In September of 1974, a young lady took a bus more than 400 miles from Northern Ontario to Toronto, and bought a 1975 BMW R60/6 she named Bianca, “a Spanish name for a German lady.” This was her second motorcycle. The first was a Honda 350 she rode for less than a year. After 230 miles on the way home, she had to spend the night in Liskeard, as the clutch was so hard to pull her hand couldn’t do it any longer.
In September of ’82, she flew to Australia, and took advantage of being able to “pack” the bike as oversize baggage for a dollar a pound over the standard limit. A mechanic friend had fitted a deep oil pan for extra cooling and double-plugged the heads before she left. Eleven months and 18,000 miles later, having crossed the outback on dirt tracks before adventure bikes were a category, she and the bike came home — with a faint reddish tint of Australian dust still in the crevices that’s never fully cleaned out.
Bianca also went to the Mexican border, to both US coasts multiple times, and up into the Yukon and Alaska. It carried Craven luggage and a top box on the Australia trip, briefly wore a small windscreen before it was ditched, and — through a string of shops, mechanic friends, and the lady’s own hands — accumulated a long list of small mechanical scars and fixes, each with its own story. Bianca has changed color 4 times. Originally Curry red, it was then Silver, Black Cherry, and finally creamy white with pinstripes.
She learned to wrench out of necessity, rarely living near a BMW dealer, and became a self-described tinkerer who eventually restored a string of neglected BMWs back to life, starting with a 1973 /5 she found languishing in a garage in 2000. She taught motorcycle safety courses for 17 years, wrote for the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group newsletter for years and later for a BMW owners’ magazine, and — in a detail that says as much about her as anything — converted a spare R100RT into a sidecar rig specifically so her German Shepherd, Cassie, could join her on a five-week, 8,000-mile tour out west and back.
When I found it on the MOA Marketplace, the title had been transferred to her American husband’s name so that it could be imported and registered in New York, and the rest is yet to come.
She has retained a 1981 R80 G/S and a 2017 R1200GS.
Known Modifications & Mechanical Notes (from the owner)
- Exhaust: Full system converted to stainless steel over the years — “a bit throatier than original, not objectionably loud”
- Clutch: A pulley was added in front of the actuating arm to lighten the notoriously heavy clutch pull; easily reversible (visible underneath on the right side)
- Battery ground: Relocated from the transmission breather bolt (a bolt prone to stripped threads) to the frame under the front of the seat
- Seat latch: Modified to lift straight up on a single pin instead of the original hinge; original hinges are included if I want to restore it (needs 6 filister-head short bolts and 2 C-clips) – she grew weary of removing the right side bag to open the seat.
- Rear shocks: Non-original; the correct adjustment wrench is in the toolkit
- Front wheel bearing: Replaced about 5 years ago
- Cylinder heads:
Some years later, I had the bike into a “certified” BMW mechanic for a general tune up. To my chagrin, he managed to cross thread one of the bottom spark plugs which I discovered when it blew out on the highway! I managed to find the plug, wrapped it in muffler tape and jammed it back in the hole. In this manner we limped the 30 miles into Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. A helicoil was summarily installed to get us through the season. The following year, the double plugging was removed and I changed out the head with the helicoil. The other side still has a 10mm x14 plug in the bottom.
- Battery: Relatively new, kept on a tender when not in use; since the bike runs no electronics, voltage holds well
- Front brake light switch: Currently not functioning correctly worth having looked at
- Reliability: Per the lady, the bike has never left her stranded in 50-plus years — only two flat tires in that entire span, both of which happened while parked in her own driveway
So, that’s pretty much the story. I’ve found some of her articles online, and a short biography on FB that she wrote for her local club/org. She had really planned to keep Bianca forever, but felt like it was time, as she was no longer riding it much.
More to come when Bianca makes it to her new home, far away from where she started, but may actually have visited here sometime in the past.