“The Marine Corps taught me commitment, courage, focus, and a value system that can easily suffice for people like me who aren’t religious.”– Bob Lutz

在S 1000 RR在交通等候的游侠灯斜对面我给自行车我骑的是粗略地看一眼，然后集中在他的各种电子读数，LED路灯等金光闪闪直到灯光改变，他可以发出刺耳的声音了。

我piddy大傻瓜。

The bike I was riding, my recently-acquired Silver Smoke R 90 S, might not have been the first ‘superbike’ but it was one of them, and is the ancestor in a direct line of that S 1000 RR. Without it, there might well have been no BMW motorcycles today. BMW introduced this air-cooled twin in 1973 for the 1974 model year, and though it is pretty tame by today’s standards (for S 1000 RR riders, anyway) it was radical stuff then. Let’s not forget that Reg Pridmore won the 1976 U.S. Superbike championship on a stock-looking R 90 S.

It did not take the press long to catch on, either. One often quoted review at the time (I’ve never been able to find the original) summed it up pretty well.

“The R90S handles and stops almost as well as the best Italian sportster; is almost as fast as the fastest Japanese road burner; almost as uncomplicated as the good old British twin; and almost as smooth as the best multi. When it comes to comfort, and capability for traveling at maximum speed with minimum fatigue, the R90S is second to none.”

In other words, while there were many bikes that did one thing superbly, the BMW was the only one that did everything very well. And you know what? It still does. But it so nearly didn’t happen, except for one man.

1972年，摩托车业务陷入了困境。幸运的是，拜仁堪称海军陆战队 - 或者他们中的至少一个。近传奇鲍勃·鲁茨被聘为宝马汽车的销售经理。

卢茨记忆“所有的关于当时，摩托车在公司内部的压力”，“特别是从财政的家伙，被关闭的自行车业务。许多高层管理人员想要杀了它，或者至少把它卖掉。”

有很好的理由。日本人做像本田的宏伟CB750自行车，而宝马是不易消化的看，用陈旧技术构建，并呼吁年长的车手，而不是（那么年轻）兑现-了宝贝谁统治摩托车市场潮。

“When I joined BMW in ’72, the company was building about 200,000 cars annually and only 10 to 12,000 motorcycles,” Lutz says. “Pretty insignificant volume, really. Our US volume was declining, with most sales to police and federal agencies. Retail was nearly non-existent. The Japanese had all the cool stuff: overhead cams, multi cylinders, disc brakes, advanced and sexy stuff. We just didn’t have it, and were treated as a bit of a joke by the magazines. They’d write, ‘BMWs…nice touring motorcycles for elderly people,’ and stuff like that. Not a reputation that boded well for the future.”

值得一提的是，鲁茨，尽管宝马的工作，有自己的本田CB750 - 和一个漂亮的快一，通过所有报告。

Believe it or not, even the Japanese manufacturers were worried about BMW, and not because the Germans were credible competition. They saw the company as a worthwhile symbol of respectability for the entire industry. One senior Japanese executive at the time said something like, “If it looked as if the BMW motorcycle division was going to close, we would have a quick whip around to make sure it is saved.”

我从来没有能够再次找到了报价，要么，因为我第一次读它，虽然我已经受够了确认关闭记录。我们不知道他们是否会做，但他们没有必要，因为将R 90年代做了他们。所以永远记住，大家谁估计它是将R 80 G / S，这是真正的救星：它可能已经比喻做了，但将R 90年代做了字面上。如果没有这种车，今天有宝马Motorrad是否定的。

“从字面上看没有一个是负责摩托车事业部，”卢茨继续。“部分是由销售，部分通过控制工程，部分设计，等等。该集团基本上是群龙无首，在资源非常少了。于是，我问老板，如果我可以拉东西放在一起，并给划分一定的领导。我告诉他，他们迫切需要一个方向，一个计划。他说不错，但加入这样的：“你不要忽视我们雇你的工作！”于是，我叫大家赶快与摩托车一起参与的，漂亮敲定一项计划，这大家都同意。

