Biker sues BMW for 20-month erection

BMW markets its cars and motorbikes under the slogan “Sheer Driving Pleasure”, and also boasts “Less emissions. More driving pleasure”, but Californian Henry Wolf says his life has been devastated by the after-effects of his BMW bike experience.

Wolf is suing BMW and saddle-manufacturer Corbin-Pacific for medical costs, emotional stress and loss of income after a fateful road trip on his 1993 motorbike. Wolf says he has had a constant erection for 20 months.

Wolf’s lawsuit says he is “now is unable to engage in sexual activity, which is causing him substantial emotional and mental anguish.”

According to a report by US broadcaster CBS, Wolf bought a special ridge-like seat, meant to enhance comfort, for around $200 (€150).

But urologists dispute Wolf’s claim that his beamer is due to his Beamer.

“It’s been long-known that compression of the neurovascular supply to the penis – if it’s compressed for a period of time, whether it be on a bicycle seat or some other device — it can actually cause prolonged numbness of the genitalia,” Dr. Michael Lutz of the Michigan Institute of Urology told US radio station WWJ Newsradio 950.

“Not only in men, but women can also get numbness in that region if they’re compressing those nervous structures to that region of the body,” he added.

A spokeswoman at BMW Motorcycles in Southeast Michigan underlined the fact that Wolf was not riding a standard BMW seat. “Sometimes people say it’s more comfortable,” she told CBS. “Sometimes people can get a tall seat or a low seat or … they can come heated.”

The Local/bk