My Brother's Beemer

My brother's Beemer

UP FRONT

David Edwards

PROBATE ATTORNEYS WORK IN A WORLD of assigned values, of course, but still the question caught me off-guard.

"So, how much do you think your brother's BMW is worth?"

Hard to say. Just what is the value of a favorite old bike, in my brother Kevin's case a 1982 BMW R8OG/S that wore the patina of world travel. Early in its life, it apparently trekked across Africa, then made its way to America, where it joined the hard-working rental fleet of Tex-Mex Moto Tours, a Fort Worth based outfit that organized expeditions to the Mexican mainland. After 10 years of service, the G/S could practically find its own way to Chihuahua or San Miguel de Allende or old Monterrey.

When Kevin acquired the G/S in 1999, its odometer showed more than 100,000 miles-or would have, had the instrument pod not been shattered in some south-of-the-border prang. If we deduct value for high mileage, can wc add some back for experiences tendered?

Zoom out to take in the big picture. The G/S, produced from 1981-87, might be considered priceless-for good reason, it’s been called the Bike That Saved BMW. As the 1970s ended, the German company gave all appearances of being yet another victim of the Japanese Invasion. England’s BSA had already been put six feet under, Norton was next to succumb, Triumph was ailing fast. Italy’s bike-makers were yet again teetering on the cliff-edge of bankruptcy. In the U.S., Harley-Davidson was foundering.

Among this litany of losers, BMW was seen as a maker of old men’s machines, outmoded and overpriced, the motorcycle division kept afloat only by the success of the company’s sedans and sports cars. Our friends at Motorcyclist comparison-tested the flagship R100RT in 1979 and could find little in the way of redeeming values, especially for a bike with a price tag nearly twice that of the winning Suzuki GS850.

“BMW has had 56 years to refine the flat-Twin,” read the test, “but somehow they still haven’t done it, not with this machine.”

Back in Bavaria, Rudiger Gutschc. BMW engineer and International Six Days Trial nutcase, had an off-the-wall idea. Why not shake things up by selling a street-legal version of the company’s GS80, a one-off Boxer enduro mount that had topped the over-75()cc class at the 1979 ISDT? In other words, what have wc got to lose?

Thus the odd and unlikely R80G/S (for Gelünde/Strasse, or Forest/Street) was born. With its safety-orange seat and single-sided swingarm, BMW’s $4800 “big dirtbike” was hard to miss, but beneath the surface were substantive changes-nikasil cylinder liners, CD ignition, improved clutch and lightened flywheel-that helped make the G/S the company’s best streetbike. Soon it would be recognized as the first-ever adventure-tourer.

“No one involved with the G/S project would have guessed that the strange machine Gutsche designed primarily for shock value would go on to create an entirely new market, becoming BMW’s best-selling bike and likely saving the motorcycle division from oblivion in the process,” writes Darwin Holmstrom in his excellent book, BMW Motorcycles.

“The GS line (the slash was dropped for the 1988 R100GS) has been a wonderful success story for us,” says Rob Mitchell, head honcho of BMW’s corporate communications, himself a 1985 R80G/S owner. “The original bike defined a new breed of motorcycle, pioneered a whole new category. Now wc were selling more than the hardware; we were selling a spirit of adventure to people who wanted to see the world to go anywhere, to liberate themselves. At the time, we called it a ‘touring-enduro.’ Only later was the term ‘adventure-tourer’ coined.” Actually, not that much later. Cycle World's Ron Griewe conducted one of the first stateside tests of the G/S for our April, 1981, issue, nosing the BMW south into the Baja peninsula for a 10day run to Cabo San Lucas and back. Describing it as an “adventure-bike,” Griewe pretty well summed up the genre, very much still with us today (three of the finalists in this issue’s “World’s Best Streetbike” shootout are adventure-tourers).

“What BMW has in mind is the explorer market, or maybe the adventure market,” he wrote. “The G/S will be a great machine for exploring the outbacks of Australia or South America or Baja, any place where a combination of dirt roads, secondary paved roads, freeways and you-name-it terrain will be encountered.” My brother never made it to foreign lands with his G/S, but used it to explore the backroads and gravel tracks of Texas, New Mexico and Arkansas. Sadly, those adventures stopped in 2002 when he was diagnosed at age 44 with colon cancer. In two years of tough chemotherapy treatments, though, the BMW was always at the ready when he needed relief from the grind, easier to start than his kick-only Triumph Bonneville, less hard-edged than his KTM 620 R/XC.

On one of Kevin’s last “good days,” he fired up the BMW and went for a long ride-two weeks later, complications from the cancer put him in the hospital for the final time. And the G/S was right up front in the memorial chapel, surrounded by floral sprays and wreathes, sending Kevin off in fine style last June when I delivered his eulogy. He would have liked that.

What value to assign a cherished old R80G/S, then? The National Automobile Dealers Association, compiler of a guide for used-bike prices, seems to think my brother’s Beemer is worth about $1200. Silly people. □