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Caught these articles in my old home paper on the BMW North America rally.

Thursday article http://tinyurl.com/ef5g3
Friday article http://tinyurl.com/l4r8p

There were some interesting stats at the bottom of the article. I don't know as I've seen a breakdown of Triumph rider info like this. Obviously the BMW MOA would like to publish info that supports some of the assumptions one might already have about the brand (older college educated guys with $), but it makes me wonder how we would break down in comparison.

Who owns a BMW? Although the official name of the organization is the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America, its 38,000 members come from points across the globe. Here's a quick breakdown of who's included in the MOA:
AGE: About 81 percent of MOA members are 45 or older.
INCOME: The annual mean household income is more than $86,000.
EDUCATION: About 65 percent have a college degree; 41 percent have post-graduate degrees.
MARITAL STATUS: About 77 percent are married.
EXPERIENCE: About two-thirds of members have more than 20 years of riding experience.
MILEAGE: About 40 percent ride between 5,000 and 25,000 miles per year.
Source: Provided by the BMW MOA

We would be about the same with the exception of education. Anybody good with an excel spreadsheet? We could do it here for Triumph owners.

Well, except for the miles per year, I guess I don't qualify to be a BMW owner... darn, I'm soooo dissapointed

Soren

I stopped by my local BMW dealer the other day, since they are now the Triumph dealer here in LIT as well. The young sales guy took his time and showed me several Beemers while explaining the technology and features of each bike. BMW is certainly a quality product and at the higher end of its line is competing with Honda Goldwing and Yamaha Roadstar and the HD line as well. Some of the features at this level are "Cadillac" types of comfort and convenience. They include:

6 CD changer and stereo
Lights that shine beneath the bike when the centerstand is deployed.
Moving map GPS.
Heated grips and seats
A hydraulically deployed center stand (just push a button and it comes down and lifts the bike up on its stand)
Electrically adjusable windscreen.
Push button adjustable suspension
Etc, etc, etc.

The suspension on these things is a completely different technology than is on our bikes and distributes the weight of the bike evenly in a panic stop to prevent the normal front end dive associated with this maneuver.

While I was honestly impressed with all the technology and quality on these bikes, I didn't feel any emotional connection that I do when I think of my trusty Speedmaster. BMW makes a VERY nice motorcycle, but it just ain't me at this point, and I am completely happy with my little Speedmaster and hanging out with you Joes and Janes whoa re of like mind. Besides, I owned a BMW car some time ago, and I decided that "BMW" really means "Bullen Money Wasted."

maybe NEXT year.

I looked at a couple of BMWs before I bought the triumph. And I decided that a german motorcycle shouldnt cost more than my german automobile.

You are SO right on that one, my friend. One of the ones I looked at was over $26K.

Can we see the demographics on Hardleys?

I looked at a BMW R1150R before buying my TBA. Money not being a factor... the BMW was in between the TBA and a HD Dyna Wide Glide (which I also looked at)... bottom line, I still bought the TBA. I just liked the look way more than either one of those... plus saving 3K over the BMW and more than double that for the HD made me a hero with the spousal unit. Now I can do mods without feeling so guilty!

JB.
Ive owned three BMWs. Great bikes, love the things. My first was an R80RT. Used it for despatching, raked up thousands of miles on the thing. Next was a 1980 R100RS, one of the original RS's, this in all honesty was one of the nicest bikes i have ever owned. The fairing on it was so well desgined. I once rode from Plymouth (Southeast England) to London, about 180 miles in terential rain. Cruised along the motorways at a steady 100 and did not get a drop of water on me. I would buy another one in a heartbeat. And the aircooled boxer engine is dream. Extreemly reliable and had an added bonus, that in cold weather it would keep your toes warm. oh and for those of you who think they would ground the heads in corners, no sir. You would have to lean over to extreem angles to get the heads down. It is possible, but im not that good a rider. The third BM i had was one of the original K100s. The unfaired version. Nice bike but a bit soulless in comparison to the boxers.

I would like to ride one of the new boxers. The new RS's look really nice.

PS...your brochures arrived....WOW, those things are fantastic. What are the payments on one of those things, do you take trade ins. I got a clean TBA with low milage.

I've had my RT1100 for over 9 years now. A very rideable motorcycle and not too big (like the LT's). A serious tourer when needed (and has been through various parts of Europe, several times) ... I feel I owe it a lot.

I've had 2 bummers, an R75 and an R90/S. Except for getting nosebleeds if I climbed up on the seat to quickly, they were nice enough. The R90 was not as fast as my America, and they both had about as much personality as a drug addled hooker.