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The question...

rebake

New member
Well i got the question today.Just getting off the bike and a delivery girl for the local parts place comes by.Looks at the GS and asks "did you just put that emblem on there?" What?" BMW doesn't make motorcycles-so did you put the emblem on it?":bangheadNo it's a real BMW.Oh.......
 
So you simply said "No it's a real BMW"?

Let's see who can come up with a better snappy answer.

I'll start:
These are made in China, If you look closely the B is more like an '8'.

I'm sure the honourable members can beat that.
 
When I'm out on my bike and I come across a BMW car, I frequently ask, 'Do they make cars now?' and go on to ask if they are any good.
It frequently earns me strange looks, but it's worth it for all the times that I've been asked about the bikes.
 
Back in the 80's I pulled into a gas station to fill my then-new R100. There was a middle-aged woman at the next pump filling a BMW car. I could feel her glaring at me disapprovingly.

As she went inside to pay, she wiggles her hand at my bike and says "What are those?" I responded along the lines of asking what she was pointing at. She was pointing at the BMW tank badges. When I told her it was a BMW she said it couldn't be, BMW would never make a motorcycle, and she directed me to take the tank badges off!

You couldn't make that up...........................
 
I was maybe 13 and on the back on Dad's still new-ish '68 R50/2, and people would ask us "what brand is that?"
 
I've never had quite that reaction.

I usually tell people who are unaware of BMW bikes that BMW started out making airplane engines before WWI but after Germany lost WWI making airplanes was banned and they had to find a way to make a living. They settled on making bikes, with the cars coming along about eight years later. If they still appear interested I mention that BMW went back to making airplane engines, including jets, during WWII but when that one again didn't turn out so well for the Germans, BMW went back to making bikes to save the company again.

I have never yet had anyone outright reject the idea that BMW made bikes. Most are pleasantly surprised if they were unaware before.

Now I have had the usual knuckleheads ask why I didn't buy a Harley. It requires more of me to be patient with them.
 
I don't have that problem in my sleepy little mountain town. There are not many European cars where I live. There are only 4 or 5 of us in the county that ride BMW motorcycles. However, there are tons of BMW bikes that come and ride the curvy mountain roads. People see more BMW motorcycles than they see BMW cars. Most people know about and appreciate BMW motorcycles but I wish they would quit saying "They are the CADILLAC of motorcycles".
 
If they ask, they don't have a clue. Unless they're cute...

My wife is cute & she has a clue about a lot of things but knows very little about motorcycles(and gets tired of hearing about them, thus my presence here) but a parts chick-you'd think shed be in the know on zoom zoom? Folks it's a "Harley World" we live in. I doubt there are 4-5 people that ride any kind of bike in my county but 4 wheelers,that's another story.
 
I don't have that problem in my sleepy little mountain town. There are not many European cars where I live. There are only 4 or 5 of us in the county that ride BMW motorcycles. However, there are tons of BMW bikes that come and ride the curvy mountain roads. People see more BMW motorcycles than they see BMW cars. Most people know about and appreciate BMW motorcycles but I wish they would quit saying "They are the CADILLAC of motorcycles".

When a bystander tells me my bike is the "Cadillac of motorcycles" I usually respond by telling them "God, it's not that bad", lol.
 
You know, I notice a lot of BMW bikes on the curvy mountain road here. But there are Harley drivers, too. Still...lot of BMW's.

What's kind of cool...I get the same "wave" from Hog drivers in do-rags that I do from ATGATT BMW riders. It's a nice fraternity around here...don't know about other parts of the country.
 
Don't know where you are flyrider, but the HDs are the majority here, and very few of them wave to us, even though there are many BMW bikes.
 
When a bystander tells me my bike is the "Cadillac of motorcycles" I usually respond by telling them "God, it's not that bad", lol.

When we bought our current car, a 2010 Caddy, my MIL, thought we had "moved up" from the years of BMW's since 1969.
 
When we bought our current car, a 2010 Caddy, my MIL, thought we had "moved up" from the years of BMW's since 1969.

I guess your MIL has never spent any time in a BMW. I hate when anyone uses the phrase "It's the Cadillac of.........." Personally, I still find Cadillac just to be another p.o.s. Chevy pig, in a tuxedo. Though they are much better in the last few years, Cadillacs, when compared to their similarly priced, European competition, just don't quite cut it.......

Unfortunately, in this situation where these people do not know or believe BMW makes motorcycles is just another example of the "BLISS" the vast majority of the people on this planet live in. I too have experienced the "They make motorcycles?" person here or there. My response usually is, "No. They make excellent motorcycles"
 
Don't know where you are flyrider, but the HDs are the majority here, and very few of them wave to us, even though there are many BMW bikes.

It's funny...the only guys who I have met on the road who showed any real appreciation for BMW motorcycles are Harley guys...I've had guys rattle off all sorts of specs and ask me some very intelligent questions about my GSA. I was sittting in a rocking chair on the front porch at a lodge along the Blue Ridge Parkway when a group of HOG guys showed up and parked near my GSA and my cousin's new Super Tenere. They got off and started examining my bike and my Massachusetts plate. I wasn't really sure what to expect. Then I heard one of them begin to expound upon the history of BMW motorcycles and all of the technical attributes from tubeless spokes to ESA to telelever to shaft drive. They all nodded in approval and made there way toward the lodge. When they got to my cousin and I who were sticking out like sore thumbs in our textile gear, someone asked who owned the BMW. I said it was me and received mutliple compliments on the bike.
 
Mil

When we bought our current car, a 2010 Caddy, my MIL, thought we had "moved up" from the years of BMW's since 1969.

"MIL" ? just exactly what is that supposed to mean?? I looked up possible acronyms and find there are a least 170 different versions for "MIL" Please be more specific.
 
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