One man, two wheels—a million miles

By Bill Andrews

Mar. 26 – Charter Life member Lyle A. Grimes, like most of us, has a thing for riding. He must. How else could you explain over 1 million miles of saddle time in 52 years?

The 73-year-old from Westwego, Louisiana, started on his million miles at the age of 22. "I got my first real motorcycle in 1951," Grimes recalls. "It was an Ariel square four, but I didn't get very far on it-maybe a thousand miles. The bike couldn't hold a head gasket in it."

Since then, Grimes has owned many makes and models. But he says the real heavy mileage was logged on BMWs, which is how Grimes is able to accurately determine his achievement. You see, he's also the current mileage coordinator for the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America (BMWMOA).

How long would it take to go 1 million miles?

To achieve 1,000,000 miles in a hurry, you'll need to ride at an average of 50 mph, 24 hours a day, for a little over 833 days straight. Or to put it another way, that's approximately two years, three months and 13 days of constant riding.

If you're getting about 5,000 miles out of a tire, you'll need to replace it 200 times.

If you're going 6,000 miles between oil changes, and your bike requires 3 quarts per change, you'll need about 500 quarts of oil and roughly 166 oil filters.

"I've got the mileage all written down in a spiral bound notebook," he says. "I put 216,000 on brand 'X' bikes, like Hondas, Yamahas and a Triumph, but for the most part I've stuck with BMWs."

In fact, the bike that put him over the million-mile mark is his current ride—a 1995 R1100R with 297,000 miles on the clock.

Grimes does a lot of traveling, of course, but he says most of his miles stacked up from repeat trips to Oregon to visit his family.

Grimes love affair with German motorcycles began in the mid-1980s, when he was just looking for some good, reliable transportation, to ride up to Oregon and back with.

"In 1985, BMW was offering a three-year unlimited mileage warranty on their bikes," he says. "That's the reason I justified the expense of that first BMW, so I bought a K100RT for roughly $8,000. In those days, that was expensive."

But for his trips, he liked the added assurance.

Lyle A. Grimes
Photo courtesy of BMWMOA

"It went 100,000 miles before the transmission went on it," Grimes says.

After that, he was smitten. BMWs would be his bike of choice to this day.

Since he had such good luck with his first K100RT, he decided to buy the exact same model for his next bike. "I got 46,227 miles on it," he says. "But I didn't keep it long because it got wrecked."

Putting his misfortune aside, Grimes decided to try his luck again. "I bought another K100RT and put 142,074 miles on it."

After the RT, Grimes went for a sportier ride and bought a 1991 RS. He proceeded to put about 203,000 miles on that one.

Grimes last "K" model, a '93 K1100RS, would carry him only 92,920 miles before he felt he needed to make a change.

"I decided I was getting older and needed to go to smaller and lighter bikes," he says. "So I sold it in '95, when I was over 60 years old, and bought my current 'R' model."

As you can tell, Grimes gets a lot of mileage out of his bikes. His secret?

"Just doing normal oil changes and maintenance," he says. "It's all I really needed to do."

He recently had to stop riding, though, due to back troubles, which he's decided to go under the knife to fix.

Photo courtesy of BMWMOA

"The first question I asked the doctor was, 'How soon can I ride again after the operation?'" he says. "And the doctor said, 'Probably six months.'"

Is there any doubt in Grimes' mind?

"Oh, I know I'm going to ride again."

Related story:

AMA Long Rider Mileage Award Program