Some of you may have seen a few of my old posts in search of my Dad’s old R100S.
Well, after 18+ months of searching, including a lot of help from Ross C and BMW club members Australia-wide, I had to concede that I may not have all the time in the world to keep looking, and I’d already missed the intended 80th birthday reunion.
So I started looking for other R100 options.
Enter Mike Firth, who I initially contacted to see if he was available to do any restoration work on candidates that may have been suitable substitutes for Dad’s bike.
At that time, I had just missed out on one of Mike’s previous schmick R100S builds.
We kept a chat going for a while, with a few bikes coming on the scene, but nothing was ticking the right boxes.
Then, one day I got a call from Mike to let me know that another one of his past builds was coming up for sale from an Eastern-states owner, and Mike gave me a number to call.
Within a few days, as deal was done on a stunning R100CS.
I promptly got it shipped back to WA, but in a case of bad timing, I got snowed under with working away, which put the licensing process on hold.
Then dad decided to do a solo lap of Tasmania in a camper van
, and I had a few more delays.Eventually I got it registered, swapped out the bar-end mirrors, adjusted the valve clearances, and it was purring, ready for the big reveal.
Fast forward to today, and I had the old boy organised to give me a hand putting up a few imaginary brackets in my storage container.
He turns up, and whilst perusing a few classic cars in the storage facility, we spot a motorcycle under a cover.
I lift up the cover…. “Sh!t, it’s an airhead !”, I said.
Dad commented, “jeez, imagine if it was my old bike”… but the colour and build year soon dismissed that possibility.
After a few “oohs and ahhs” of him appreciating the pristine condition of the bike, I dangled the keys and said, “well, why don’t you take it for a ride ?”
After a dumbfounded look and a couple of moments of confusion, with me pointing to a helmet and jacket off to the side, the penny dropped.
He realised I was Dinkum, and didn’t hesitate one bit.
We kitted up, and he followed me out on his first ride since the days of his last BMWMCCWA rides, Black-Duck Rallies and Broome ride close-on 40 years ago.
The intercom was filled with a fair bit of heavy breathing for the first few seconds as his shock and nerves dissipated
, but he was soon riding like a champ and we made our way up to Bindoon for a Pie lunch.First ever Father - Son Ride
Me on my R18, and dad on the R100CS……
yeah, apparently I drew the short straw.
It was a ripper day for it, and the occasion probably put a bit of extra lead in the old boy’s pencil !
I didn’t quite make his 80th birthday with a fairytale ending on his original R100S, but still a great day on a bloody nice substitute.
A big thanks to Mike for the help in finding a bike.
I’m sure he’s pleased to see it back in WA.
Thanks also to Ross C, who made some big efforts behind the scenes to try and find dad’s original bike.
The search will continue, but hopefully there’s plenty of rides to do in the meantime.
I’ve attached a few pics, including a few mid-rebuild pics from Mike.
