jeffkruger
New member
Last week, heading towards home through a rather remote part of Montana I came upon a KTM rider alongside the road, rear wheel removed. I won't pass by another rider that is having problems anywhere, but especially this far from other help. I carry a compressor and quite a few tools with me and stopped to offer help. Turned out he was a heck of a nice guy. Was heading towards home after riding in Manitoba and ended up with a flat rear. I helped him get his old tube out, and we found the damage very close to the valve stem. This rider was well prepared and had another tube. His rear tire was stiff, and there wasn't much drop in the rim, and having two sets of hands to get the new tube in, the valve stem through, and getting the bead re-seated definitely made it an easier chore. It was hot and it took us a total of about two hours by the time the wheel was back on and his bike was ready to roll. We decided to ride 60 miles or so to the next town and have lunch together, and I followed him to make sure everything looked okay as he was going down the road.
This fellow had problems with fuel filters the day before and had spent most of the day putting new filers in, which he thankfully had with him. At lunch he told me he was hoping to be closer to home on the Oregon coast, but the problems had obviously delayed him a bit. I told him I already had a room in Missoula and he was welcome to bunk with me. He said he would decide when we got to Missoula if he was going any further or not. After a couple of construction stops and some thunder showers it was about 8pm when we pulled into Missoula and he decided to take me up on my offer.
A couple of times this nice fellow mentioned that I had changed his opinion of BMW riders a bit. He said that most that he had met during his extensive travels were somewhat snobbish and not very friendly. That sort of surprised me. I am very much a solo rider and enjoy riding alone or with one of my kids or spouse as pillion. Most other BMW owners I have met while traveling have been very nice, and quite a few like me were enjoying some solo travel. Maybe it was just perception on his part, thinking that since he wasn't on a BMW other riders looked at him differently. As a whole, I have found most BMW owners to be friendly folks, willing to at least engage in some friendly conversation or share a meal. I can't imagine many of them not stopping to see if they could help a fellow rider, no matter what brand of bike.
I do have to say that talking about the maintenance on his bike and what it took to do it made me even more appreciative of my GS with it's simple to maintain boxer motor. Having owned an adventure bike with tube tires, his tube changing experience also made me appreciate my spoked tubeless wheels/tires.
This fellow had problems with fuel filters the day before and had spent most of the day putting new filers in, which he thankfully had with him. At lunch he told me he was hoping to be closer to home on the Oregon coast, but the problems had obviously delayed him a bit. I told him I already had a room in Missoula and he was welcome to bunk with me. He said he would decide when we got to Missoula if he was going any further or not. After a couple of construction stops and some thunder showers it was about 8pm when we pulled into Missoula and he decided to take me up on my offer.
A couple of times this nice fellow mentioned that I had changed his opinion of BMW riders a bit. He said that most that he had met during his extensive travels were somewhat snobbish and not very friendly. That sort of surprised me. I am very much a solo rider and enjoy riding alone or with one of my kids or spouse as pillion. Most other BMW owners I have met while traveling have been very nice, and quite a few like me were enjoying some solo travel. Maybe it was just perception on his part, thinking that since he wasn't on a BMW other riders looked at him differently. As a whole, I have found most BMW owners to be friendly folks, willing to at least engage in some friendly conversation or share a meal. I can't imagine many of them not stopping to see if they could help a fellow rider, no matter what brand of bike.
I do have to say that talking about the maintenance on his bike and what it took to do it made me even more appreciative of my GS with it's simple to maintain boxer motor. Having owned an adventure bike with tube tires, his tube changing experience also made me appreciate my spoked tubeless wheels/tires.