It's bittersweet putting the old gal out to pasture.

[Pittsdriverwes]

I'm, of course, speaking of my 1200GS and not my wife. That bike partnered with me for some experiences of a life time (and a few I'd rather forget like that low side on the BRPR). I skipped over the 1250 vintage having rented them on a couple of fly & ride trips. That bike just didn't do much for me that my current well sorted 1200GS could do. Anywho, this bike followed me home yesterday after a touch and go negotiation with the kind folks at Bob's:



Now I've got my winter project work cut out for me to sort it out for some more adventuring. If any of you mooks have tips and advice about that I've got a new learning curve to climb and would appreciate any tips.

[Susan]

Congrats! That's a good looking bike. Bob's BMW was our dealer the 7 1/2 years we lived in PA. We found them to be good to work with.

[955i]

Looks like you gave a pass to the "microwave tank" models.

[Pittsdriverwes]

Ugly as home made sin says I. But for anyone on here that has one I'm sure it looks good on you!

[justjoe]

It has a purty mouth...

[Capnrip]

Congrats Wes!

[EricM]

Congrats, that’s too much bike for me, I’ll stick with my ugly/slow 1250.

[802Mike]

Darn you.... !
Congratulations, I've been tempted, but was able to pull back.
My old '15 GSA still does it for me. Sometimes I'd like to have
a lighter bike though. Especially after riding the 850 Tiger for
a day.
The thing is... if I ride to the dealer with my loaded GSA and
hop on a bare bones demo bike, it feels so much more nimble.
If I get a new bike I'll have to work on it all winter to add all the
doo-dads I like.
At 72, I may have one more new GS in me though.

[Pittsdriverwes]

That's why it took me so long to decide to trade out of my 1200GS - I had it perfectly equipped and sorted for me. My wife has taken to cursing under her breath every time she hears the deliver guy drop something on the front porch because she knows I'm back in that zone where I'll be on the computer all day looking at motorcycle stuff and spending the kid's inheritance.

[cabnfvr]

Congrats! I love the change they made to the steering. Fun bike!

[Doctor350]

Who would have thought that BMW would make the GS good looking? Congratulations

[Doctor350]

I rode my mates Ducati 1098 the other day, and not one pair of panties came flying at me. Mine, however, were a touch moist

[justjoe]

The bigger question Cap'n Underpanties, how many times have you thrown yours at Ducati riders?

[Doctor350]

I only throw at GS riders

[cabnfvr]

TIP$ and ADVI$E ..........

I read that the TFT $creens are a high theft item. That $eems weird, but it wa$ the Internet where I read it $o it ha$ to be true. Wunderlich (6 mile$ from our home!) ha$ an anti-theft cover (and optional vi$or) for the TFT $creen.

I added the vi$or for the Zumo XT2 a$ well.

$ierra BMW ha$ an adapter for the BMW GP$ plug if you change to another brand of GP$ (from BMW).

Under$eat $torage i$ nearly non-exi$tant on the R1300G$. I highly recommend a tool bag for under the tail rack.

MotoPump$ ha$ a variety of GPS mount$ and lock$ a$ well a$ compact tire pump$.

The Wunderlich Touring $port $creen ha$ better airflow (for me, YMMV) than the $tock screen. $tock wa$n't bad, but just a bit turbulent.

La$tly I recommend the Wunderlich $eat leveling and pa$$enger $tabilization kit$.


Enjoy $hopping, and Merry Christma$!

[EricM]

Tim, you missed 4 “S’s�

[cabnfvr]

Eric, I ran out of $.

[Pittsdriverwes]

Thanks for all the tips on ways to spend my kid's inheritance. I like the look of that touring screen from Wunderlich.

[955i]

Wait. A headlight costs $3,360? is this the Babylon Bee?

[cabnfvr]

We fully covered but comprehensive won't help us much if we're a couple of thousand miles from home. The protection is cheap insurance.

[802Mike]

True, I wasn't thinking... mine still has four more lights on it.

[cabnfvr]

Our first cross country "tool kit" was a Motorola phone (think small walkie talkie), credit card and the motorcycle title.

[Riverfurm]

I'm, of course, speaking of my 1200GS and not my wife. That bike partnered with me for some experiences of a life time (and a few I'd rather forget like that low side on the BRPR). I skipped over the 1250 vintage having rented them on a couple of fly & ride trips. That bike just didn't do much for me that my current well sorted 1200GS could do. Anywho, this bike followed me home yesterday after a touch and go negotiation with the kind folks at Bob's:



Now I've got my winter project work cut out for me to sort it out for some more adventuring. If any of you mooks have tips and advice about that I've got a new learning curve to climb and would appreciate any tips.

I got one too!

[Pittsdriverwes]

Giddy up Furman!! I think this 1300GS has saved my motorcycle soul. It's that good.

[Riverfurm]

It has been in the garage for two weeks now. Got 14 miles on it. The roads are salt covered and many still have snow on them. My garage is packed with snow removal equipment and motorcycles. My neighbors HD is in my garage. The dealer won't store or service it any more because it over 20 years old. So I will make a list on accessories I want and start working on it soon.

