Sold!

Sold. My trusty R1150GS sold in fall 2008 in Vancouver, BC. This blog is now closed.

New Bike, new Blog

I bought a new bike, so I have a new blog. My new 2007 BMW R1200GS Adventure (in Alpine White) is chronicled over here: r1200gsadv.blogspot.com

I'll update this blog a few more times, at least until I sell the R1150GS bike.

FS: 2001 BMW R1150GS (non-ABS)

*** SOLD ***

I've bought a new R1200GS Adventure so my reliable steed was sold.

Year:	2001
Odometer:	42,936 km
Colour:	Titan Silver Metallic
Features:	Heated Grips Cylinder Head Covers Headlight Shield Aeroflow Screen + Stock Screen Fog Lights Luggage Brackets
Specifications:	Horsepower - 85 hp @ 6,800 rpm Torque - 72 ft-lbs @ 5,300 rpm Seat Height - 840/860 mm Wet Weight - 242 kg Fuel Capacity - 22 litres Transmission - 6 gears
Price:	CDN$10,900 ... or best offer... Willing to deal.

More pictures on Picasa here.

Vancouver Motorcycle Show - BMW HP2

As mentioned in the previous post, here's the HP2. It's a big bike by any measure, except perhaps weight (considering it's class.) The engine is twin-cylinder 1200cc (approx.) and it's rated at 105 hp and 85 lb-ft of torque. Seat height is 'high' (I forget how high.)
Something unique for a BMW boxer twin is the traditional fork up front -- not a telelever assembly. 

Vancouver Motorcycle Show - BMW G650 Xchallenge

Another new BMW. This is a single-cylinder 650cc dual sport / enduro bike. It's got an air shock in the back, just like it's bigger brother the HP2.
Word is that it'll be around $11,500 (Canadian $) when it comes out this spring.
Could this be an entry-level HP2 for half the price? I think so. 

2007 Vancouver Motorcycle Show - BMW K1200S

What more is there to say? This is the start of the new generation of K bikes from BMW. It's rated at 167 hp and compares against other open class sportbikes. Electronics out the wazoo: ABS, ESA, XYZ and PDQ.
Great bike. Great reviews. I think it would be too single-purpose for me. But then again, I haven't ridden it. For my money I still think I'd lean towards the K1200R Sport model. 

2007 Vancouver Motorcycle Show - BMW K1200R

Well, well.... Here's the beast. I really like the new K1200 series and this is my favourite variant that's available in Canada. The Roadster (K1200R) is a naked version of the K1200S with 163 hp in a four-cylinder 1200 cc engine.

This past spring I participated in the BMW test ride at John Valk BMW Ducati and this was one of the two bikes I chose to ride. It was quite the rush...

It's roughly double the power of my R1150GS and it was a visceral experience. There weren't many places to "open it up" on the test ride route, but one short stretch of divided highway let me toy with the throttle. Every time I twisted I instinctively leaned forward to keep the front wheel on the ground. Simply amazing. And the RPM range of the four-cylinder was almost double that of my twin. The effect was going from 40 km/h to 90 km/h in second gear without using the entire range.

Now, you might have noticed my qualifier above: "available in Canada." Since I've now seen the shots of the K1200R Sport model in magazines I've decided that's the one I would get (as a second bike) if I took the plunge. It's the same as this bike but with a half-fairing / bikini-fairing that looks really practical for getting out for a day ride or even a trip over a couple of days. But, alas, not in Canada, at least not this year. 

2007 Vancouver Motorcycle Show - BMW F800S

Yesterday I mentioned the BMW F800ST and how I am developing a slight preference for the F800S, this bike. Since I would only consider this as a second bike, not a primary bike, I feel I have sport-touring end covered with my R1150GS.

This F800S, as a more pure sporting machine, would serve to scratch the itch of faster day trips around southwestern BC and possibly northern Washington State.

Same specs as the F800ST with an 800cc twin-cylinder engine that makes about 80 hp. I believe they are belt-drive, which we haven't seen from BMW since the F650CS or Scarver.
BTW, this is my buddy Rob on the bike, trying it on for size. He rides a Buell Firebolt 900. 

2007 Vancouver Motorcycle Show

Well, another year and another motorcycle show. This year we went on Friday evening and it was the right choice. The crowds were much less and we saw everything we wanted to see in only 2.5 hours without rushing around. My buddy Rob and I left work in Burnaby at 5:30 and arrived at the Trade Ex at Abottsford Airport around 6:30 PM. (Hurray for carpool lanes!)
Over the next days and weeks I'll post pictures of bikes that interested me. This is not a soup-to-nuts coverage of the show by any means. These bikes were appealing to me enough for me to release the shutter.
This is the new 2007 BMW F800ST. It's an 800-cc twin-cyclinder sport-touring machine. Makes something like 80 hp. I categorize it as a mid-sized bike as it fit me fine at 6'2" and my wife also liked it and she's 5'4". (We tried it on at John Valk BMW Ducati in Vancouver several weeks before the show.) I am leaning 49%/51% towards the F800S as my favourite of the two. I'll post about that tomorrow. 

Optilux Fog Light Installation

For Giftmas I got a pair of Optilux 1450 Fog Lights. These are made by Hella, but are much less expensive. Lordco (a local auto-supply chain) had them on sale for $50 before Christmas. The kit comes with bulbs, metal housings, brackets, wire, connectors, a lighted switch and the relay.
This was the most major modification I've made to the bike yet. As you can see from the pictures, it involves taking off the tank to get at the battery and relays.
The Previous Owner (PO) must have had auxilliary lights, but removed them prior to sale. The wiring and switch was left in place. That was step one: Remove the old wiring and relay. Easy.
Installing the new lights really only had two big steps: run the wiring and bolt the lights to a bracket. All told, this job took me about 6 hours over a couple of days. I took my time and worked on a few other things on the bike at the same time.
The new Aeroflow windshield has holes for mounting lights on the bar that mounts under the beak to support the shield. I used those to mount the Optilux lights. It took two runs to Home Depot before I had the right size bolts to do the job.
The wiring wasn't particularly hard, but it took a long time because I wanted to be neat. Lots of zip-straps were used to keep the wires snug to the frame. I attached the supplied switch to the bottom of the instrument panel with velcro tape. The switch isn't waterproof, so I may need to replace it with something marine-rated.
In my next post I'll detail the first ride and some upcoming tweaks to make the setup better.