Motorcycles have had all kinds of front end suspension over the years. Most are a variant of the telescopic type seen in Harleys and many others. Ernest Earles, a British designer, developed a different type of suspension, thus called the Earles fork.BMW used these forks exclusively from 1955 through 1969. They are excellent for either solo riding or sidecar use but are heavy and rise when front brakes are applied rather than sink like tubular types.
When Bob and I hit Gainesville and met Fred, it was like 3 puzzle pieces came together. We got along well and worked, studied, ate, hunted and rode together. We ended up with 3 BMWs and took them places where some would fear to tread. Bob had an R50, I had an R60, and Fred had an R69S, the fastest of the lot. They were all heavy road bikes not dirt bikes .We rode rain or shine, hot or cold, day or night, road or trail. We used them for work and play, and we played a lot. (Put another way, after 3 years only one of us actually got a PhD.)
We spent many hours roaring around "San Felasco" now a state park but then a big parcel of mature woods full of trails and nobody seemed to own it. We used our big BMWs like trail bikes, up hills, sliding around corners, through streams and anywhere else we could think of to put them. San Felasco was full of woodcock and squirrel and we hunted them. We probably tried for deer but I don't remember any of us bagging one there. We carried our guns on the bikes with us and made a pretty sight to see. Three guys on black bikes with field clothes on carrying shotguns and an occasional Mannlicher.
The miracle is that none of us ever got seriously hurt there, or anywhere else on a bike for that matter. I guess it was just high levels of skill and strength. Couldn't be dumb luck, could it?
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