“我们决定，我们会发出一个信号，日本，我们又回到了自行车业务高价，溢价摩托车发烧友们会真正想要的，”卢茨说。“对关我们决定一个更大的发动机，和900毫升似乎正确，也出现了的900周毫升的试剂盒各种在市场上了。它不得不盘式制动器，五速变速箱，和美丽的细节无处不在。

“It wasn’t easy to sell it to upper management,” Lutz remembers. “Most thought we should shut down the motorcycle division entirely, as it wasn’t making any money. But because we could use much of the R75/5’s foundation for the new bike we’d envisioned, the investment wouldn’t be huge. So they agreed. We just needed to make it look right.”

Which brings us to the other father of the R 90 S, Hans-Albrecht Muth. He had been a toolmaker, then an industrial stylist before being hired by BMW to work on car interiors. Fortunately, Muth was also a motorcyclist. He went to see Hans-Gunther von der Marwitz, who was as close as there was to a motorcycle development manager at BMW.

“I knocked on his door, walked in, and got some gruff questions right away,” Muth said. “‘Who are you? What do you want?’ he asked. ‘Who does motorcycling styling here?’ I asked back. ‘We do,’ he said. ‘Why do you ask?’ – ‘Well, that’s why our motorcycles look the way they do!’ I said.”

“All right,” said von der Marwitz, “you do it!” That was just what Muth wanted to hear.

“这是惊人的，所以德国：劈，砍，切中要害。于是我立刻得到了第二份工作，非官方的，当然，在未来的几个月里，我不得不隐藏我的真正的老板我的摩托车工作时，他将访问的工作室。

“几天后，”他继续说，“冯·德尔·Marwitz让我看到卢茨关于摩托车的设计，我们会讲到。卢茨正在进入他的新办公室，并已投入了大量的海报美丽的摩托赛车对他的墙。他告诉我，该公司已经开始着手新一代自行车的，也有我的意见非常宝贵，动感德国摩托车应该是什么样子。他指着海报，在他的嘴角带着雪茄回头看了我一眼，微微一笑。“是的，”我说。并与我回到我的工作室。这不是一个漫长的会议“。

它没有采取穆特长，以使自己的想法写在纸上。他创造了三种可供选择的草图，其中之一将成为将R 90秒短短一年半以后。“这是运动型的，有一个大水缸，”穆斯说，”将携带两名车手的舒适度。至于整体造型，勾勒出我是完全按照我设想了一个现代化的宝马应该看看，在经典的英语竞赛自行车的精神运动型尾。但是它最需要的，我想，是一个脸，就像汽车有面子。而这一想法，与天的小赛车整流罩一起，就是驾驶舱整流罩的想法是从哪里来的。[Muth was to use the same line of thinking when he designed the Suzuki Katana.] Also, just as a fighter pilot needs a place to relax and concentrate on what’s coming, whether enemy or weather, the new bike needed a cockpit and instrumentation tucked behind that wind-cutting fairing—gauges, and such, and a clock too.

“第一R90S的双色调的配色方案很容易地来到我，”他继续说。“黑过宝马的唯一的颜色，直到R75 / 5沿着69年来，但是S-模型开发过程中我还记得当我是13或14，它是黑色的，但有一个银色部分我已经画了一辆自行车。当我想过这个问题，它是完美的。黑将承认过去和宝马的历史，而银将代表着未来，在宝马领导。Melding他们为我们所做的是很困难的，当它来到的时间来画生产自行车，我们有很多的帮助下，我们聘请做条带化和这样的非常有才华的女性。但是这是值得的，因为颜色结束了是非常受欢迎的。”

I’ll leave you with Bob Lutz. “What followed the R90S was a willingness on the part of upper management to invest in the motorcycle business, and that allowed machines like the R100RS, the GSs, and the K- and R-series bikes to come later,” Lutz said. “Suddenly, after the S-model took off, there was a more adventuresome spirit within the company, more boldness. We see that to this very day, and it all came from the R90S.”

因此，S先生1000 RR - 一点尊重，如果你请。

（图片宝马Motorrad）