Figured I'll start a consolidated "me playing with motorcycles" thread as a continuation of my BMW R1200GS thread that was headed that way anyway.
As mentioned in the other thread, I managed to fall off my bike in early September with some help from the local wildlife. While doing so I noticed I didn't bounce that well anymore and promptly broke my collarbone. At least only the bike got totaled and I live on to complain about it . Given that this was the most serious accident so far in almost a quarter century of riding motorcycles, I'm not complaining.
I'll see what the latest X-rays will discover on Wednesday, but the last time I got irridated, I still had a custom three piece collarbone. I've started replacing and upgrading both my wife's and my safety gear and even managed to convince my wife that an open face helmet was a bad idea after she had a look at the state of my helmet after the low speed crash.
As I still can't really wrench on my vehicles and can't ride right now, I've entertained myself trying to figure out what I would get to replace the GS. That's actually not that easy as they are pretty much the do-everything bike. I still haven't quite made up my mind - I'm going back and forth between getting a cruiser that is comfortable for two up touring and another, older BMW Airhead to celebrate 'Entschleunigung'. 'Entschleunigug' being one of those German words that doesn't have a proper English equivalent, but roughly means a deliberate attempt to slow down the pace (of living and riding). It's kinda the opposite of 'Beschleunigung' - acceleration - but with some philosophical overtones.
Right, and now that I've confused myself and everybody who read this far, where are we right now?
Well, I did make a drive-by purchase of the answer to the question "when is a BMW K1 not a K1?". The answer to this riddle looks like this:
No, it's not a BMW K1100RS - this is the much rarer K100RS 16V (which is essentially a K1 with less quirky bodywork) that's been fitted with a K1100RS lower fairing. My understanding is that this was a dealer fit option on these bikes, at least in the US. I've owned one of these before that I rebuilt after a crash and when I decided that maybe I wouldn't mind another one, I found out just how rare these are. Anyway, the bike is currently in CO waiting for the shipper to pick it up.
Still doesn't answer the question as to what I want for the actual replacement for the GS. I've got a line on what looks like a decent, low-ish mileage R100GS in Jersey, but I also keep getting sidetracked by Ultra Glides and their Indian bretheren. I've never owned a fully equipped bagger before, and I keep noticing people selling especially early Twin Cam Ultra Glides for very reasonable money with reasonable miles on them. Main problem is that I'm not too fond of really heavy bikes, and they don't get much heavier than an Ultra Glide (well, a Victory Vision, but that one might be a weird bike too far even for me).
So for now I'm keeping an eye out for something that speaks to me and see what comes up. Oh, and in case someone was planning to point out the irony that I do like BMW motorcycles enough to buy their weird models, but don't like their cars, yes, I'm well aware of that .