Snob
Stage III
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
RE: Snob
I've just been lurking here to find out a little more about HD, but I feel prompted to speak up and respond to this thread.
I bought my first beemer 20 years ago and still have it in the garage. Have owned a couple more along the way. Have interacted with a lot of different riders over the years and have formed some general opinions based on bike ownership.
As far as BMW riders being snobs, all I have to say is--- You're right!
Honestly, I now go out of my way to avoid beemer types. I got tired of hearing how superior the bikes and riders are (they're not). I got tired of the constant one-upmanship and cliques. Believe me, the teutonic rudeness can be directed at fellow beemerphiles as well as HD owners.
My 1983 R100 was made at a time when the bike and auto sections of BMW were very distinct from one another. The R100 is a very simple and elegant design with a lot of hand finishing. Easy to work on and durable, it attracted folks who liked to ride and appreciated mechanical simplicity, craftsmanship, and the inherent likability of a machine that could be fixed by the side of the road with a camping spoon and a sharpened rock.
The BMW of today is a much different machine with a different clientele. Really, putting power-assisted brakes on their motorbikes represents nothing more than the final sad death throes of a once great biking philosophy. The beauty of THE RIDE, representing both the machine and the experience, has been tossed aside in an attempt to appeal more to the automotive crowd. The moneyed crowd. Hell it's just business, I understand that, but I don't have to like it.
Carry on.
fish
I bought my first beemer 20 years ago and still have it in the garage. Have owned a couple more along the way. Have interacted with a lot of different riders over the years and have formed some general opinions based on bike ownership.
As far as BMW riders being snobs, all I have to say is--- You're right!
Honestly, I now go out of my way to avoid beemer types. I got tired of hearing how superior the bikes and riders are (they're not). I got tired of the constant one-upmanship and cliques. Believe me, the teutonic rudeness can be directed at fellow beemerphiles as well as HD owners.
My 1983 R100 was made at a time when the bike and auto sections of BMW were very distinct from one another. The R100 is a very simple and elegant design with a lot of hand finishing. Easy to work on and durable, it attracted folks who liked to ride and appreciated mechanical simplicity, craftsmanship, and the inherent likability of a machine that could be fixed by the side of the road with a camping spoon and a sharpened rock.
The BMW of today is a much different machine with a different clientele. Really, putting power-assisted brakes on their motorbikes represents nothing more than the final sad death throes of a once great biking philosophy. The beauty of THE RIDE, representing both the machine and the experience, has been tossed aside in an attempt to appeal more to the automotive crowd. The moneyed crowd. Hell it's just business, I understand that, but I don't have to like it.
Carry on.
fish
Road Master
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,126
Likes: 1
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