sprocket i/o

My Dakar, now without the Jesse bags.

On the commute to work this morning, I managed to hit the 20,000 mile anniversary with my motorcycle: A 2003 BMW F650GS Dakar. I first mentioned daydreaming about buying a BMW F650GS back in December, 2005. The idea came about from my friend, Dane Foster, who rode one in Fiji, and was further reinforced by reading the book Long Way Round by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. It ends up that the DVD set was better than the book in this case.

After giving Dallas the requisite 6 month period to come to terms with the idea of me and a motorcycle, and trying to buy a few of the smaller base F650GS models from people on Adventure Rider, I finally bought it in May, 2006 — almost two years ago! I really wanted a bike with ABS, and the only beginner option that could go offroad was the F650GS. The Dakar was a bit of a tall, and heavy motorcycle for a first one, but after dropping it 8 times (mostly offroad), I’ve kind of got the hang of it.

The best part of the bike has been the commute to and from work. Knowing I get to ride for 45 minutes instead of just sit in the cage leaves me wanting to go to work, even on the worst days. Of course, it also makes me want to leave work just a little earlier as well. The Dakar gets ~60mpg in real life, so it’s fairly affordable to keep running. I travel by motorcycle all but about one day per month, and then it’s only due to laziness rather than necessity. The cage just doesn’t interest me any, even when it’s raining cats and dogs. When I arrive to work on a bike, I feel excited, centered, and ready to rock.

Being raised by a safety nut (my Dad), I always have it on my mind. My father made us fly fluorescent orange flags mounted high above our bicycles growing up. Sure, it didn’t look cool, but my dad didn’t care, he only wanted to make sure that no inattentive driver accidentally hit us. He’d fit in well with the ADV community, since most of them seem to drive home the same message: Being dead isn’t cool. In the spirit of what my Dad used to make us do, I now wear a white helmet, a fluorescent green jacket, extra armor, and have plenty of reflective tape around my motorcycle. It’s a bit geeky, but I’ve noticed a remarkable difference between how much more the cars around me take notice now than when I wore a black helmet with grey pants. Safety studies over the last 20 years, such as Motorcycle rider conspicuity and crash related injury: case-control study agree with me.

Looking back at my two years, the best decision I made was taking the MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) class to learn how to ride. It gave me a place to practice different riding and safety techniques, on someone else’s motorcycle. For geeks, I think Proficient Motorcycling does a better job explaining the theory behind the techinques, but having the chance to drop someone else’s motorcycle before your own was well worth the $250 entrance fee. That, and it was an easy way to get my license.

Overall, the F650GS has been an awesome first bike. It’s got enough power to do 90mph bursts on the freeway, it’s agile enough for tricky slow speed maneuvers, and it’s got a very comfortable seat for the 6 hour rides I’ve done. Working on the bike has been very easy for a clutz like myself. If I was to change anything about the bike, I’d get one that’s lighter, and perhaps a touch more subtle. BMW now has some interesting alternative’s available, such as the G 650 Xcountry, and F800GS. Sadly, no other motorcycle vendors sell lightweight ABS equipped motorcycles in the USA. I can only assume this is due to the predominant motorcycling culture here where style trumps safety, but perhaps that will change over time.

On Saturday, I’ll be cruising over to BMW Motorcycles of Atlanta for their Spring Open House, and stopping by Machines In Motion / Triumph of North Georgia while I am out. Perhaps I’ll get to test ride something interesting! If you’re in the Atlanta area, and have a motorcycle license, you’re more than welcome to join me!