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  • Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

    BEEM ME UP

    May 13, 2018 5 minutes
    WORDS: STEVE COOPER PHOTOS: GARY D CHAPMAN

    It’s early 1974 and I’m hooning around on a Yamaha RD200 trying to look grown-up, much more than my meagre 17 years.

    We’re outside drinking at the local, when two BMWs pull up. This is a rare event due to their cost and the rampant inflation of the period. Even rarer are the riders who are both only mid to late 20s but there’s a twist here; both bikes are the latest R90 S models. These are BMW’s new flagships and ostensibly unlike any Beemer before them. Built with sports bikini fairings and tricked out in factory smoked paint they appear to be the complete and utter antithesis of every boxer twin before them. Fast forward to today and I finally get to ride a big boxer twin.

    Our test bike has been provided by Karl Chadwick who has something

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