tdupuis
TheTed
Hello all, new member and an introduction.
I've been riding for about 18 years, up until last year all on road riding. About a year ago I decided I wanted to get into some more off-road/gravel/dirt/adventure type riding, and I ended up acquiring a 2001 R1150GS from a friend. The bike had 94k miles on it (now 95k) and was in need of a lot of TLC. I've been working on updating/improving it and making it work for my needs. We've since converted our household from a motorcycle perspective, selling the other street bikes and now have 100% knobby tires (although only one BMW). At first I wasn't fully sure about the 1150, but after getting it running properly and making some modifications to make it better suited for how I ride it (with more to come), I'm really enjoying it. I've got the idea in my head to do an iron butt ride to cross 100k after I get some more miles on it, but we'll see when that time comes.
So far aside from basic maintenance, I've put the bike on a significant diet (removed around 50 lbs from it) with an ABS delete, lithium battery, removing various brackets and items, and a lightweight muffler. I also replaced the stock 31/11 finale drive with a 37/11 final drive, which helps acceleration but also makes the bike better for technical off-road riding around my property. One of my favorite things to do is follow my kids around on their little TTR50. The bike had a twin-spark engine put in it at some point after the previous owner broke the original single spark engine, but the second set of spark plugs aren't hooked up to anything, so I'm looking at making those work, and I also have a set of the higher compression pistons from an R1150RT that I'll be swapping in. Overall, it's a fun project that I'm really enjoying.
My motorcycle group has become increasingly BMW. Some old friends of mine have old classic BMWs (R25/3, R50/3, a couple of R69s) that we take out when I'm back in my home town, and another good friend has an '18 R1200GSA and G310GS that we take out. My wife and I also went down to the the BMW Performance Center in Greer and did the one day off-road followed by one day on-road motorcycle courses (highly recommended).
Looking forward to being part of the community!
I've been riding for about 18 years, up until last year all on road riding. About a year ago I decided I wanted to get into some more off-road/gravel/dirt/adventure type riding, and I ended up acquiring a 2001 R1150GS from a friend. The bike had 94k miles on it (now 95k) and was in need of a lot of TLC. I've been working on updating/improving it and making it work for my needs. We've since converted our household from a motorcycle perspective, selling the other street bikes and now have 100% knobby tires (although only one BMW). At first I wasn't fully sure about the 1150, but after getting it running properly and making some modifications to make it better suited for how I ride it (with more to come), I'm really enjoying it. I've got the idea in my head to do an iron butt ride to cross 100k after I get some more miles on it, but we'll see when that time comes.
So far aside from basic maintenance, I've put the bike on a significant diet (removed around 50 lbs from it) with an ABS delete, lithium battery, removing various brackets and items, and a lightweight muffler. I also replaced the stock 31/11 finale drive with a 37/11 final drive, which helps acceleration but also makes the bike better for technical off-road riding around my property. One of my favorite things to do is follow my kids around on their little TTR50. The bike had a twin-spark engine put in it at some point after the previous owner broke the original single spark engine, but the second set of spark plugs aren't hooked up to anything, so I'm looking at making those work, and I also have a set of the higher compression pistons from an R1150RT that I'll be swapping in. Overall, it's a fun project that I'm really enjoying.
My motorcycle group has become increasingly BMW. Some old friends of mine have old classic BMWs (R25/3, R50/3, a couple of R69s) that we take out when I'm back in my home town, and another good friend has an '18 R1200GSA and G310GS that we take out. My wife and I also went down to the the BMW Performance Center in Greer and did the one day off-road followed by one day on-road motorcycle courses (highly recommended).
Looking forward to being part of the community!
