends in Portland but until I retired in 2003 I still had that job.

Wind forward to 2006, semi-retired, house paid for, college paid for, kids on their own, I'm talking to some of my ner-do-well biker buddies in the Former Wooden Boat Owners Motorcycle Club of San Juan Island. One of them mentions that he heard about an older bike for sale on the island: a 1974 BMW R90S!

Well bike rumors have as much veracity as most rumors do on this island so I didn't get my hopes up. More than likely this bike would be a different year and brand but I called the number he had and found that it was indeed the bike of my long gone, flamed out youth. Furthermore, a buyer in first position had backed out of the deal and it was for sale.

Thirty-two years ago I had let this bike get away but things were different now. A quick ride to check it out, a quick trip to the bank and after 32 years she was finally mine. Worn, tired, and needing repairs, but then, so was I. At least she was mine now. As the spring progressed, I gradually fixed what was wrong and made a list of things that needed replacing. Parts were added, cleaned, polished and then, on a sunny June afternoon, I'm heading back from Cape San Juan thinking what a cool bike this is and how much I'm enjoying rid...Bambi Happens!

The bike was a mess, dented, torn, deer s**t all over one side. The engine had a hole in the valve cover. The handlebars were bent. The front fender was torn in two pieces. I was thankful to be alive but heartsick over the damage to the bike. I couldn't even take a picture of the bike. It sat outside all summer. I was too sore to do anything but limp to work, come home, and lay down.

That winter though I finally was able to clear a spot in the shop and wheel the wreck in. I started looking at the bike. This could be fixed, that could be painted, and those parts could be bought. These old BMW's have a fanatic group of owners and a company that reciprocates with almost all parts still available.

Case in point: in 1978 BMW came out with one of the first one piece mag wheels to replace the spoked wheel that had been used on motorcycles since the dawn of time. This allowed tubeless tires and suddenly, blowouts were a thing of the past! Unless you've ever experienced a front tire blowout at speed on a motorcycle you have know idea what a huge safety feature this is!

These first mag wheels weren't perfect though and a very few developed a crack near the hub. None ever failed but BMW came out with an improved version and issued a recall with all wheels to be replaced for free. To this day that recall is still in effect! Take one of these early wheels into a BMW dealer today and they will replace that three-decade-old wheel...for free!

Almost all other parts are also available from those same dealers even for bikes made in the 50s and 60s. Go to a Ford dealer and ask for parts for a 1964 mustang and see how far you get.

OK, I always wanted this bike. I liked riding this bike. I figured that it was going to cost $5000 to repair, paint, and replace all of the bad or old stuff. I paid $4500 for the bike and had put an extra $500 into her before the deer strike. $10,000 for a used bike? Hell yes! When I was done, this was going to be for all intents and purposes a new bike and that was about what a new bike would cost anyway. And three years from now the BMW will still be worth the same amount if not more. Remember what I said about this bike being an instant classic? This model was only made for three years. Less than 18,000 bikes were manufactured and attrition has taken its toll over the years. Prices have been steadily climbing and while I may never get all of my money out of the bike, I'll get a lot more out of it than any modern bike that I purchased new.

So I started throwing money at the bike. Then I started shoveling money at it. Now I'm on a first name basis with the parts guy at a dealership back east that specializes in restorations of old BMWs. My savings is tapped out but last week it all paid off.

The "Deerslayer" runs again and yes, that is her name now. Men fall in love with objects and then we name them. The Dukes of Hazard had their car, "The General". Davy Crocket had his flintlock rifle, "Old Betsy". Now the Old Squid has his Deerslayer.

She runs like the fine German machine that she is: powerful, smooth, quiet. The paint and curves that I fell in love with 35 years ago are still as enticing now as they were to that other, younger Squid. If summer ever gets here, this is going to be a great year.

The Deerslayer, ready for summer!

- The Old Squid

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