Contrary to my April Fool’s joke, I did not bring home a ’97 Chevy Suburban this week. Instead, I brought this home:
It’s a 2001 BMW R1150GS. At only 85hp, it’s no racebike, but instead more closely resembles a two-wheeled tractor. I chose this bike because the bike that I liked best as a rider and my wife liked best as a passenger was the more-modern and sportier BMW R1200GS. The only thing I didn’t like was it’s price =)
Those of you who know my gear may say.. “That photo doesn’t look like you, Thomas”. That’s because it’s not, it’s my friend Cedric. In Belgium, you cannot buy insurance unless you bring in the title for the vehicle. Cedric has insurance coverage already for his motorcycle, so he rode my bike home for me. I drove his car, which is a 10-year old Opel manual.
Other than a few sad attempts with my wife’s Volkswagen Bus, I’ve never driven a stick-shift before. At first I was revving Cedric’s Opel quite high in 1st gear from a stop, thinking it would stall out early like my F650GS did. I was also shifting too quickly, and sometimes ending up pushing the gas pedal while I was in neutral rather than 3rd. By the end of the day, I got the hang of everything except for over-revving the engine coming from a stop. It was nice having a manual transmission to be honest, and given another hour or two I could get quite used to it. Given how the car smelled after the first 40km think I may owe Cedric a new clutch however.
I’m not sure Cedric fared that much better with the R1150GS. He is used to his Honda CB600F Hornet, a smaller bike with more horsepower. Cedric was quite nervous about the height of the bike, even with the lowest seat position. He looked good while riding it, but at stops it looked a bit weird because he was trying to put both feet on the ground rather than just the left foot. The bike is now sitting in the corner of the garage until I get my insurance and license plate next week:
As you can kind of see in the photo, it comes with two side-cases, a top case, and a tank bag. It’s all setup for a 2 week trip around Europe. The only thing missing is a comfort pad on the top-case, and a beautiful passenger. I’m very eager to go wandering around France or Spain with this bike =)
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