Mistaken for BMW

Great story, Norm. My story isn't half as good but may still be worth a read.

I was wearing a BMW Motorcycles hat and a lady in the grocery store said, "That's funny." Excuse me, what's funny? "Your hat." Why is my hat funny? "BMW doesn't make motorcycles." Actually they've been making motorcycles longer than cars.

I showed her a picture on my phone and zoomed in on the roundel. She was genuinely surprised and thanked me for teaching her something new.

Bones said:

Great story, Norm. My story isn't half as good but may still be worth a read.

I was wearing a BMW Motorcycles hat and a lady in the grocery store said, "That's funny." Excuse me, what's funny? "Your hat." Why is my hat funny? "BMW doesn't make motorcycles." Actually they've been making motorcycles longer than cars.

I showed her a picture on my phone and zoomed in on the roundel. She was genuinely surprised and thanked me for teaching her something new.

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This will happen fairly often to you if your experience is like mine was but usually it was from someone in a BMW car at a traffic light or in a parking lot.

I had the same thing happen in London Ontario, I was in front of the Chapters bookstore across from Masonville and there was a brand new 100th anniversary edition pulling in at the same time as me so we both parked next to the sidewalk and had a short conversation. While we where talking this 30 to 40 year old guy comes up to us and says when did BMW start building motorcycles we said well this is the 100th year anniversary edition so I guess 100 years ago. I don't think he believed us.

Gerhard

1923 for motorcycles (R32)
1928 for autos (Dixi)

Not quite 100 years yet, at least for in house designs. What does the 100th year celebrate?

Edit: never mind, 2016 marks the first reorganization under the name.

100 years of business. They started as an aircraft engine manufacturer, hence the badge that looks like a spinning propeller.

'98PanAm said:

A few people have mistaken my badgeless ST11 for a BMW, which I can somewhat understand if you weren't overly familiar with sport touring bikes as it does look European (PAN European, to be exact), but the few times people asked me how I liked my Goldwing really confused me. Sure it has hard bags, but that doesn't make it a 'Wing, and I don't see how anyone could confuse the two.

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Maybe the colour? The front head lights? Other than that they are a long way apart or maybe someone just really doesn't know bikes.

Layman's guide to motorcycle identification:

If it has two wheels, a fairing, loads of plastic, color-matched bags, sits up relatively high, and looks sleek = "BMW"
If it has two wheels, a fairing, loads of plastic, no bags, looks sleek, and rider leans forward = "generic motorcycle"
If it has two wheels, sits low, is awash in chrome, and deafens people five blocks away = "Harley"
If it has two wheels, has ape-hanger handlebars and deafens people five blocks away = "Harley"
If it has two wheels, has extended front fork and deafens people five blocks away = "Harley"
Anything else = "What motorcycle? I didn't see it"


Gold Wing is a model, not a brand? Really? I never knew that. Now that you've told me I'll assume you are pulling my leg. That's just absurd and can't be true.

Honda makes motorcycles?
What's a Suzuki? I thought that was how kids learned to play the violin?
Yamaha? They make pianos and guitars, not motorcycles???
Kawasaki? You mean Cowabunga don't you?
Indian? Huh?
Moto Guzzi? Huh?
Triumph? Didn't they used to make sporty cars?

Kind of a late reply, but I don't drop in very often. The usual question I get about my ST-1300 is, "What is that?"

Where do you guys get your red and white HMW badges?

I know I could spend all day finding out if there is a current source of the HMW round 'stickers' . . . But I shall be lazy and ask on this thread to see if anyone could help me find one for my 2005 ST1300 . . . Thanks!!

It did happen to me once somewhere off in Iowa, old farmer/mechanic "that a BMW? No Sir, it's a Honda... "nice looking bike though" all I could do was smile and say thank you! lol

A guy that my friend sometimes ask to tag alone when we ride, always ask how do you like your BMW. I now have stopped correcting him and just say I love it. I need some of HMW badges so I can confuse him even more.

I had the opposite once. Musta have been '78 or '79 and a guy at a rural gas stop asked me if my BMW R75/5 was one of those new Honda Gold Wings. I told him no... it was a BMW. His reply was something like "Well, the Gold Wing has the engine coming out the side too."

About 20 years ago, I was tooling along at the legal limit, and saw the blue lights in my rearviews. I was riding my pristine '71 BMW R75/5,and enjoying the day- 'til then!

It was a Georgia State Patrolman, and I stopped, dismounted, and took my helmet off, and started to look for documents. He walked up and said " I just stopped you to see what you were riding...I've never seen a BMW bike before!"

Relief washed over me, my BP went back to normal, and we talked for a few minutes before we both went on our ways....

My Pacific Coast used to be mistaken for a BMW.
My ST1300 used to be mistaken for a BMW.
Now my BMW confuses people who didn't know BMW made motorcycles.
(And my Kawasaki is often misidentified as a Ducati.)

TPadden said:

Then there was that time I was riding in my Jetta with the "My other vehicle" BMW plate and Katie Holmes pulled up next to me at a stop light and asked: "Tom is that you?"

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Tom, Tom, Tom ...

thats how I describe mine..... it's a Japanese BMW

My first bike was a '73 CB500 that one of the previous owners had tried to make into a chopper. I had put the right forks back on and added a Vetter fairing but hadn't yet changed the shorty (and very loud) pipes back to original.
One day I was at a friends house and some guy stopped by and said, "nice Norton."

lectricmojo said:

thats how I describe mine..... it's a Japanese BMW

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I was at a bike night two years ago and parked next to the "Honda" tent. I think the dealer was new to the business, claimed he'd never seen a ST before and thought a Beemer was encroaching on his display space...

Is that like when I was in high school I would ask my friends if saw my Porsche. It's the one disguised as a Gremlin. Yeah I know, I had a Gremlin. What a car. Trams Am red with white stripe.