How did I end up buying a beemer in the early age of 24?

You see, in Germany, where I grew up, BMW bikes are viewed as old-men-motorcycles, as totally non-sporty, as "Gummikühe" or "rubber-cows". In other words, they are considered absolutely uncool unless you are over the hill yourself. So, what happened to me?

I started riding motorcycles before I started driving cars, right when I turned eighteen (the earliest legal age to acquire a driver's license in Germany). My first bike was a 17-horsepower Honda CB 200 T, which lasted only one year. When I felt the need for more power I upgraded to a Honda CB 400 T and, another year later, to a Suzuki GS 650 Katana. I sold the Katana when the German Airforce gave me the opportunity to relocate to El Paso, Texas for a four-year tour of duty. I figured that it would be just no fun to ride on Texas' rather straight roads and in the heat of the southwestern summer.

Boy, was I wrong! It didn't take me long to realize how much I missed the freedom and the fun of riding motorcycles. So I got myself a Kawasaki Z 550 LTD to cruise around the Sun City. Okay, you might ask, when does BMW finally come into play? In 1986, Hermann, a friend of mine bought a new red K75s from Ironhorse Motorcycles in Tucson, Arizona. When I saw the beemer the first time I thought it looked like an oversized toy: these multi-colored switches, the incredibly large turn-signal indicator lights, the weird shape of fairing and windscreen,... it was definitely different. It wasn't love on first sight, but I started to like his bike over time.

Then, one day in early 1988, I went to Tucson with Hermann to help him turn his bike in for a major service. And there she was, standing around in the showroom: a leftover 1987 K75s, featuring a single-seat, a C-handlebar, and a weird silver-greenish color. Marty, the owner of Ironhorse, offered me a good deal on the bike and I decided that I could live with the color (for a while, at least). So we picked her up the following Friday. To avoid breaking the bike in on the interstate (it is a 300-mile ride on Interstate 10 from Tucson to El Paso) we stayed in Arizona that weekend and rode the first 600 miles on back roads, turning her in for service on Sunday morning (Thanks, Marty!). I finally got her home to Texas the following weekend.

So here I was now, living in a low-cost apartment complex and riding an expensive German motorcycle. Other people demonstrated that this was an unusual combination by stealing all three BMW roundels off the bike a couple of weeks later. Great start.

You are not bored yet? To see what happened next just go to the page named Touring USA.