The Motorcycle that saved BMW

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I was fortunate to work at a BMW dealership in Fort Lauderdale in the 1970s (441 Cycle Shop) after the local H-D dealer said "Get lost, kid." My 5 years working for George & Lucille Jacques taught me that BMW stood for "Best Motorcycles in the World"! Bought a used 1971 R75/5 for my daily rider and even roadraced it in the Summer of '76 at Palm Beach International Raceway. What a blast! Now that I'm retired I'll be planning a retoration of that bike. Keep up the great two-wheeled work Bart.

Timeless Beauty & Function. Bob Lutz single handedly saved the Air Head. BMW was racing to be the first inline water cooled motorcycle, but Suzuki came out with their water head 2 stroke, just as Bob took over a BMW. That gave him the breathing room Lutz needed. I remember the BMW Dealer telling Dad they're building 1,560 320i Cars for each bike they build. They're built at break even pricing. My Uncle got a new 5 speed, 1975 R750S/T with the new Front Disc brake. $2,300.00, and $60.00 for the hard aluminum side bags. 2 years later he got a Honda Gold Wing, so his bags were a perfect fit. He rode from Philly to Canada, Alaska, Mexico, California, every year somewhere far away. He got an R90S as an every day driver, and put on 328,000 miles, with 0 breakdowns. He'ld jump on and call Mom from Maine, having lobsters for dinner, or NC having stone crabs, and be back at work on Monday morning. He worked for JVC, and built himself a backpack of stereo equipment that plugged into his bike.(the speaker rode on his thighs) I still remember passing him on I-95 at 70mph, and hearing China Gold blasting from his vest. lol!

The supposed pictures of Bob Lutz are actually pictures of John Delorean and Carrol Shelby.

Absolute agreement with your opinion...the most beautiful bike EVER MADE. I had a 1981 R65, and I loved it! Simply perfect machine. The R90S was, indeed, a dream bike...STILL IS!

I bought a new R75/6 back in 1974. I put on an Avon fairing and Krauser saddlebags. What a dream machine! Easy transportation around town, to school and back as well as an excellent touring bike, it did it all.

I got a ride on an R75/6 and had to have it. I toured the American west several times on that scooter. It was so smooth and lovely and easy to maintain. That Beemer was my touring bike and a Ducati 750 Sport was my cafe racer. Then some arsonist kid set my garage on fire. Both scooters went up in smoke. Disaster. I missed those bikes so bad. Later I got an R1100 and a Ducati 888SPO. But that R75/6 was a dream. Light enough, powerful enough, VERY comfortable. It was great as a touring bike and a commuter. I wish they would make it again! At the 14:30 mark you can see the Ducati that Cycle magazine severely modded for racing. They called it "Overdog". They modded it so much and hit a problem of top end power, that stumped them for a while. Well they had the thing flowing so much air that the petcock inside diameter was too small to flow enough fuel! How they figured that one out I don't recall. But they opened up that petcock and won the 1977 AMA Superbike race at Daytona. I believe the editor raced it, Cook Nielson. Man those were heady days for a young man who loved motorcycles. Cycle had articles all about how they modded it and the race results. I couldn't wait to get every new issue! They went up against Beemers in that racing class. I think Reg Pridmore was the BMW rider to beat. Everyone waxes nostalgic about their "good old days" and at age 68, boy do I ever! The 70's had an explosion of aftermarket performance development, people were churning out every kind of race mods, engine, exhaust, suspension. Luftmeister for BMW, I had a bunch of their stuff on my R75/6. If you are young now, enjoy every minute you can on your motorcycles. A time will come when you might not be able.

Very enjoyable vid, and bang on the money too. I absolutely adored the pamphlets I collected circa 1978/79 as a kid with the Beemers gorgeous smoky paintwork, of course by then it was the R100RS which looked like a spaceship at the time. A mate of mine had one of these 90/6s in the early nineties, man he could hustle it. Fantastic motorcycle.

Nicely done. This was an enjoyable watch. I've got a 77 R100S that has been my daily rider/commuter/touring bike for the past 5 years. It is just such a lovely bike to ride. There is definitely something special about these S bikes that just exudes timeless class and coolness, but with a touch of refinement.