[Susan]

"My neighbors HD is in my garage. The dealer won't store or service it any more because it over 20 years old."
That is the right and decent thing to do. You're a good person, Furman.

[Pittsdriverwes]

After living through the Mid-Atlantic Ice Age for the past month, I finally got out and put a few miles on my new bike - about 130 miles from Annapolis down to Solomons and back on two lane along the Chesapeake Bay:



I haven't decided yet that I'm unhappy with the OEM seat (I've never swapped out an OEM seat on any bike) but I'm trying a few things to see if it improves my comfort at the 3 hour mark in the saddle. I've used an Air Hawk on it that was OK and on this ride I also wore a pair of bike shorts that had a little padding in them. That combo was too much so I removed the Air Hawk for the 70 mile ride back home. That might actually be the ticket for backside comfort.

I had also installed a VStream windscreen during the weather stand down and after this recent ride can report that it's not as good as the OEM windscreen at reducing wind noise on the go. It's not hateful but in thinking about the several thousand miles I plan to ride in April I'm drawn to finding a solution to a quieter cockpit.

I still hate the noise the Michelin Anakee Adenture tires make any time the bike is tipped even slightly. Still ponder whether to leave them on and wear them out on the big ride or swap them off for some Dunlop Trailmax Missions at the break-in service.

Other news, I'm getting more familiar now with the switch gear and displays. I'm liking the Carpuride 702BS CarPlay display and the way I interact with it. Here's a short video of a ride where I was testing a chin mounted Varnock camera for wind noise in the waterproof case for it.

https://vimeo.com/1154442419?fl=pl&fe=sh

Furman, I hope you're finally getting a few miles on your new scoot now!

[wildbears]

Nice!

[wildbears]

excellent video....

[cabnfvr]

After our first long trip (SGR 2025) we decided to try a Wunderlich seat. We ordered it and picked it up once we got home. It lasted for a day and then we returned it. Too hard and too locked into one position. And it didn't look as good as OEM. Oddly enough the OEM seat is now very OK. Maybe we just needed some seat time to adjust. Now we like it.
And the bike overall is a hoot to ride.

[Pittsdriverwes]

I was actually waffling on not doing any of this and just riding it on my big road trip without any additional lights, horn, etc that I had on my previous bike. Then someone alerted me to the Hex ezCan Mojave (the new one) on Twisted Throttle for less than half price and I jumped on that still not thinking if I'd use it right away or not. Well, it sat there on my bench taunting me with its ease of installation and great functionality so I ordered the Skene lights and installed it all this past weekend. I'm happy with making my brake lights more conspicuous

https://youtu.be/s6-a0it2PHI?si=wbijj3ILSdnIORvB

But now I have another problem.

That ezCan is just sitting there installed on the bike with two (could be 3) empty circuits just waiting for some 12V toys to be installed. You guessed it - I'm feeling taunted again for leaving those poor connectors with nothing to do. I woke up this morning about 2 hours earlier than usual just laying there in bed trying to remember all the lighting choices I'd researched a while back. I got up and started down that rabbit hole immediately eliminating all the stupid expensive choices like Clearwater and Lone Rider leaving the still unconscionable pricing of the Denali and Ruby lights. I wandered off in to the world of Ebay options finding lights there like the CoLights and other much cheaper chineseum products like I had used in the past.

My mouse hovered over the Colights and their 60 million lumen claim for a little over a hundo; and, ChatGPT said I could run the halo off one ezcan circuit and the main light off another to control them separately but something didn't feel right about that answer. I contacted CoLights and sure enough, they said that won't work off the ezCan the way I was thinking it would. So now I'm back to looking at the <$20 lights that throw off 6,000 lumens each that I had on my previous bike. I almost pulled the trigger when I had the thought, "you know, what if I'm really more interested now in conspicuity than turning night in to day - are there options for the OEM lights hanging on the bike now?

Here's a video on staining the accessory lights on a R1300GS:

https://youtu.be/g_JOypwX2bc?si=ItrvSwWWZ7U4AxiP

After a pretty thorough search of the interwebs the only place I could find an 11 oz spray can of that stained glass paint wanted $97 for one can. cough, bovine scat. So I looked around and ordered a small roll of transparent yellow film.

About 30 minutes in the garage and here's the result of applying a yellow transparent adhesive film to the OEM accessory lights:






This is the product I used on them cut in to a proper size square then applied with a heat gun set on very low heat and trimmed with a razor blade knife.





Time will tell how well this holds up to bug strikes but it is designed for use on auto headlight covers so I'm optimistic - and if it becomes a mess it is easy to peal off. I'm pretty satisfied that I have a solution for those left turning motorcycle assassins now to make me more visible but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that those unused ezCan circuits are still taunting me for something to make them useful. I'm thinking maybe a dash cam system and an obnoxiously loud horn?

[justjoe]

Do eeeeet or you shall be taunted a second time! (said as John Cleese in Monty Python's Holy Grail)

[Pittsdriverwes]

Challenge accepted Joe, I installed a pretty decent but cheap dash cam system on it and through some imaginative installation surgery got a one piece offensive weapon of an air horn installed under the beak.