barrettnjones
New member
Here in my cozy (heated) Vermont basement during the winter of 2011-2012. I'm what I believe to be half way through and thought I might contribute to the forum that I've so often come to for resource.
Back story:
Owned (but no longer):
2003 F650GS (20 state, 4 Provence trip back in 2006. 10,200 miles)
2007 R1200R (multiple Bum Burner rides up and down the East coast & out to SD)
2010 R1200GS
Sadly, the last bike I had to part with because of the wonderful addition to my new family. My son was born in December of 2010. We found out we were expecting just one week after taking delivery of my dream bike.
Well, you know what DIAPER is spelled backwards?
So alas, I sold the dream bike (the payments of which were the likes of a nice automobile). But only after promising to own a bucket list bike, a /5.
I found a running '72 down in Mass, purchased it, & rode it up (plateless, that was a fun day, July 4th even). The title said it was a '71 but the build date on the side of the frame says september of '71 making it a '72. Running the VIN confirmed this. It took some convincing and a lot of southern charm (I'm from NC but that's another story) to get the VT DMV lady to properly register it in VT as a '72. Unfortunately it's too old for the state to deem it worth titling.
I rode it until Thanksgiving '11 then began the fun.
So here we go.
Hopefully I can make this bike last another 40 years and give it to my son.
Disclaimer: I'm no mechanic. I like taking things apart and figuring out how they work. And then (hopefully) making it work better. My day job is teaching high school math so I'm usually a pretty logical person. If you think there might be an easier way of doing something please let me know.
Back story:
Owned (but no longer):
2003 F650GS (20 state, 4 Provence trip back in 2006. 10,200 miles)
2007 R1200R (multiple Bum Burner rides up and down the East coast & out to SD)
2010 R1200GS
Sadly, the last bike I had to part with because of the wonderful addition to my new family. My son was born in December of 2010. We found out we were expecting just one week after taking delivery of my dream bike.
Well, you know what DIAPER is spelled backwards?
So alas, I sold the dream bike (the payments of which were the likes of a nice automobile). But only after promising to own a bucket list bike, a /5.
I found a running '72 down in Mass, purchased it, & rode it up (plateless, that was a fun day, July 4th even). The title said it was a '71 but the build date on the side of the frame says september of '71 making it a '72. Running the VIN confirmed this. It took some convincing and a lot of southern charm (I'm from NC but that's another story) to get the VT DMV lady to properly register it in VT as a '72. Unfortunately it's too old for the state to deem it worth titling.
I rode it until Thanksgiving '11 then began the fun.
So here we go.
Hopefully I can make this bike last another 40 years and give it to my son.
Disclaimer: I'm no mechanic. I like taking things apart and figuring out how they work. And then (hopefully) making it work better. My day job is teaching high school math so I'm usually a pretty logical person. If you think there might be an easier way of doing something please let me know.