See… MOTORCYCLES DO TALK!

I AM A BMW MOTORCYCLE. My designation is R26. I have a 247cc single cylinder; pushrod operated four stroke engine which is coupled to a four-speed gearbox, sending 15 horses of power to the back wheel via a drive shaft.

I was assembled on the 29th May 1956 and on that same day delivered to the BMW dealer Fendler & Lüdemann in Hamburg. Sometime later I clearly remember being boxed then lifted and placed in a ship’s cargo hold and shipped to a faraway land called Australia or as it is affectional known, Down Under.

It was here so far away from home that my life story began.

A short time after landing in the Australian state of Victoria I was purchased by a farmer. I was used to round up livestock out on a farm in the Geelong district. Definitely not what one can say are glamorous duties. Other chores, mostly on the weekend were to ferry around anyone who felt brave riding dirt tracks. I shuddered seeing feet encased in what are called thongs, stomping my gear lever, crunching my gears, throttle harshly yanked doing its best to feed more fuel, urging my horses to gallop harder. What was far worse than this type of treatment was the lack of a side stand. This meant that due to uneven ground I spent more time leaning against a fence post, a tree or unceremoniously spending time on my side. I know this for a fact as one can still see battery acid burn marks on my once shiny exhaust pipe. At times when the weather was at its worst I was fortunate enough to be placed under cover alongside other farm machinery.

I felt my life ended when one unforgettable day I was ridden into a tree stump. That did wonders to my front end. The shock was severe enough to rattle the steering stem bearings. The farmer planned to fix the damage but went about it the wrong way. He did at one stage partially disassemble my front end with plans of replacing the loose steering