[Aditya]

Thanks to Adil Daver for sending this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

Guru and his passion:

One day in December 1978, a disciple of Yoga Guru Bikram Choudhury based in Los Angeles, California gifted him a hot beamer.

Although the Guru was an avid collector of classic cars, he wasn’t aware of how to ride motorcycles.

The irony was that the beamer stood under the staircase of his house at his native Kolkata as a mere showpiece and was not lucky enough to get his touch. As a result, the motorcycle remained stored, never to be touched.

My powerful and calm persistence:

The beamer stayed there as a collector’s edition. As my family was based in Kolkata, I used to often visit the Guru’s place to take a glimpse of the rare classic.

No matter what, when I saw the bike for the first time during my college days, my objective was to get hold of this classic 1978 Beamer. But the Guru had other plans as he never wanted to part with the royal classic.

I was thinking, “how many days will he keep his classic with himself?” My calm persistence stayed stronger than his ideology of not parting with his classic.

The important milestone in my life had arrived. Well, to no one’s surprise, on January 1, 2012, he called to wish me a Happy New Year.

How about the sharp tint on the fuel tank?

Further, the correspondence had a lot of importance, as he said to me that if I wished to collect the bike, I was welcome to do so. There won’t be any negotiations on the price. Do you think I would have missed this golden opportunity?

My happiness knew no bounds when the 1978 classic was with me. After all, I wanted this to happen.

The Beamer has its own aura. The fact that it was not touched for multiple decades, made me plan to resurrect it and slowly I started taking action.

I took most of the cosmetic components like the fairing, tail lamp, indicators and headlamps with me on my flights from Kolkata.

The next step was to bring the classic from Kolkata to Pune. That eventually I managed to do se on a truck.

With 675 miles on the odo, she was as clean as a whistle. All she needed was a fresh carburettor kit, new brake lines, brake pads, brake bleeding, oil changes in the engine, differential, gearbox, a new battery and Rock n Rolla, she was ready to fire!

Oh yes, we too would like to do a photo session with the mermaid!

Beauty:

After decades, she still remains a sought after mermaid and one glance at her will make you fall in love with her. There’s no doubt that a classic stays a classic.

Thus I live by the thought of a smart gentleman, “We can never own a classic automobile since these beauties most of the time outlive our lifetime. A caretaker is a befitting description of what we truly are to these fundamental works of art of history.”

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line.

[moralfibre]

Happened to get some pictures of the bike from VCCCI's Pune rally in Feb'20. Nicely preserved bike. I remember it was up for sale as well.

[V.Narayan]

Lovely machines. In the early 1980s a friend of mine, from Bombay, now deceased had a similar BMW bike of roughly the same vintage. Perfectly maintained. Needless to say he was a Parsi :-) ... who else will love his bike more than his wife. It had a full motorcycle screen in front. He used to do the Bombay-Pune run at nutty speeds and insisted that at 100 kmph he could smoke on the bike and still need to flick his cigarette -- implying that's how smooth and steady this bike was. At the time my steed was a trusty well worn second-hand Lambretta and this bike looked so modern as if to be from outer space. His wife, my colleague used to ride the bike too. In the India of the early 1980s that was a sight that would cause the traffic to stop mind you.

[utkarshshukla92]

This is so beautiful. I love these kinds of stories where a vintage beauty was bought to India, left untouched, and then bought back to life years after.

Also, what happened to the beautiful fairing that we see in the first few pictures? I feel that fairing adds a lot more character to an already beautiful machine.

Wishing you loads of happy miles with it.

[Haroon]

What a wonderful restoration(if we can call that to an almost unused classic). Thanks for sharing the wonderful story and pictures.
Watching that boxer rolling on the road I am sure will be a heavenly feeling. The BMW bikes from that era were made to outlast anything and everything on this planet!

Few years back I had an opportunity to buy a classic 1980 BMW R100 with barely 1000kms on its odo for next to nothing but sadly had to give it a miss as no way to import it to India being older than 15 years.

I always wonder how many classic/vintage BMW motorbikes and older Harley bikes still in use are there in India. Maybe we could have 2 dedicated threads for these spotings in India, where we all could get to see them.....maybe pre-1990 models

[Mr.Perera]

Thank a lot for these wonderful photos ! I am literally drooling over them ! Such a piece of art and beauty.

[nitrogary]

Such a beautiful bike! Old BMW airheads have their own charm. I am sure it must be fun to ride even today.

The Krauser pannier bags are special indeed and I am a sucker for them! I know it doesn't really compare, but I love the vario panniers on my GS.


My respect and love for the BMW R bikes is since childhood. There were a couple of these old 1970s BMWs that I used to regularly see in Pune. One was a R90s which belonged to Cyrus Satarawala which used to be a regular at the vintage car rallies of the past.
Another one - R65 is owned by an elderly gentleman who also has a 1941 R12 and recently picked up an R1200R. Whenever I see a BMW boxer, it makes me so happy!