Let’s start with the long strange trip it has been. I have been, or is that bean, a long time motorcycle person riding from the golden age of a Honda SL90, and many in between, to my present ride, Hellen, (she got that name because she is hell on my back and arms), and now my new BMW R Nine T Scrambler, Bean.
Not so quick explanation
A quick explanation of the name, all my rides, some of my tools, and maybe other things that shall not be spoken of, seem to develop personalities. Some might say I tend to anthropomorphize things, well at least the smart ones amongst us, however, pilots name their planes, sailors have named their boats since water was invented, and so on.
For me it is more about the combination of being too lazy to always include a full title or description of whatever, and, the things I name, do seem to have something unique about them. Take Winnie for instance, Winnie is a DeWalt angle grinder, when I use her she makes this loud whining noise and sprays sparks all over the place, inevitably down the front of my pants.
Then there is Walter, Winnie, and Walter are kind of a pair, he is a DeWalt reciprocal saw and incredibly handy to have despite the fact he bucks and kicks and is always trying to take a finger off. With a name my workmates know exactly who to grab when I am hanging upside down by my toenails, hollering for help. They also know to keep them clean and put back or have hell to pay. Why, because even though they are tools, they have names and become special.
Now to the Bean, after all the rides I have owned, and ridden, my little brother, (who is seriously hardcore and rides rain or shine every day and does things you shouldn’t be able to do on a GSA 1250), came home one day with a GS 1200 that he was absolutely raving about it, he said ‘here you try it and I was sold on the Beemer.
I will skip forward to his third/fourth GSA, now 1250, and describe it as a monster of a motorcycle. It is huge, intimidating, powerful. I say this because I am of average height and weight, ridden bikes with way more power and speed, and to me, this is a veritable mountain of a bike. That is until you get up on it and start down the road. There it does the impossible, it becomes invisible under you, light, quick, easy, and some may not like this, it has so many gizmos and rider fun things that it makes my inner nerd just tingle thinking about them.
But I digress, the Bean started inching her way into my heart back when my bro showed me a picture of the 2021 line up of BMW bikes and under Heritage was my future, it was love at first sight. The Bean.
He and I both like/love speed and power, but we also like to go get dirty so an adventure bike is natural. He, through his work and connections, was able to afford the $25k and more for his GSA. That, and my little bro is 6′ 3″. Me, not so much as I am 5’10” and shrinking, plus I have no connections other than him.
Also, there is one more mitigating factor, my 21-year-old son and his DRZ 400. So, remember I mentioned Hellen, she is my current ride and I love her. The thing is I can’t ride her for more than 45 minutes without being crippled for the rest of the day. Also, I can’t go boondoggling down fire roads with her or spank my smart-alecky son and his friends in the dirt.
He was a major reason that I went the direction I have with Bean. My son, bless his rotten heart, has, on more than one occasion, stated how much better he is at ridding than I am, (no way, the little turd). However, I don’t have any way to show him how wrong he is and make him eat dirt.
So I am up against it here, the GSA is awesome but overkill and expensive. A DRZ of my own would be nice, but for me a bit limiting. What to do, what to do. Simple answer, save every penny you earn and put it down on a BMW R Nine T Scrambler that happens to have a similar paint scheme as your kid.
All right all ready, what about the name??? I saw this bike way back when and started putting away money for her in 2020, by December I had enough to put down a deposit and had to wait until late July to get her home. This is a very, VERY, long wait to be sure. And for the first eight or nine weeks of pre-ownership bragging, I had to say ‘ya I’m getting a 2021 BMW R Nine T Scrambler’ which is quite the mouthful.
However, one day as I sitting having a really nice cupper, (that’s Oz speak for coffee), it came to me, a name. I am admittedly a coffee snob, love a good cupper, and will travel miles to get one if I can’t make it myself, so combine travel, miles, coffee, motorcycle lust, and you get the BEAN.
And there it is, the Bean and forevermore, Bean…
Cheers