Jim Colburn
Rockville, Maryland
Age: 43
Marital Status: Divorced
Current BMW Owned: F650
Miles Ridden: 50,000
Longest Ride: Rockville, MD to Fredericksburg, TX.
Profession: Photo Editor

Talented, irreverent, energetic, cynical, dedicated are all adjectives that come to mind when you get to know Jim Colburn. When you first "encounter" Jim, (meet hardly seems a correct verb) it's easy to misjudge him. Many folks in the BMW riding community know him only from his pithy, pointed, highly cynical posts on the Internet BMW Riders (IBMWR) e-mail list. He seems bent on always telling the emperor that he has no clothes, and to him, anyone is an "emperor" if only in their own minds. His calling card on line is a very off center, frequently changed signature line. Examples are:

"It's a sad day for American capitalism when a man can't fly a midget on a kite over Central Park"

"Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return."

And my favorite:

"A child of five could understand this! Fetch me a child of five!"

What do they mean? Damned if I know. But, I always read them, and part of me always wonders and at the same time, pauses and smiles.

My first meeting with Jim was at the Square Route Rally several years ago. He was one of many folks I met that weekend, but I remember distinctly talking with him briefly at a vendor booth selling motorcycle and Indian jewelry. He was looking at earrings. Then I noticed that he was wearing an earring! And I realized, duhhhhh, that he was looking at them for "himself!" Shorter, hair a bit thin and gray, with an earring, and verbally irreverent to extreme, at times. Not your "typical" BMW rider, I thought.

At another rally someone told me to look at that R850R parked nearby. There was a fuel valve and some tubing leading from the tank down to the lower part of the engine somewhere. It was, in fact, a fuel shut off valve from an R bike, and seem to be mounted on this fuel injected machine that has a totally automated fuel feed system! It was Colburn's bike. He said, when asked about the valve, "that's my pet cock," said as two distinct words as opposed to petcock. It was a visual pun and totally typical of this very atypical guy.

Some time later I was riding late at night, in the rain, up I-270 northwest from the DC Beltway and hit something in the road. My front tire on the K75 went flat within 30 seconds and I limped to the side of the road. It was after midnight, pouring rain, and I had a badly dented rim. No possibility of repair that night. A passing motorist helped me get the bike to a hotel and the next morning I remembered that Jim Colburn lived in Rockville, MD, which is where I was located. I called, explained that I needed help scrounging a wheel or repairs and he agreed readily to come to my aid. A bit later he showed up with the phone numbers of all the BMW dealers within 75 miles and, after a bite to eat, we called around till a used wheel was located.

"I'll be glad to get you there and back, but my only requirement is that I get to the White House by 1:30 PM." "Oh?" I said, totally baffled. "Yea, it's my day to cover the President." As we rode the thirty plus miles to Speeds, a dealer that had a used K bike wheel, he told me some of his professional history and had me in tears laughing at tales of some of his rides in Air Force One. We got back to the hotel parking lot with a replacement wheel at 1:05 PM. An Email later that evening when I got home confirmed that he had gotten the 28 miles to the White House by 1:30, dove headfirst into one of the limos leaving with the presidential entourage heading for the golf course and made his afternoon photo assignment.

That's the other side of Colburn. A biker he barely knew needed help. He spent half a day helping me scrounge a used wheel so I could get home and he then went to do what he did most every day back then. Take pictures of the President of the United States.

There's a picture of Jim when he was three where he's holding a camera and pointing it at the person taking a picture of him. That's how old Jim was when he knew he wanted to be a photographer. When he got older, Jim went to England and studied photography for six years at Medway College of Art and Design in Kent. While there he began to photograph rock stars like Deep Purple and the Sex Pistols. And he got published. Also while in England he fell in love with motorcycles and started out on a BSA Bantam. But he knew early on from what he saw of bikes in Europe that someday he'd own a BMW.

His career then moved on to celebrity photography from a base in New York City and during this time he published pictures of everyone from Rolling Stones and The Who, to most every major movie star. Once while assignment in the Bahamas Jim found himself sitting beside Sean Connery at a bar. On finding out Jim was a photographer Connery became quite abrupt, fearing that he was there as a paparazzi stalking him. Jim replied, "No, I'm not interested in you, I'm here to shoot the Queen of Sweden. After a friendly chuckle the drinks flowed for much of the evening.

Along the way Jim got married and had a daughter, Christine, who's now 12 years old and the pride of her father's life. After a somewhat difficult divorce Jim remains a very dedicated father and has fully shared custody of Christine every other week. In describing the many contrasts that are embodied in her father, Christine describes Jim as "on time and off balance." Very apt.

Jim's career then took him to Washington, D.C. and he shifted from celebrities and rock stars to politicians. I asked him how he made the switch and he replied that there really was no difference. "Washington is like a Hollywood for people with no talent". Jim's work has been published all over the world, in such periodicals as Newsweek, National Inquirer, Paris Match, and Stern. After a stint covering the Capitol and the White House as a free lance photographer, he became Washington photo editor for TIME Magazine. For the last year and a half his name has appeared on the masthead of this, one of the most respected news weeklies in the world.

And Jim did eventually get his first BMW, an R65. Then an R100GS/PD had a close encounter of the bent kind and he switched to a K75, which he found to be "too smooth." He then became one of the first riders in his area on an R850R. After two years riding that bike he again wanted something different. And in keeping with his offbeat personality Jim switched to a red F650, with Jesse panniers. Many considered it a move backwards. He loves that bike.

Jim's photographed presidents and kings, actors and rock stars, congressmen and diplomats. I asked him what for him was his most memorable photograph. "Well, there was one that I thought was just awful. I was covering Michael Jackson at his home in Encino. His car pulled away and I just pointed and shot. All that you saw in the picture was a white-gloved hand sticking out the back window of the Rolls Royce, waving. People Magazine did a two page layout of that picture, Paris Match also picked it up, and that picture was seen literally all around the world."

How do you make sense of Jim, a man with a very off-beat sense of humor, a BMW rider with an earring, a guy who's known since he was three that he wanted to be a photographer, and is now one of the best in the world at his chosen profession? "A child of five could understand him. Fetch me a child of five!"

Jeff Dunkle

If you have questions, comments or suggestions about this feature, please contact Jeff at dunklej@bellatlantic.net.