The Adorable ‘Flying Brick’

IT WAS WHEN THE BMW HIT TOP GEAR THAT THE memories came flooding back. Until that moment, admiring the gleaming condition of this unrestored K100RS had done little to make me recall riding one decades ago; nor had trickling through traffic at the start of my test ride. But when I got on to a main road, accelerated through the box into fifth and settled into a steady 140-km/h cruise, I was suddenly transported back to 1984.

Back then I’d been involved in a five-bike shootout on the Isle of Man, pitting the new K100RS against Japanese competition in the shape of Honda’s VF1000F, Yamaha’s FJ1100, and Kawasaki’s GPZ900R. The softly tuned, softly suspended BMW had been outclassed by its harder and faster Japanese opposition on the demanding Mountain Circuit.

But as this immaculate navy-and-white BMW wafted effortlessly along the dual-carriageway, I remembered how capable and comfortable that original RS had been at a less frantic pace. In particular, I recalled the trip