The Cow

[ambrose78]

Why are Beemers referred to as cows?

Is it the noise they make running - kinda sounds a bit like mooing?
Is it cause they are sturdy?
Is it cause they are wide down low?

[Barry]

Danielmc on the BM Bikes & BM Riders Club Forum provides this insight.  I always knew our bikes of all airheads didn't deserve the derogatory version.

The term Gummikuh (rubber cow), originally ascribed by the motoring journalist Ernst Leverkus to the earles-forked aircooled BMW twins, referred to those machines' habits of rocking between their soft front and rear suspension and the rising of the rear-end under power: cows stand up rear-end first. In Germany modern BMWs are still referred to occasionally (and affectionately) as Kuh whilst the smaller 'bikes can be referred to as Kälbchen or calves.

Calling them cows was not meant by Leverkus to imply they possessed evil or dangerous handling, and similarly the modern German usage is not derogatory.

[Lucky_Lou]

Try having sex on one ......there a real cow you keep falling off!!!!!
Ye Ha
Lou

[montmil]

Way too much information from Lucky Lou. Or might that be Lucky Moo...  

I've been to several MC road races back in the early 70's where sorta-stock Earles BMWs could be seen moving horizontally, vertically and laterally as that honked through some higher speed turns. I was baffled by the sight... understood all after I rode my boss's R69S "quickly". Dear God! Let me back on my old Triumph.

Monte

[ambrose78]

Wow - Interesting to know the origin of it.

thanks

[ambrose78]

All I know is don't  drink the black milk.

[darrylri]

I have no idea where this thing about Earles fork bikes came from.  They have much less front end movement than the Airheads do, and were considered to be the plushest ride around in the 50s and 60s.  The Earles design also keeps the wheelbase and trail nearly the same regardless of the road surface and how hard you brake in front (because the front actually rises slightly under hard braking).  Telescopics (whose big advantage is a lower unsprung mass) bounce all over and change the trail dramatically, so a bike feels twitchier while braking hard.

Regarding the "shaft jacking" (rear end rising under throttle), all shaft drive bikes do that, if they don't have a mechanism like the Paralever to prevent it, and the effect is more pronounced the more HP you have, so again, the Airheads exhibit this to a much greater extent than do the Earles fork bikes (which top out at 42 HP for the R69S, so even our "little" R65s have significantly more power).

I had always heard that the german phrase, Gummikuh -- rubber cow -- refered to the softly sprung, long travel forks on the Airheads and the significant brake dive they exhibit.

[Barry]

I don't know if the Ernst Leverkus story is true just that it was posted on the BM Bikes & BM Riders Club Forum.

There is no doubt that  Ernst Leverkus was a notable motorcyclist and jounalist .  I tried a Google search of his name and Kuh which produced lots of results all in German so I am no wiser. If someone can translate German for us there might be some more clues out there.

[darrylri]

I did the search you suggested and had a look at the German Wikipedia site.  My German is not the best, but it seems clear to me that Herr Leverkus was, indeed, remarking about an Earles fork bike -- but not about the fork.  He was commenting on the shaft-jacking effect, with the rear end climbing up under power, and how that seemed similar to him as to how a cow gets up.  

The Earles bikes were BMW's first swingarm rear suspension bikes;  previous models had "plunger" rear suspensions (where the rear axle is allowed to move vertically along a steel post, is suspended with a heavy spring and damped with grease in a bushing).  In this respect, the Earles fork bikes are effectively the same as any non-paralever Airhead, like our R65s.

[Barry]

Seems that might explain the origin of "Cow" then. Perhaps "Rubber" was added later on by someone else.

[DanielMc]

As the original poster may I add the following?

The "Kuh" element does indeed refer to the cow-like rising of the rear of the bike under power. The "Gummi" component was a direct reference by Leverkus to the up and down movement occasioned by the effects that acceleration and braking had on the anti-dive front and anti-squat rear chassis geometry- the rear rises under acceleration and the front rises under braking. The softly sprung Earles forked machines, with their almost unheard of 129mm of wheel travel, did little to reduce this motion.

This, at least, was the explanation about the origin of the term offered to me during my time in Germany. It was also made clear that Kuh, although originally coined to describe the handling peculiarities of the Earles forked BMWs produced between 1955 and 1969, has become a commonly used term for all air-cooled flat-twins.

It bears repeating that "Gummikuh" is used in Germany as a term of endearment. My original post on BMBikes was to correct a poster who seemed to think the term was derogatory and arose from the indifferent handling exhibited by some /5 and subsequent airheads.

[Barry]

Daniel, Sorry I didn't realise you were also one of us. Just as well I credited the post to you then!

[DanielMc]

No worries there Barry - we Kuh owners are a fairly friendly bunch after all!

[Hunsta]

I think this thread has said it all. Can we now moooooooove on.

[Semper Gumby]

My cow has long legs!  Does this mean we are going to have "Cow Days" or Cow Daze"?

Moo Moo Moo