Roundel Showcase

The look of a vintage BMW motorcycle, especially the blue and white Roundel set against a black tank with white pinstripes, pleases me. In fact, it pleases my visual senses in great measure. And, inexplicably, I feel compelled to honor the men and women who rode, raced, and loved BMW motorcycles and all things related to the BMW marque throughout its history – both the famous and not so famous; the heroes whose names appear in every book, and the families before the war whose BMW sidecar was their only mode of transportation and whose names were forgotten long ago; the artists and photographers; the writers, musicians, and mechanics; the racing legends and advertising gurus; the actors and toymakers; the police departments and porcelain factories; the company execs and company machinists.

Honoring the original and the modified; the traditional and the eclectic; the long riders and speed merchants; the rich, the poor; the favored and the forsaken. There is this need to honor them all.

So, a number of years ago I took that desire and combined it with my love of history, art, advertising, vintage photographs, and interior design, as well as the joy I experience when hunting for the rare and hard to find, and decided to seriously have a go at bringing together under one roof, an eclectic mix of as many of the rarest and most fascinating BMW motorcycle-related items I could find.

This was not a practical or reasoned decision. It was a matter of the heart. And, as often is the case with heart matters, it has made me richer and poorer. Richer because of what I have learned and because of the extraordinary people I have met and now call friends. And poorer because, well, doing this in a passionate way has significant time and resource implications that have forced me to make sacrifices in other areas of my life.

Although most people know the BMW brand through its automobiles, collecting rare items in the BMW motorcycle arena comes with a very narrow band of brothers and sisters. Outside the BMW motorcycle family and the people who read publications like this one, only a precious few know much of anything about the company’s motorcycles or motorcycle history. And that number gets infinitesimal when you start talking about BMW motorcycle pre-war history. That’s what makes collecting in this niche market challenging and probably a bit fool hearted at the same time.

Case in point: Relatively speaking, only a handful of people on this earth have heard the name Karl Gall or know he gave his life on a BMW motorcycle in 1939 at the Isle of Man TT trying to become the first foreigner to win that extraordinary race. And there aren’t many people, even among those who love BMW motorcycles, who would be moved by seeing or holding a photograph Karl Gall signed himself at speed in 1937, or seeing his original obituary from a 1939 newspaper. But I am one of those people who is moved by such things. And displaying those two items and telling folks about his life, honors him. And so, when the opportunity presented itself, I obtained those rare gems from a wonderful German family several years ago, and as a result, I am richer and poorer, and Herr Gall and the BMW marque are honored. Along with a long list of others that I love to share. So it is with this collection. Short on practical. Long on heart.