timebak
New member
Have ridden various bikes since the 60's, the first being a '68 Kawasaki 90. Had a Kawasaki 175 Enduro after that. Next was the bike that nearly killed me (but I had LOTS of fun on), a Kawasaki H1 Mach III 500; then a Suzuki GT 380 (bummer, really slow and didn't handle a bit better than the Mach III), in '78 bought a Honda Hawk 400 and it was my commuter bike. Then came a 1981 HD XLS Sportster Roadster: an absolute POS. AMF garbage. I needed a Honda or Kawasaki to follow that Sportster around to pick up the parts that fell off of it. It spent MONTHS in the local Harley shop and nothing was ever really fixed. That bike had only about 5000 miles on it when I traded it for a Kawasaki ZG1000 Concours: a wonderful bike. We outfitted the Concours well, and it was so comfortable that my wife could snooze away the miles, sitting behind me. I took it through Deals Gap, "The Tail of the Dragon", several times and was well pleased with its performance and it surprised quite a few folks that didn't know that a big touring bike could carve corners like it could. Alas, I sold it when the kids got involved in all sorts of stuff after they started school and I just didn't have time to ride. I've been bike-less since then.
A friend's grandfather collected bikes of various kinds. HD, Moto Guzzi, Vincent (including a genuine Black Lightning for a few years, which I got to ride once), Triumph, BSA, Norton, and had one BMW: an R75/5. He would have his grandson come over and bring some of his friends and we'd get out some of his bikes and all go for a cruise for the day or afternoon. The Black Lightning was probably the fastest bike he had, but its brakes weren't very good and it was pretty scary at speed (if I'd known then how rare that bike was, there was no way I'd have ridden it). The BMW was somewhat slower, but it was a lot better bike, but it was also 20 years newer. That old Airhead handled so much better than most of the bikes he had.
Now, here I am a couple of decades later and I've got a BAD hankerin' to get another bike. Been looking at and reading about a lot of different ones, and I keep coming back to the Beemers. The present wife says she's not going to ride with me, so I'll be solo most, if not all, of the time. I don't want to spend the money on a new bike to start with, so I'm looking at used R 1150 and 1200 RT's, R 1150 and 1200 GS's, and even at the F800GT's. I live up in northern Missouri, so wind is fairly constant. Right now I'm leaning towards an '07 R 1200 RT.
I'd love to hear your pros and cons of the bikes I'm looking at. Including things to watch out for while I'm shopping around. I'm very mechanically and electrically capable and own at least one of almost any tool you can name. The nearest BMW shop is 3 1/2 hours from me, so I'll do most of my own mechanic work. But I WON'T do it unless I know I can do it right.
So far, I've been very impressed with the amount of good, solid technical info that I've found here. And I'm looking forward to learning more from y'all.
Thanks,
Tim
A friend's grandfather collected bikes of various kinds. HD, Moto Guzzi, Vincent (including a genuine Black Lightning for a few years, which I got to ride once), Triumph, BSA, Norton, and had one BMW: an R75/5. He would have his grandson come over and bring some of his friends and we'd get out some of his bikes and all go for a cruise for the day or afternoon. The Black Lightning was probably the fastest bike he had, but its brakes weren't very good and it was pretty scary at speed (if I'd known then how rare that bike was, there was no way I'd have ridden it). The BMW was somewhat slower, but it was a lot better bike, but it was also 20 years newer. That old Airhead handled so much better than most of the bikes he had.
Now, here I am a couple of decades later and I've got a BAD hankerin' to get another bike. Been looking at and reading about a lot of different ones, and I keep coming back to the Beemers. The present wife says she's not going to ride with me, so I'll be solo most, if not all, of the time. I don't want to spend the money on a new bike to start with, so I'm looking at used R 1150 and 1200 RT's, R 1150 and 1200 GS's, and even at the F800GT's. I live up in northern Missouri, so wind is fairly constant. Right now I'm leaning towards an '07 R 1200 RT.
I'd love to hear your pros and cons of the bikes I'm looking at. Including things to watch out for while I'm shopping around. I'm very mechanically and electrically capable and own at least one of almost any tool you can name. The nearest BMW shop is 3 1/2 hours from me, so I'll do most of my own mechanic work. But I WON'T do it unless I know I can do it right.
So far, I've been very impressed with the amount of good, solid technical info that I've found here. And I'm looking forward to learning more from y'all.
Thanks,
Tim