Trailer Queens or Fun Machines?

What do you want a motorcycle for? Do you want a restored "trailer queen" that only takes short cruises down parade routes or do you want a cool old bike that you can really ride? I found this picture of "the three amigos" on the web and thought, "there's the reason I want a sidecar outfit. I want a cool bike, but I want to go places!

When I was in China I was very intrigued by all of the Chang Jiang sidecar outfits. I heard from somewhere that most of these restored PLO (People's Liberation Army) hacks are purchased by ex-patriots (foreigners living in China). Here's a little rig parked outside of a 3-self church in Shang Hai...maybe it was the pastors!

It lacks the "cool" look of the old sidecars, but it definitely was in use as a practical and inexpensive means of transportation. I much prefer the restored army rigs. This (below) is a picture of one of the companies in Beijing that restores and ships these little rigs. Although from what I've heard, it is safer to buy them from the Stateside importers because they have taken care of the paperwork...but that you would have to check for yourself.

"Practical-vintage" is what I like. I like cool bikes that actually go somewhere. I bought the movie "Burro has three wheels" about the guy who heads out from Portland, Oregon in a new Ural sidecar. He winds up making it all the way down to the tip of South America. Now that's ambitious. His rig was a new Ural, but any vehicle would be "tested" on a trip that long. Most of us don't have the time or the money to accomplish such a trip, so my concern was to have a bike that will make a 300 mile loop without breaking down. South America is not in my plan, but Canada might be.

The Chang Jiang, the Dnepers and the Urals are all BMW copies of the bikes they all "borrowed" from the Germans during and after World War II. They've done an excellent job at copying them and have provided us all an opportunity to buy a cool looking bike for a low price that with normal maintenance and tinkering can accomplish some smaller trips. I wanted a distance bike though, that could go over 55 m.p.h. that didn't require constant tinkering. So I chose the real McCoy...a BMW. Generally, they can be had for about the same price, depending on the deal you strike.

I'm not being critical of these other bikes, but I would prefer to make cosmetic repairs than mechanical ones along side the road. And the BMW has proven itself to be a reliable motorcycle with a sufficient amount of cool to go with it. So that is what I bought. I've put about 4-5 thousand miles on the bike and my theory has held so far.

Once I established that I didn't want a trailer queen, but a clean, cool bike that starts conversations as well as starts when the button is pushed, I sat down to consider how I wanted to paint it. There's a lot of metal to cover, so the traditional means of auto painting could cost a little more than I wanted to spend. Do I want to do any modifications to the bike before I paint? Do I want to do some trim colors? Do I want to match the upholstery of the car to the bike and tie them together better? I had to make up a plan.

I drew out a picture of the bike based on a photo. Then I photocopied that sheet so I had several "blank" line drawings. I then proceeded to color different paint schemes with my kid's color pencils (they don't use them any more, but I saved them) to get some ideas. I ransacked classic bike magazines for cool colors and patterns as well trying to stay in the spirit of BMW styling yet wanting to add a little personal character to it as well. This is not restoring the bike, it is "spiffing" it up.

I started thinking about doing something that was very sacrilegious though. I shared my thoughts with a few BMW enthusiasts and they looked at me as if I had just sung the Star Spangled Banner like Rosanne Barr. I had committed motorcycle sin by even suggesting what I had in mind. I thought that a practical bike that doesn't require a heavy investment of cash might look just fine with a few body modifications and a paint job done with spray cans! Well let's just see what happens next.