A BMW R100 Like You’ve Never Seen Before

I like it. Not practical but it works for me. Not sure how far I would ride it, a little bit to forward on the bars, kind of cool for a Bike Night.
 
MaxPete said:
I like my dear old Gretel - an '83 R100RS in essentially stock form. I just did a 2750 km tour of northern Ontario in the last week and she ran like a dream the entire way from Windsor to Wawa and points east - and back from Huntsville yesterday.

BMW_Honda - top box LS front view.jpg
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That is a beautiful machine. In a way, that model is the reason I have an ST. I really, really wanted one, but the prices were and are obscene. So I "settled" for my ST1100. I still occasionally have some envy, but I think I did OK....
 
I first saw the R100RS as a centrefold ;) when I was a 19-year old engineering student in Kingston, ON. It appeared in the 1977 issue of Cycle World magazine and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. All of my buddies had posters of Farah Fawcett and Cheryl Tiegs on their bedroom walls (or ceilings :p) but I had the 1977 RS on mine (the wall that is). In all of the 1977 and subsequent tests and comparisons of the R100RS with other bikes, the only criticisms of the RS were:
  • the sidestand is absolutely invisible from the rider's position - so the deployment tang is extremely difficult to find with your toe because it is hidden under the carburettor;
  • the sidestand is spring-loaded UP - which makes is quite challenging to deploy once you do find that little toe-hold tang (that is why most RS riders install an aftermarket "Brown's Sidestand" to avoid having their very pretty and expensive bike "take a lie-down" every time they park it);
  • the early BMW /7 Series (ATE brand) brakes are awful - the front master cylinder is located under the fuel tank and is actuated by a cable (my bike is an '83 and so it has Brembos with a conventionally located master cylinder);
  • the oil dipstick is all tangled up with the LH carb throttle and choke cables and the fuel line - and so it is challenging to get in and out of the hole.
After reading the Cycle World test, I rode my $700 Honda CB360T (nearly everyone's first bike in those days) the 150 miles to Ottawa to a BMW dealer just to see an R100RS in person. I walked around oggling it for half an hour or so and then I absent-mindedly climbed onto it. The sales-wanker came running over and started yelling at me and at one point he said: "This is a motorcycle for wealthy gentlemen, not for grubby Queen's students like you!"

.....as he ejected me, bodily, from the dealership.

I stopped and turned around and said: "You see what it says on the back of this jacket? That means Engineering and that means that some day I will be a wealthy gentleman and I am going to buy one of these bikes - but I'm not going to buy it from a pr!ck like you!" It is possible that I may have actually used some other elements of my "extended" vocabulary as well...and in any event, it clearly wasn't my finest hour in the "gentleman" department......

Anyhow, it only took me 41 years to save up my allowance and accumulate enough money to buy one - and her name is Gretel.

I cannot recall the precise amounts (my 1977 discussions with the BMW sales guy hadn't progressed to the financial aspects of a possible transaction when he tossed me out onto the parking lot), but I have been told that a new Honda Gold Wing Interstate cost about $2500 in 1977-80 timeframe while a new BMW R100RS cost well over $6K - and perhaps as much as $7.5K. I'd love to know the actual numbers.

Pete

1983_R100RS-LH-rear_solo (2).jpg
 
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Thats a pretty German gal for sure. When I was looking to get back into riding there were several nice examples available. But I could buy 2-3 ST1100's for the same price. Ultimately I made the correct decision, as the Honda has been dead reliable and cheap. Im guessing the Beemer would be only one of those.
 
MaxPete said:
OK - so about $6-7K Canadian is not an unrealistic estimate.

I know that the number was so high that I simply kept dreaming at the time.

Pete
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That is the same reason why I bought my first ST1100 back in 1999- value. My decision came down to the ST or the BMW RT. At the time the RT was not several, but rather many thousands more than the ST.

Your R100 looks incredible Pete. Did you buy it like that, or did you do a lot of work on it to get it in that shape?
 
rwthomas1 said:
That's a pretty German gal for sure. When I was looking to get back into riding there were several nice examples available. But I could buy 2-3 ST1100's for the same price. Ultimately I made the correct decision, as the Honda has been dead reliable and cheap. I'm guessing the Beemer would be only one of those.
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Andrew Shadow said:
That is the same reason why I bought my first ST1100 back in 1999- value. My decision came down to the ST or the BMW RT. At the time the RT was not several, but rather many thousands more than the ST.

