For BMW adepts it is Holy. Not really relevant for Harley owners. But when it comes to buying and selling, the most controversial situation: Originality.
And not as in: “That crazy Jeffrey has had a flight of bats tattooed from his neck to his forehead! How original! "
I'm talking about factory originality and individual upgrading in that area. In good Dutch, motorcycles and other important things are engineered and designed. We've thought about that. Or at least about being met. When you buy a motorcycle, you have a moving and functional product. In the past there were Willie Wortels who, on a small scale, manufactured attributes such as exhausts and tubs. That was the time when factories made motorcycles in three cylinder capacity classes and preferably in no more than one color.
If you put a higher handlebar on it, you had a tour engine. With a 'hanging ears' handlebars you had a sports bike. This approach has been marketed in an evolutionary way. So we now have a whole range of options 'ex factory' or according to the ideas of the importer. These options are usually paid dearly or used as fight points in sales promotions. They can be to someone's personal taste, but they exude the professionalism of originality. Nowadays they are all neatly mounted at the official dealer and you often even get a German ABE (Allgemeine Betriebs Erlaubnis) in accordance with. do not take things away during a ride in the Black Forest. Not that you earn back the investment when you sell.
Because 'writing off' is a strong verb. Yet. And there is something to be said for that official approach. There are still quite a lot of suppliers who supply products that - at least for a lot of money - can be made reasonably at best. And those types of upgrades do have an effect on your final sales price. After all, we have become so spoiled that we no longer have much appreciation for: “Well done kid!” Originality is not wrong. No matter how Harley drivers and BMW owners disagree about that. But among BMW owners, the "Werks Originalitäts Virus" sometimes strikes very hard.
That is why I came up with this story. Theo Terwel is a BMW passionado, a recognized and perfectionist repairer and sprayer. He has fun eyes and knows how to put things into perspective. That is why he had performed a Mystic in the BMW R90S Daytona colors. As a nice thing. And maybe for sale. When the machine was mentioned somewhere outside of working hours, a hard core BMW Fahrer reacted furiously.
It was a shame! It witnessed disrespect for The Brand. As a fellow villager, Theo came by with his reborn Mystic to talk to him. I told him about the man who reported on a top restored BMW R96S that the showpiece was worth nothing, I repeat: 'NOTHING' was worth it and could therefore be thrown away because the tank and the block had no matching numbers.
We toast it.
And that Mystic has only driven 11000 kilometers. He will find his owner.