Long Live the Kings--airhead short film

[Primate]

In celebration of this forum's resurrection, take about 7 minutes of your time to enjoy this short--shot in Super 16mm. The content, imagery and music all have brought me back to this film over and over: http://vimeo.com/49445992 Good to see the kids riding their Beemers as they were meant to be.

Those bikes look to be /7s. Yes?

[Duane Ausherman]

I guess that I don't have the bandwidth to see it. It was totally jerky and impossible to see, or understand.

[Deleted User 62]

I guess that I don't have the bandwidth to see it. It was totally jerky and impossible to see, or understand.

Duane, if you click on the "HD" icon, it will play in a lower resolution, without all the stop and go. For all "High Definition" videos, it helps to pause it and let it load for awhile, to give your computer a chance to buffer the download.

[Ken in Oklahoma]

I tried really hard to like the film. Honest!

I like to think of myself as coming down on the free thinking and non judgmental side of things, as in "If it floats your boat good for you." Apparently I've gone farther down the curmudgeonly path than I ever suspected. I should have seen three young men who modified their airheads to their personal tastes and took them on a ride full of, well, fun. In the process of enjoying life they weaved across the roadway, making turns where there weren't any, and splashed through a puddle if there was one available, and even did a bit of cross country joyful riding. There was also fellowship in great abundance on what was apparently an adventure ride.

The video seemed to call up ancient memories of "On Any Sunday", specifically the scene where Steve, Malcom, and Mert jumped, roosted, and otherwise cut up in the sand dunes in a spontaneous expression of the love of life and motorcycles.

I should have liked it a lot.

But another way to look at the video was as if it were tailor made to rile up curmudgeons with boards up their collective asses--especially if they thought airheads ought to remain as God and BMW made them.

I wonder if I would have liked the film better if, instead of airheads, the men in the video heavily modified Honda Goldwings to do the things they did.

Or, maybe it's as might be inferred: That I've gone far further down the curmudgeon path than even I know and certainly more than I would ever approve of.


Ken

[Airbear]

...
Or, maybe it's as might be inferred: That I've gone far further down the curmudgeon path than even I know and certainly more than I would ever approve of.

Ken

Perhaps I am well down the path, too. I find youthful exuberance and foolishness irritating.
Old fools having fun is a totally different matter, of course.

ps: Thanks for posting that, Primate.

[optimusglen]

I'm young, I own an airhead, and I think the video qualifies for "Try Too Hard" status.

There needs to be a name for people that are like hipsters, but dirty. Like hippies, but shorter hair and less religion. And like renegades, but more desperate for attention.

[Zombie Master]

I thought that was great! Took me back to my youth. Thanx for posting!

[DucatiPete]

makes me wanna rat down one of my scoots and relive a bit of lost youthness.

"too hard triers", sure, but i bet they had a lotta fun doin it.

[bbelk]

I thought it was great as well. I got motivated to pull out a few hundred old photos of me and the DNR gang, convert them to sepia tone, splice them into a long dull movie with lots of fades and some mournful-I-was-young-once music and post it to youtube. But I took a nap instead and the urge passed.

[moosehead]

I liked it....brings back some good memories from too many years ago...ahem....from the 60's anyways. Great! But for me the "coolness" factor was always a Brit bike.

The last 2 airheads I have sold have been to younger guys (early 30's maybe or late 20's) which seems strange in a way. They were both younger than the airheads I sold to them! I'd say they were successful, modern day, "hipsters"...one fellow a lawyer the other an engineer at the power generation facility nearby. I asked them..."Why you buying an old BMW motorcycle when there's so much else out there?"...both replied "They're cool"...so who knows. And they preferred them "as is" no cafe'd look...give me the original patina look...cool I guess.

I now have another young guy phoning me about another airhead I have coming up for sale...a 78 R100/7...his friend, who bought my 77 R100S recently, told him about it when he saw it in the workshop and wondered if it was for sale. He's his law partner...coming up next weekend to have a look see. He's also probably younger than the bike too!