Boxerworks.com

I only know the word of mouth on him as a super nice guy along with seeing him at Northern California rallies from time to time. Highly respected and well liked is the best way I could describe him from an outsiders view. This is a big loss for many, that I am sure of! I know others here can expand on their encounters and friendships with him.

RIP
Kari

A link
http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=3608

He was trained in my shop way back when and we have always remained friends. I could write up something about him.

I posted this elsewhere.

Kari Prager,

Kari’s passing was quite a shock for me. I decided that I should write up the history that I know. Forgive me if I ramble a bit, as “stories” have been coming back to me that relate to Kari.

In the summer of 1972 (I think) a tall beauty, named Gail, rode her R25/3 into BMW of Marin in San Rafael, California. I only remember that we were all so impressed that we hired her as a parts person, as she had some experience with BMW. Soon after, her boyfriend returned from a trip abroad. That was Kari and he also rode a BMW and even had some mechanical experience. We hired him too. That was the start of a wonderful friendship that has lasted these 38 years.

Kari preferred to work on the older /2 and we had more of it than one mechanic could handle, so he got his fill. He never complained about having to change tires, or any of the other drudgery work. I remember once we were very busy and I spent nearly all of my time in the front. I needed Kari to do something, so I went into the back to talk with him. He was still working on an old beater /2 that had seen better days.

The job was a full service, or about 3 hours of labor and a few parts. He was still working on it after at least 8 hours. We used a standardized worksheet for each series of bike. Not only had Kari filled it out on the front and back, he had written up 3 more pages of small hand written notes. Since his academic study was archeology and the bike was “old” I asked he was doing his master’s thesis.

We had a second floor for storage of used parts and it was quite full. Kari had gone up and selected good, but ratty, old parts to replace many faulty items on the bike. I pointed out that the parts weren’t listed on the work order. He defended his position in that we had plenty of them and didn’t need to charge. Kari really wanted to fix everything and for nothing. He would only put on his time card the requested service labor, not the actual hours spent. He only got paid for the hours claimed, so he was working for nothing. He was just a nice guy.

One summer Kari got the chance to go to the Artic circle for an archeological dig. As you know, summer is the very busy time in the shop. I called a meeting and Kari explained his opportunity. The other three mechanics volunteered to work as long as it took to get the work out the door. We were often there quite late into the night, but I didn’t hear a single complaint. That is a measure of the respect and affection that we all had for Kari.

The /2 was famous for needed frequent valve adjustments. The /5 had solved that problem with long studs that held the cylinder, head and valve gear to the case. Kari was racing a R27 250 cc bike. He gutted the case and had it welded up to take the long studs. Then he machined a R69S cylinder to slide down the studs. He then had a stable top end and a 50 cc increase.

The shop sponsored a R75/5 road race bike and it did well. Along with that project was Kari’s R27 that he raced in the 250 cc class. Many of our customers would attend to watch and even help as needed. These were small local club races and very few unrelated spectators would be in attendance. However, the BMW riders would show up in actual numbers to show support for the BMW racers.

Just before a race, Kari would take a nap. Yes, he was able to get to sleep within 30 minutes of his race. He said it took the stress away.

I last visited with Kari about two months ago. My work has me traveling all over Northern California and I always liked to stop in at his place and chat when in the south bay. He took me outside for privacy and told me about his recent, possibly serious, health issues. We discussed this a bit, as Kari knew that I had spent some time working in medical research years before with the artificial heart.

My comment was that we never knew if we would live to see the next day and that I was so pleased that my life had turned out to be far better than I could ever have imagined. Kari responded in like and expressed just how happy he was with his wonderful family and life work. It was so nice to see a dear friend who also felt fulfilled with his life.

There are more stories, but this is enough for now.

If there is a memorial service, I will do everything to attend and spend time with those that cared for him so much. His memory has been in my mind many times since I got the sad news.

I try, but can’t imagine how I would find the strength to bear a similar situation. My heart goes out to Gail and the girls.