Around OZ by BMW, in 1963.
Horst Kopp relates the tale of an epic ride more than half a century ago.
I did the trip with my 1961 R 69 S. I purchased it for £1400 in the days before decimal currency came in and, in five years, I was beaten only once off the traffic lights by a Vincent Black Shadow. The BMW was a police demonstrator and far more powerful than my “new” 1966 BMW. On this trip, I travelled 9,500 miles (15,200 km) in five weeks and I know of only one other similar motorbike trip before my time. That one used a 1929 Indian with a sidecar and the roads were, then, in far worse condition than in 1963. I modified the exhausts, using cut-down Triumph pipes with eight internal half-inch copper pipes in each. They sounded like a very loud, musical trumpet. No pedestrians or kangaroos were ever seen in front of the bike. I fabricated by hand a front mudguard to allow greater clearance. Additions included a crash bar, headlight protector, rev counter, spotlight, klaxon horn, spare tyre, water container, luggage box and a tent. The bike was so heavy, that if it fell over while parked in the evening, I had to take the gear off to lift it up again. I did 750 miles on the first day (Melbourne to Port Augusta) and last day (Coonabarabran to Melbourne) with my worst day being 80 miles, only that was on a waterlogged, wet clay Nullarbor Highway One and all cars and trucks had to stop. My average cruising speed was 60 – 80 miles per hour (pre-decimal speed and speedo!). I was clocked at 87 mph by the police, but got no fine. I ignored a “Highway Closed” sign in WA near Minderoo cattle and sheep station in WA, a small station – only 400,000 acres. When I encountered my first deep water crossing, I walked it first, then, with a slow-running engine, I crossed the fastflowing water with the air filter only just above the water. At the other extreme, the bull dust on Highway One past Broome in WA was atrocious. I carried up to eleven gallons of petrol as it was up to 440 miles between petrol station refills. I was a petrol bomb on two wheels! I had one flat tyre on the bitumen and a magneto breakdown which saw me being towed from Katherine Gorge – 60 miles behind a VW – then a tray truck lift to Darwin and getting a rebuild in Darwin.
It still beats me how the electrical store had a new rotor in stock to fit my bike. Thanks to Hans Allmich of Darwin Electrics.
The funniest incident of the trip was that the bike then had a great improvement in performance for over 100 miles near Mount Isa so that I forgot to change into fourth gear! The silliest thing was that, after one routine tune-up, the bike would only accelerate up to 30 mph. I had the cone-shaped air filter fitted upside down! The biggest traffic problem I had was that it once took me four hours to pass a long semi-trailer on a very dusty main Highway One in WA! Due to the long days of constant rain, (Ceduna to Perth) wet boots and clothes, I slept with all my gear on in the tent. When the sunny days started, I noticed that my boots shrank and I had to cut them off. Not happy! The main problems were: In NT the engine cut-out wire insulation failed and I replaced it with an external wire. The magneto rotor insulation failed. In the last week of travelling the bike had to be push-started. The bike frame finished up with a 50mm downwards distortion. Both speedo and rev-counter stopped working in Queensland. The nice policeman asked me to follow him to show me how slow 60 mph was. Thank you. The last day I was that tired that I travelled at less than 40 mph. I sold the bike in 1966 for £400 in “as is” condition. Many years later, in 2007, I imported a 1966 R 69 S from the USA. Lots of paper work, but the owner was very helpful with his documentation. Funny thing, when I went to the police to renew my bike licence, they told me that my 50-plus years ago licence was still valid as my current one was still endorsed “R”.