Your R100 looks incredible Pete. Did you buy it like that, or did you do a lot of work on it to get it in that shape?
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I have had the BMW since the late summer of 2019 (or was it 2018?) and she has been really good. She came pretty much as you see her but I have done a bit of engine work (re-torqued the heads, replaced on rocker arm pivot bearing, reset the valves etc.), installed a set of new tires and a new battery plus a headlight modulator (I know some people hate them - but I would never ride without one). At the monet she has about 110,000 km (around 70,000 miles) on her but that is nothing for these old airheads.

She hasn't missed a beat until about two weeks ago when suddenly she wouldn't turn over when I pushed the button. It turned out to be a starter relay. I fixed that and on the recent Northern Ontario trip she literally didn't miss a beat, despite temps in the mid-30 deg. F range at night and a lot of rain on the road. Actually, I think that she felt smoother than my 2007 ST1300 - and was even quieter. Now, there isn't nearly as much power (70 HP versus about 125 HP on the Honda) and I do not have ABS - but she weighs 230 lbs less than the ST, she has shaft drive, decent brakes and electronic ignition.

She'll do 200 km/hr all day (I am told....) and she is a steady and smooth handler with a comfy riding position, decent lights and nice controls (except for the sidestand issues noted earlier). The rain protection is not as good as on an ST - but it is waaaay better than you might imagine. I rode nearly 500 km in solid rain all day on Wednesday and only cuffs of my pants got wet. Passing on highways is easy and I seldom downshift as the BMW has good torque at moderate speeds.

BTW - BMW never made a proper top-box for the RS bikes back then and the stock tail rack is sort of ridiculously tiny, so luggage capacity is pretty limited by modern standards. Soooo, I found a reasonable top-box at a cycle wrecking yard for about $30 off a 1983 <I think> Honda GL1100. It fits on the stock mini-rack on the dual seat and one of my students 3D printed the mounting brackets for me. I only use it for my rain suit and some bungees and as a place to stow my jacket when I go into a restaurant etc. - and it works fine. I even managed to get a set of keys made for the original Honda locks and the thing seals up dry as a bone in the rain.

Pete

BMW_Honda - top box LS rear view.jpg

WKRMC-Aug-21-02.jpg
 
MaxPete said:
I have had the BMW since the late summer of 2019 (or was it 2018?) and she has been really good. She came pretty much as you see her but I have done a bit of engine work (re-torqued the heads, replaced on rocker arm pivot bearing, reset the valves etc.), installed a set of new tires and a new battery plus a headlight modulator (I know some people hate them - but I would never ride without one). At the monet she has about 110,000 km (around 70,000 miles) on her but that is nothing for these old airheads.

She hasn't missed a beat until about two weeks ago when suddenly she wouldn't turn over when I pushed the button. It turned out to be a starter relay. I fixed that and on the recent Northern Ontario trip she literally didn't miss a beat, despite temps in the mid-30 deg. F range at night and a lot of rain on the road. Actually, I think that she felt smoother than my 2007 ST1300 - and was even quieter. Now, there isn't nearly as much power (70 HP versus about 125 HP on the Honda) and I do not have ABS - but she weighs 230 lbs less than the ST, she has shaft drive, decent brakes and electronic ignition.

She'll do 200 km/hr all day (I am told....) and she is a steady and smooth handler with a comfy riding position, decent lights and nice controls (except for the sidestand issues noted earlier). The rain protection is not as good as on an ST - but it is waaaay better than you might imagine. I rode nearly 500 km in solid rain all day on Wednesday and only cuffs of my pants got wet. Passing on highways is easy and I seldom downshift as the BMW has good torque at moderate speeds.

BTW - BMW never made a proper top-box for the RS bikes back then and the stock tail rack is sort of ridiculously tiny, so luggage capacity is pretty limited by modern standards. Soooo, I found a reasonable top-box at a cycle wrecking yard for about $30 off a 1983 <I think> Honda GL1100. It fits on the stock mini-rack on the dual seat and one of my students 3D printed the mounting brackets for me. I only use it for my rain suit and some bungees and as a place to stow my jacket when I go into a restaurant etc. - and it works fine. I even managed to get a set of keys made for the original Honda locks and the thing seals up dry as a bone in the rain.

Pete

BMW_Honda - top box LS rear view.jpg

WKRMC-Aug-21-02.jpg
Click to expand...
Why did you put that gross blue n white n black sticker onto a perfectly beautiful Honda top box? LOL
 
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