On the vast open spaces of the highways and national parks of the Southwest, Harley-Davidsons roam in vast herds, Honda Gold Wings travel in substantial numbers, and classic BMWs are as rare as the omnipresent German tourists are common. This lone R100R from the final 1991-95 nostalgia edition of the generation that debuted in 1970, well equipped for long distance touring, was spotted by itself at the entrance of Arches National Park in Utah. It is like a living tribute to the classic BMW Type 247 flat twins that lasted for a quarter of a century and established BMW as a leading power in motorcycles in the United States.
The R100R was a fitting end to the 1970-95 generation of BMW flat twins, with the classic engine and frame and moderate modernization around them. In an era when BMW was devoting its resources to new designs with the water-cooled inline four and three cylinder engines introduced in the 1980s and a new generation of oil-cooled flat twins, with fuel injection, antilock brakes, and other new technology, the R100R used the air-cooled boxer engine with its familiar Bing carburetors and the Norton Featherbed-based frame that both dated back to 1970. The engine now had a 2-into-1 exhaust instead of the previous twin pipes, and the rear suspension used the Paralever parallelogram linkage intended to cancel torque effects from BMW’s traditional shaft drive, introduced on the 1988 R100GS dual-sport bike. BMW produced 20,898 R100Rs from 1991 to 1995, and they became instant collectibles. Since then they have also become a popular platform for custom café racers, being the most modern of the 1970-95 air-cooled boxers.
This one is well equipped for long distance touring with a BMW R90S-style fairing with high windshield, BMW saddlebags, Givi top case, Brown sidestand, and Airhawk cushion over its original seat. Its rider has a widely coveted classic and is using it exactly as it was supposed to be used, over 20 years after it was new.
That is a great find of what is in my opinion the last really reliable BMW engine. I could park that in the garage… 🙂
I never gave BMW motorcycles or cars much thought until a friend rebuilt his R75 at home, mostly in the living room. I considered the “idea” embodied by these R series bikes to be what I thought a great motorcycle should be, but bought the Japanese interpretation instead, a Yamaha Seca. Like this R100, it had a big gas tank, comfortable seat, perfect ergonomics, and shaft drive. Unlike this R100, it had standard UJM suspension bits meaning that when you REALLY got on the gas there was a slight lift/jacking effect.
Once rode my bike 670 miles in 24 hours.
Nice, the fairing is a bit goofy looking but who cares, you rode to Arches!
When we were there a few years ago that was another “yup, here I am driving a rental car when I should be driving a motorcycle” moment.
Still plotting a fall motorcycle trip on the Concours C10. Unfortunately not to Arches.
Truly wonderful bikes, I still have very fond memories of the R90/6 I had many decades ago. Once you got used to the “up and to the right” driveline snatch when you cracked the throttle, you had a wonderful motorcycle ready to take you bloody well anywhere, as long as the road was paved.
The owners, on the other hand, were a rather, er, “interesting” experience. In the four years that I was the parts manager and service writer for Moto Europa/Ducati Richmond (which started out as a BMW airhead restoration shop before they got the Ducati franchise); I learned that vintage BMW owners may wax rapsodic on the virtues of a classic BMW . . . . . . . . but in reality they were some of the cheapest bastards around. Most of their loyalty to airheads and early bricks was because, by the early 2000’s, those bikes were the cheapest motorcycles that you could buy that would reliably take you across the USA. And if they did break down, they were the one brand that you were guaranteed that parts were still being made.
OK, yes you could make the same claim for any Harley Davidson as long as it was no older than a Knucklehead, but the BMW’s were getting genuine factory parts, not aftermarket like the old Harley’s.
And the Richmond area BMW owners would fight you for the last freaking nickle. Granted, the brick (K75 and K100) owners were worse than the airhead owners, but that was helped by being able to buy a used K-series bike for half the money of an R-series.
They were truly the bane of my tenure at Ducati Richmond. Despite my owning a K75C at the time, and being part of the club.
And yes, I’d still love to have one more airhead.
I think your experience may be mostly working in a bike shop, not just the BMW crowd. In my travels I find riders who wrench their own bikes to be delightful company, the others not always so much.
There’s a definite link to ZAMM here, John didn’t fix his BMW and the author knew his Honda Super Hawk inside and out.
Too bad you couldn’t assign reading to your customers, ZAMM, the Muir VW book and Shop Class as Soul Craft will help any rider become a better person.
Nice old AirHead .
I rode Beemers for decades , /2 and /5 series .
Now I ride the goofy but fun Ural boxer twins , still lots of fun and not too slow .
-Nate