My revitalized hobby:

BMW R51/2 (1952)

Recently I have also experienced that I cannot deny my background interests. Since the age of 18 I started riding motorcycles. I got a special practicing driving license and used my father's old timer, a BMW R51/2. In reality the bike was not black as on the picture, but light blue metallic.
By the way, in the Netherlands there is a shop, which is paradise for BMW enthusiasts. They sell all parts fro all BMW types from the fifties until now. Great for people who like to restores old-timers: http://www.hobbyist.nl



Jawa 250 CC

My first own motorcycle was a Jawa 250cc. I did not ride it very long, about one year, because compared with my father's bike it was not that fun. It was more a kind of oversized heavy twostroke moped. It has 14 hp. But it was not very thirsty. It ran approx. 1 liter on 30 km. Anyway the motor was OK in the series; a good start, to slowly grow to heavier and faster machines.









Benelli Tornado 650cc (1973)
One day I ran into an advertisement about a cheap, but good looking bike: a Benelli Tornado 650cc. This bike was of couse much more powerful. Because I was not used to the power, I did not notice during the test run, that something was wrong. Later we discoverd a hole in one of the pistons. That explained the low price. But my father's original profession was car engineering and repair, so I was lucky. The Benelli drove like a real italian machine, very good, with Ceriani forefork, Kawasaki steering damper en Koni back fairing. But it also vibrated heavily, which damaged all kind of parts, one by one, like back light, RPM cable, etc.





BMW R75/5 (1973)
The Benelli was more about repairing than riding. For my study , and later work, I knew I would going to drive longer distances, so I wanted more quality, a better bike, that I could trust.
So I traded my Benelli in for a BMW R75/5 at a motor shop in Rotterdam. The bike was not cosmetically nice. The tank was light shampoo green metallic, disgusting in one word.

This BMW have I with my father (better said: has my father with me) taken apart and sandpapered and painted all with original BMW paint system. I also purchased a "Jos Schurgers" steering screen that we also painted in the same colour (red metallic). And with this bike I have made over 100.000 km, first to school (75 km per day), then in the weekends going home (330 km each weekend).

I really enjoyed the bike and has no or only little problems of normal wear (tyres, ignition points, etc.) However when my wife became pregnant, I sold my bike to a motorshop, because we also had a house and car and other hobbies, and because I work so close by, that I used the bike for less than 2000 km per year.
On the Technical Higschool a colleague student was good in cartoon drawing en also had a motorcycle. Here are some of his drawings: (for large pictures, just click on them)
But now, in June 2004 and almost 20 years later, I did buy a motorcycle again, a R100RT. A friend of me had his motor for sale and when I heard the price and looked on internet for average pricing of aged "classic" bikes, my blood started bubbling again. So the motorcycling hobby is reborn.

BMW R100RT (1987)

After nearly one and a half year riding this bike I was more attracked to a BMW K-model. The R100RT required too much maintenance and some expensive parts needed replacement.
During the EMC Rally (European Motorcyclists for Christ) I was in the neighbourhood of a motor shop: where some interesting bikes were in the show room. I went there, was received very hospitable, got opportunity to ride a test ride and fell in love with it. So my new cycle (after trade in of the R100RT) is:
When you click on the logo, you enter a (Dutch) website of a BMW K-lub Zuid, that I joined. While surfing the internet I came on the forum of the K-lub en via a link to the website.

My favorite BMW motorcycle retailer is:


To link my "vision for life" motto with this hobby I like to promote CMA, Christian Motorcyclists Association. You can subscribe to their Newsletter by just clicking the image below:

Besides walking, hking, preferably high in the mountains, but also in the nature where no traffic can be heard anymore, I also like biking. En riding the MTB is nicest, to take a shortcut now and then. Or also ride an ATB track sometimes is fun. Because I live approx. 4 miles from work, I normally go by bike 4 days in a week and one day in the week I go on foot.

At 11th of May I unfortunately had a severe accident. I must have had protection angels with me, because apart of broken teething, an open wound up to the bone on my right leg and several plane woundson my left arm, both hands and knees, I had no severe injuries like brain damage or worse.
The major material damage is of course the MTB. The insurance expert declared it total-loss. Below is a picture of the original bike, with at the righ a picture that shows the main reason of total-loss: broken frame.

In the time that I was recovering I have been thinking what to do. I could sell the old bike, my standard bike and buy another new bike. Or take the broken ATB apart and replace the frame and all other broken parts. At first I thought that only the frame, saddle and some spokes needed to be replaced. So I decided on re-build of the bike. However at closer look also the crank needed to be replaced. Nevertheless it was still worth it, becasue I could do the job with the money i got from the insurance company. I was lucky to get help of a colleague whose friend (Thanks, Ernie!) is expert on wheels. Below you can see the result of this "renovation". Clicking on each image gives you an enlarged version.

My final thanks go to the mountainbike shop who helped me with the buildup (installing crank and doing the cabling):