So, hi everyone. As you can probably tell from the title I'm a new rider (taking the basic rider safety course next Thursday). I've been wanting to ride since about middle school, and it took until now and some gerrymandering by my dad to get my mom to cave. It might also have something to do with clocking almost 20,000 accident and ticket-free miles on four wheels.
Initially, my plan was to just ride dads '97 BMW R1100RT until I could go down to Canoga Park and pick up my own ex-LAPD Kawasaki Kz1000P. As luck turned out, though, there was an ex-CHP '02 R1150RT-P with 48k on an eBay classified ad for only $2000 in San Francisco, about 20 minutes from me. Because we're opportunists and we figured the 1150 would be very similar to the 1100 we already know how to work on, he emailed the seller, rode it around, and the next day it was ours.
Some people are wary of ex-law enforcement bikes, with good reason, but we somehow stumbled across a diamond in the rough. Both front and rear shocks have been replaced with Ohlins, and we got a stack of service records about half an inch thick documenting about $3000 in service done, including a replacement final drive. The PO said he didn't like how it rode since he's more used to cruisers. Our bet was that the he wasn't too handy and got sick of the dealer emptying his wallet. His loss.
So here I am, a newbie with some wheels and nothing to do with them.
Initially, my plan was to just ride dads '97 BMW R1100RT until I could go down to Canoga Park and pick up my own ex-LAPD Kawasaki Kz1000P. As luck turned out, though, there was an ex-CHP '02 R1150RT-P with 48k on an eBay classified ad for only $2000 in San Francisco, about 20 minutes from me. Because we're opportunists and we figured the 1150 would be very similar to the 1100 we already know how to work on, he emailed the seller, rode it around, and the next day it was ours.
Some people are wary of ex-law enforcement bikes, with good reason, but we somehow stumbled across a diamond in the rough. Both front and rear shocks have been replaced with Ohlins, and we got a stack of service records about half an inch thick documenting about $3000 in service done, including a replacement final drive. The PO said he didn't like how it rode since he's more used to cruisers. Our bet was that the he wasn't too handy and got sick of the dealer emptying his wallet. His loss.
So here I am, a newbie with some wheels and nothing to do with them.