Jack Rohrs remembers the moment he knew he had to own a BMW motorcycle. It was in the 1960s, and he was riding home from the Laconia racetrack in New Hampshire on his Triumph.
“It was vibrating so much, it was taking the screws out of my eyeglasses,” said Rohrs, 82, with a laugh. “A guy went by me on a BMW with tooled leather saddle bags; he looked so comfortable he could have been smoking a pipe.”
He now owns several BMWs. His greatest find was 22 years ago, when a hunter told him about an old bike in a barn not far from Rohrs’ home in Putnam Valley.
He put a note in the mailbox, but it turned out to be the wrong one. “Several weeks later, a man responded, saying he didn’t have a motorcycle. But he said the girl next door used to have an old Honda or something.”
The bike turned out to be a 1961 BMW R60, in good condition. A Connecticut dealer went over the motor at Rohrs’ request and found no problems, other than it hadn’t been started in a long time. “The carburetors needed cleaning, the valves needed adjustment and it needed tires,” Rohrs said. “But it wasn’t beat up, and I was happy with that.”
He had the bike painted in a fresh coat of BMW’s trademark black and added a small rack to the back. “I’ve worked hard to get it set up right,” Rohrs said. “I can pretty much take my hands off and it doesn’t veer left or right.” Asked what he’d change, he said, “It needs a new seat.”
He doesn’t take the bike much past 60 mph but “they’re so smooth,” Rohrs said. “Years ago they used to say BMWs don’t win the races, but they finish; when they were allowed to use superchargers, they won races for years.”
The Specs
Assembly: Munich
Production Years: 1956-69
Total Production: 20,133
Engine: 594 cc, 2-cylinder Boxer OHV
Cooling system: Air
Horsepower: 28-30
Gear box: Manual 4-speed, foot shifter
Carburetors: Twin Bing
Starter: Kick
Curb weight: 437 pounds
Top Speed: 90 mph
0-60 mph: 8.3 seconds
Quarter mile: 16.6 seconds
Fuel economy: 58 mpg
1961 Price: $1,131 (about $12,000 today)
He describes his ’61 as a fun ride. He bought the sidecar from a farmer in the Finger Lakes. Like the bike, it had sat in a barn for years. “It’s a Globe, a BMW knockoff,” he said. “I restored it and made brackets.”
His wife is a frequent passenger, and it’s also ferried a celebrity. Ten years ago, Rohrs was riding near Lake Oscawana and pulled up beside a woman walking along the road. “I said, ‘Hop in sweetheart. I’ll give you a ride,’ ” he recalled. “I didn’t know her from Adam.”
The woman liked the sidecar. “She hopped right in,” Rohrs said. It was Ruth Westheimer, the sex therapist who died last year at age 96.
Though the odometer reads 45,000 miles, the farthest Rohrs has taken the bike is Rhinebeck, including to a BMW rally there that included a sidecar parade. Replacement parts have been easy to find, he said, and being a member emeritus of the Finger Lakes BMW Motorcycle Club provides valuable contacts.
