Airhead Shop Ride: Photos & Recap

On the first day of November, more than a dozen pre-1995 air-cooled BMW twins turned up at the shop. Under a sunny sky and with dry and crisp/brisk conditions, we set out on a favorite local lunch loop comprised of parkways, country roads and even a short stretch of gravel, giving the bikes a good gallup while there are still autumn leaves clinging to the trees. 

The bikes spanned from a 1964 R69S, to an early 90s R100GSPD, and lots in between—multiple examples of the R90S, R80 G/S, an R65LS, a custom R90, and a tidy original condition R60/5.

Honorable mention goes to Bob Bendix for trailering his sweet “R80/2” conversion all the way down from Maine. Bob’s been riding BMWs for several decades, and humbled us all with us a 50-year-old portrait he had taken at a BMW rally in the late 70s.
Bob Caplan travelled perhaps the shortest distance, coming from New Haven, but gets a special shout for his marathon ownership of his original-paint Dover White R69s, which he bought second hand in 1966, and has ridden as his only bike ever since.

Daniel of the Brooklyn based @Airheadfix, and a handful of other riders came up from New York. Somewhere on the Hutchinson Parkway two groups of inbound riders merged by chance and all rode together to the shop for an 11:00 opening.

Great to see all the familiar faces, and meet some new-to-us riders, too.


And if anyone is interested in acquiring a minty red R65LS, inquire with Daniel...

We stopped at Blue Jay Orchards for a regroup and some photos before stopping down into the town of Bethel for the old faithful Sycamore Drive-In, where house-made rootbeer and smashburgers sated the group of hungry riders.

After lunch the riders dispersed like seeds in the wind.

Special thanks to Peter Domorak for showing up on his trusty Enfield, riding along, and shooting photos—including all those in this post, plus the portraits below that he got a restless group to (mostly) line up for.

Give him a follow at @peterdomorak, and see more of his work at www.peterdomorak.com.

And for anyone who couldn’t make it, make sure you’re subscribed to our email list (see the form at the bottom of this page, or check your junk folder and mark emails from UnionGarageNYC as safe) and we hope to see you on the next one.

Also keep an eye on the Union Garage instagram page, where we post upcoming rides, and fomo-y recap reels.

And a last shout-out to the Airheads Beemer Club and @airheadmisfits for helping spread the word.

We were able to get 15 bikes and their intrepid owners to show up at the shop at 11AM on a November day, with 1 week's notice. 

Thanks to everyone who turned out for a brilliant day.