I had an 75/5 in the early 70's. Smooth and could cruise two up at 80 MPH easy. A great bike!

The R90S always had twin front discs, right from the start of production in September 1973. It was the first production bike to do so.

Very well done. Did justice to all the Airheads, in my garage and others. They are still my everyday rides.

Wir waren damals noch Jungen, ohne Führerschein aber motorradbegeistert! Diese Maschine war für uns die Moderne, DER Fortschritt! ...natürlich unerreichbar, aber DAS war die Neuzeit! Irgendwie bekam ich einen Prospekt der 90/S in meine Hände und diesen habe ich bis heute. Ich fahre heute zum Spaß `77 BMW R100/7, Goldwing `76, CB 400 `75, und ältere...als Zeitreise. Aber der 90/S bin ich niemals mehr begegnet...

I still remember my driving lesson in Germany in the mid 80s. I had to change from a Yamaha soft chopper (maybe a 500) to the BMW R80 and it felt as if I were riding a bicycle. The centre of gravity was so low it was so easy to handle it. In Germany they were called „rubber cow“ as they dived in the suspension when breaking.

Nice video. Now do one on the R100RS, the bike that singlehandedly created the sport-touring category.

I had a silver smoke’74 R90S back in ’78. Salesman said it had 32,000 miles - turned out it was 132,000. I thought this was impossible until I put 32,000 miles on it in the first year. I had a friend who put 100,000 miles on his R90S in around a year. This is a testament to how great this bike was at eating miles. In this respect no other bike of the time came close. You could ride 600 miles at very high speeds and walk completely normally when you got off! Try that on any other bike. I used Reg Primore’s recommended tire combination - Michelin M45s in front and Continentals in the back which let the tail hang out just a little in fast corners and led to a secure feeling. The one drawback to the bike’s design was that it was not pleasant to ride under 70 mph. I found 70-90 just tolerable. 90-110 was the sweet spot and 100 mph was magic. Valve train noise was minimal at that speed and if I ducked slightly forward behind the windshield (I had the high windshield option on the quarter fairing) the loudest sound was the tire hiss on the road, followed by the wind in the spokes, followed by the exhaust. I bought the bike because I love speed but didn’t want to draw any more attention than necessary to my activities. A minor point about the colour of the silver smoke version; the silver does not fade into black - it is extremely dark olive green, discernible only in bright sunlight. I prefer the switchgear on the ’74 but if I had another, I might be tempted to put the drilled discs of the ’75 on it. The only other bikes I’ve coveted were a Moto Morini 3.5 Sport, a Moto Guzzi V50 and a Ducati Pantah 600. I’ve also owned and enjoyed a Honda 305 Superhawk 6:40 and a 1988 vintage Matchless G80 with the Rotax engine.

Nice job. The R90S came out shortly before I got my street license, and we all lusted after them - at twice the price of the Honda CB750. A friend got one with inherited money, and wow it was light years ahead of my RD350 for any ride longer than 35 miles. Over the years I had several R75s, R90s and R100S's, and only the R100S came close to the experience of the R90S. A great bike even if it had 10-15 hp less on top than it should have.

Great description on R90S. Just as R69S was made to compete with English "performance" bikes in the sixties R90S was made to compete with Japanese bikes in the seventies. BMW was not forerunner in in horsepower or speed but has their own way of defining reliability combined by design from way back in 1923! I'm sure my no 2 bike will be an R90S from 1976... It will be a perfect cousin to my 69S from '66 🙂

Rode a slew of Beemers. 100S, 100RS, K100RS, R11000RT, R1100RS, R1100S, and finally K1600GT. Every one of them proved to be quiet, reliable and smooth. I put well over 200,000 miles on them and hope I'll be able to ride more of them, though I do have some reservations about the sheer complexity and expense to maintain them.

When I bought my Z1 (KZ900) in 76, the dealer was also a BMW dealer and had one of these on the showroom floor (in the orange), I almost bought it instead. I never regretted getting the Z1 instead, but just wished I could have bought both. Great channel, I have learned a lot and you have brought back may fond memories.