BMW Airheads

This entry is part 14 of 26 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #4

BMWAirheads

Collecting and restoring bikes is nothing unusual. An obsession for BMWs is very common. But a passion for air-cooled BMWs, and a burning desire for perfection that leads to the manufacture of parts and accessories…that’s some serious commitment.

Gazing wistfully at John Olive’s collection of BMWs, it’s hard not to think about the careful hours of painstaking preparation and build time that must’ve gone into each one.

And there are nine of them.

John, 57, first discovered BMWs when he was in the Army in the 1970s and one of the sergeants had an R90S.

“It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen in my life,” remembered John, looking back through time. “It was Daytona orange, and it was a breakthrough bike at the time.”

But as a young soldier John found BMW ownership a little beyond his financial tolerances.

That situation lasted a while, and John blasted about the place on a Honda XL350, a bike within his budget.

Life moved on, and so did John.

His time in the Army over, he became a property valuer, and he must be good at it, because he found himself in a position to get back into bikes, and as he’d – in his own words – “made a bit of money”, he gravitated toward the BMWs after a flirtation with big Suzuki sports bikes.

“I just found the air-cooled BMW ‘airheads’ presented a bit more character,” smiled John, staring affectionately at an immaculate R100CS Heinrich Tank Special which had won Best BMW and second in class for European Over 750cc at the 2013 Laverda Concourse.

Some might say ‘character’ was a polite way of putting it, but John has some big distances under those wheels these days, and no-one looking at the bikes could doubt the care he’s taken with them. Two of them have won the Laverda Concourse after all.

And as a clincher, John’s not a one-eyed Old School fanatic. Sitting right, smack-dab in the middle of his line-up is a 2007 GSA.

There’s a bit of a selection in the garage, but they’re all ridden regularly, no matter how many awards they win.

Dust busters

The bikes look immaculate, but John’s quick to point out that they’re all ridden – dust, distance, dirt and all. None of them are kept in cotton wool as showpieces.

“I like going to rallies,” thumped John. “Things like the Ruptured Budgie Rally, and the Karuah River Rally.

“The Off Centre Runs are some of my favourites, heading out to Innamincka and up into the Gulf. I plan to do the OCR into the northern Kimberley this year.

“So long distance, interstate, secondary roads, keeping away from highways and keeping away from traffic. Rallies with a few mates, country pubs, not too much single-track stuff, but I enjoy dirt roads as long as there’s not too much deep sand.”

And which one will John take to the Kimberley?

“The ’91 R100GS. I built it particularly for that run. It has twin-plugged ignition, my own Red Centre ignition system, custom starter and so forth. It’s a lot lighter than my Paris Dakars or certainly the GSA1200. A bike to go to the OCR is one you have to be able to pick up on your own.”

The BMW airheads Facebook page has over 1300 members swapping stories and information.

Airheads

Not content with just his enjoyment of the air-cooled Beemers, John set about forming of community of like-minded riders. The BMW Airheads Facebook page was born, and that took a little time to get going.

“About 18 months ago I was riding around with a group of guys on airhead motorcycles,” John remembered, “and we were communicating by e-mail.

That’s just so clunky. No-one else can see your e-mails, and you’re sending group e-mails out to people who get them at work and their boss gets the shits with that. I was resisting Facebook, because we all thought at the time it was for teenagers.

“But once I had a good look at it, I decided it was an ideal platform for communication. Twelve months later we have 1300 members and friends all over the world. At any time of the day or night you can get on that site and talk to people. A lot of very technical advice is given on that site by some very expert people.

“To me it’s a virtual campfire. It’s like a dozen blokes around a campfire at a rally having a few beers and exchanging stories and information, but this is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. There’s always someone there to talk to.”

The R100CS with a 43-litre Heinrich tank. Winner of Best BMW and second in class for European Over 750cc at the 2013 Laverda Concourse.

Pick of the crop

So which of his beautifully turned out bikes does John like most?

“It’d have to be the one I’ve just completed, the R100 with the 43-litre Heinrich tank. Every nut and bolt has been assembled just the way I wanted it. It was built in partnership with Ray Peake here in Brisbane, and that bike, front to back, is just the way I wanted it.”

And where does the GSA fit in?

“It’s my long-distance, interstate express,” glowed John. “It’s a bike you can jump on and tear down to Phillip Island for the races and be happy to do 1200km per day. The airheads take a little bit more riding and involvement, but the GSA is huge and will carry everything you need to camp out for a week and still not be affected by sidewinds. It’s a rhinoceros of a bike!”

We had to ask: what’s been your least favourite BMW ever?

“I owned a 1990 K1,” John reminisced. “That’s the four-cylinder, liquid-cooled one with the space-age fairing. It was so hot that when you were riding in the traffic and the fan kicked in, it’d give you third-degree burns on the shins.”

And your absolute favourite?

John looked lovingly down at his R100CS, and misty-eyed, said, “I built it.”

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