I'll put in a good word for BMWs here. I have been riding since I was in college and have always had a BMW once I got my first one. Before that, I had a BSA, an Indian with a lot of Harley parts (tank shifting / suicide clutch and all) and a Vespa. I was still in college when I bought my first BMW, an R-26. I drove it from Spain to Asia Minor - with a passenger and a year's worth of camping equipment for the two of us. THis 250 cc bike performed like a sweatheart. My only problem the entire trip was a flat tire and I put some prett awful gas into that bike. However, I took good care of it with oil changes, oil filter cleanings (yes, cleanings) and other routine maintenance. In Sweden I had the engine disassembled because I expected that there was a lot of carbon buildup due to the bad fuel in places like Yugoslavia and Turkey. THe engine was clean!

I eventually got a 600CC machine which was the first one I took across the US, again with two aboard. Tha time, the only problem was a broken luggage rack that I got welded in a small town in Kansas.

In my other trips, I have never ever been stranded by my bikes. I have commuted to work with them through Massachusetts winters, riddent hem at 10,00 feet above seal level and to Badwater, the lowest point int he US when the temperature was 110 in the non-existent shade.

I'll admit that BMWs are not exciting machines, at least the generation of bikes I am talking about, but they are absolutely wonderful if you want a comfortable, well designed, reliable piece of equipment. A friend of mine who races said dismissively of my BMW passion, "they don't go fast enough to give you a good cold". On the other hand, a friend of mine who rides BMWs told me tha the has a stock line when a brightly painted Ninjoid pulls up alongside him at a stoplight and offers, semi-humorously, to drag him ofr a beer or for five bucks. He says, "I'll race ou but I have something a little more exciting in mind. How about going to Mexico City for $10,000 - leaving immediately?" He knows that his bike is always ready for a long steady haul whereas these high performance and admittedly more exciting bikes need constant care. He has no doubt he would win. Of course he has never found a taker.

My bike, an 800cc R-80 RT is 18 years old and now is approaching 100K. A wonderful advantage of an old but reliable bike is that it really does become an old friend. I have had two other BMWs that I oput more than 70K on and several other bikes that I never counted the miles when I sold them. Right around the time I got this bike, I bought my first car so I never had to use it as a commute vehicle which is a good thing for both of us. We have done so many miles together. We know each others foibles and I think we have taken good care of each other except for once when Ilet my attention wander in an intersection and hit the side of a car but we survived even that. It made this last trip across the US without any problems except for a leaking fuel line that was fixed with new hose and some clamps from a local NAPA store.

In summary, BMWs are great machines for people who want to get on a bike and ride.