HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
by Brian Bell
This is the owner of Irv Seaver BMW, Evan Bell’s, first BMW, a 1932 BMW R2. He bought it from his new boss, Irv Seaver, in late August of ‘59 for some forgotten pittance. At just two weeks on the job he still jokes about some of the ‘new guy’ jobs he got to do for his $1.00 an hour, like Cushman tune-ups and the dairy farmer’s bike. Who would of guessed that fifty years later he’d still be doing the jobs no one else would (or could) here.
Helping Irv haul home a collection of old bikes was a job that seemed to suit this young hot rodder well. Chuck Pollard was a C.H.P. motor officer who had been collecting bikes for many years. As the story goes, whenever he’d track down a rumor of an old bike he’d knock on the door in uniform. When he’d ask about ‘that old motorcycle’ it was often offered to him, no questions asked. Irv bought the whole collection, building a large barn at his home in Lemon Heights to house them. Many of them ended up in either Steve McQueen or Bud Ekins collection, they would come out Friday afternoons, frequently with Von Dutch also crammed into the cab of Steve ’46 Ford truck to buy one or two a week for many years. Irv was a big Indian enthusiast, even before he bought the dealership in 1953 from Judd Carriker, who founded the shop in 1911. Irv traded the award for oldest bike ridden to the AMA Death Valley Gypsy Tour with Dewey Bonkrud, an employee of the shop since the 1930’s, until Dewey clinched it with his 1909 Indian twin. I still have Dewey’s’ late ’40s desert racer, a ’35 Chief block with a Bonneville scout crank in a warrior TT frame.
Chuck Pollard is also kindly remembered by the “young men” of Evans’ generation for helping to get one runway of the Orange County Airport (now known as John Wayne Airport) closed on Sunday afternoon to take street racing off the streets. These were the first organized drag races (starting in 7/2/1950!), a program the Bell boys, and ‘old man’ Dewey, had enthusiastically participated in.
In hauling this cache of vintage exotica Evan became enamored by this BMW R2 and a shaft drive Indian. The Indian was pretty complete and was soon a (slow) runner and only stayed in the stable a short time. On the other hand the R2 became a bit of a fixture in Evans’ garage. He rebuilt the transmission “because it was there”. Much was not there, and he sent two pictures to the BMW vintage club asking for what ever you don’t see. Nothing came from that request, though we got a kick out of seeing the frame picture show up years later on John Lackos’ excellent web site (www.beemergarage.com) labeled ‘some times you don’t find much’. It did change hands a few times, going from Evan to Bob Livsay, from Bob to Damon Richie, a well known bike painter. By some accounts Damon originated the R90S Daytona orange smoked paint and we know first hand he was the painter of the ’73 Rob North framed, Udo Geitl built, Reg Pridmore piloted BMW F750 GP bike (reportedly 104 rear wheel HP and a very verifiable 310lb starting weight, also in Evans’ collection). Evan purchased or traded it back from Damon and then sold it on to a Sterman flying photographer, Michael Rupp. After making more progress then all the others combined Michael traded the still incomplete R2 back to Evan for a rebuild of his R69S after 4 or 5 years. We have E-mailed Mr. Rupp a picture. He recently sold the still healthy R69S, but is still riding a 1960’s R50/2 he bought from us and (we noticed) recommending our service department on line. Back ‘home’, and now with 50 years of experience and a few more resources at hand a goal was set to finish it in time for Evan’s 50th anniversary. Approximately 50 years with Irv Seaver Motorcycles, his wife Lois, and infection with the old BMW bike bug.
Back to the theme of humble beginnings, this was BMW’s smallest (200cc), lowest performance (6.5 bhp) and cheapest bike, ever. A product of the depression, it was made to fit a market created when the German government (pre-NAZI) eliminated the license requirement on sub 200cc bikes to increase sales. Economic stimulus through less government, what a concept! 17,825 were sold in five series from 1931 to 1936, though only 2,015 of the series IIa were made in 1932, a year that seems to bring a smile to hot rodders’ faces, if no one else’s’( Evan likes to refer to this bike as his “deuce”(for non-hotrodders,”32 was the year Ford brought out the V8, )). DKW reportedly made over 200,000 of their sub 200cc bike. NSU, Zundapp, D-Rad and many others also made bikes for this class. It is fun to use this class to “stereotype” brands. The DKW two-strokes personified cheap and cheerful, the NSU advanced and efficient, the later Zundapps, which used the same frame as the 600 opposed twins and 800cc opposed 4 cylinder, exemplified rugged Teutonic overkill. So what does this little R2 say about BMW? To add perspective keep in mind BMW had “owned” the absolute motorcycle speed record since 1928. BMWs had been used by the German national team to win numerous gold medals in the I.S.D.T. over the previous 10 years, and over the next 5 with both the 400cc R4 and the 750cc R16 and later R17, the first bike with a hydraulic telescopic fork (yeah, we invented that, too). The aero division was also in the news with many records and firsts. Consider features cleanly integrated into this bike absent or tacked on to other bikes of the era like the speedometer recessed into the tank, keyed ignition, shaft drive (Zundapp had shafts on all their bikes except their 200cc), even a recirculating, filtered oil system cleanly integrated into the engine cases, as featured all the way back to BMWs first model in 1923 (Evan has restored two R32’s, including a series I, both were still on their standard bore). The first American bike I can find with oil return line to the tank is in 1936. Other features first seen on this BMW included a true air filter (rare on many bikes well into the ‘60’s),’safety rims’ (as soon made standard on German bike by the T.U.V.) and a tunnel case engine design. So what does this BMW say about BMW? Even in the face of a great depression, even when tasked with designing basic transportation, a BMW is a B.M.W., the Best Motorcycle in the World.
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Dave Diaz and Brian Bell went to the dealer meeting in Florida. They learned about the new S1000RR and rode it on the track. Brian is pictured above, and Dave below.
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