Might as well step up and get the Triumph Tiger 900 ProI'd like an F 850 GS.. to try out...
A BMW I'd actually like to own.
- Thread starter ST Gui
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,962
- Location
- near Harrow, Ontario, Canada
- Bike
- '83 BMW R100RS
- STOC #
- 8870
Thanks for the kind words on the Honda GL1100 top box adaptation to the R100RS gents - I am really pleased with the installation and overall appearance of the bike. It doesn't look like a shade-tree modification: I think it has a "factory" look to it.
I will say that getting the seat on the bike is a very difficult task. Like most things on the BMW Airheads, the seat mounting system is simple, but for this particular set of components, access is pretty poor and having a 4-5 lb box wagging the whole assembly around makes it even more challenging. Nonetheless, if I remove the right-hand Krauser case, the seat will still swing open to the right which allows access to the tool box and small compartment in the tailcone.
One other thing will be important going forward: most motorcycle top boxes are mounted on racks that are fixed to the frame of the bike, but this one is attached to a rack that is bolted to the seat pan - which isn't nearly as sturdy. Frankly, the BMW rear rack seems more ornamental than useful as it is so small and not all of the cross bars are even flat so attaching anything very large would require A LOT of bungees.
Anyhow, I will be limiting the amount of weight that I put in the Honda top box so that I don't damage anything (it will hold only clothing, rain gear etc.). I will store my tools and extensive holdings of gold bars and Kruegerands in the Krauser hard cases when I travel.
Despite the demonstrated durability of the BMW Airheads, they are actually very lightly constructed with obvious and careful attention paid to each individual part to make it strong enough, but as light as possible. In that way they are somewhat like an aircraft - juuuussst strong enough, but not too strong. I guess that is how BMW was able to build a comfortable aircooled 1000cc sport touring bike that weighs 503 lbs and can do 125 MPH all day on about 70 HP while providing remarkably good wind and rain protection. Working on them is definitely not for folks who are ham-fisted with a wrench.
Quite the opposite of the design philosophy of say....Hogly Ferguson which favours road-hugging weight.
As the saying goes, if you look after the ounces and grams, the pounds and kilograms will look after themselves.
Pete
I will say that getting the seat on the bike is a very difficult task. Like most things on the BMW Airheads, the seat mounting system is simple, but for this particular set of components, access is pretty poor and having a 4-5 lb box wagging the whole assembly around makes it even more challenging. Nonetheless, if I remove the right-hand Krauser case, the seat will still swing open to the right which allows access to the tool box and small compartment in the tailcone.
One other thing will be important going forward: most motorcycle top boxes are mounted on racks that are fixed to the frame of the bike, but this one is attached to a rack that is bolted to the seat pan - which isn't nearly as sturdy. Frankly, the BMW rear rack seems more ornamental than useful as it is so small and not all of the cross bars are even flat so attaching anything very large would require A LOT of bungees.
Anyhow, I will be limiting the amount of weight that I put in the Honda top box so that I don't damage anything (it will hold only clothing, rain gear etc.). I will store my tools and extensive holdings of gold bars and Kruegerands in the Krauser hard cases when I travel.
Despite the demonstrated durability of the BMW Airheads, they are actually very lightly constructed with obvious and careful attention paid to each individual part to make it strong enough, but as light as possible. In that way they are somewhat like an aircraft - juuuussst strong enough, but not too strong. I guess that is how BMW was able to build a comfortable aircooled 1000cc sport touring bike that weighs 503 lbs and can do 125 MPH all day on about 70 HP while providing remarkably good wind and rain protection. Working on them is definitely not for folks who are ham-fisted with a wrench.
Quite the opposite of the design philosophy of say....Hogly Ferguson which favours road-hugging weight.
As the saying goes, if you look after the ounces and grams, the pounds and kilograms will look after themselves.
Pete
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Still, even though the dash display is awesome, I'm getting hooked on the tracer.Might as well step up and get the Triumph Tiger 900 Pro
OP
OP
Geeze that's a good fit with the rest of the Samsonite!
I wasn't sure that wouldn't look a little clunk IIH. But it really looks good on the bike. And great ROI! Well done.
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,962
- Location
- near Harrow, Ontario, Canada
- Bike
- '83 BMW R100RS
- STOC #
- 8870
...and now for the next chapter in the Saga of Gretel - a 1983 BMW R100RS after which I have lusted since I was a mere boy of 19 when this model was introduced in 1977 by "those other people" in Munich.
I ride with a group of guys from the central Ontario city of Peterborough (about 500 km northeast of me in Windsor) and I am the youngest by about 8 years. The group has a lot of fun; we don't ride for more than 90 minutes without a stop for a pee-pee (older guys ya' know) and we seldom do more than about 350-400 km/day (around 200-250 miles). We stay in reasonable hotels and do not eat at McDonalds, although Timmy's meals are typical - 'cause we are all Canadians. Each afternoon we dismount and have a "healing circle" which involves adult beverages etc. and then we walk or cab (NEVER ride) to a decent restaurant and usually we turn-in by around 8:30-9:00 PM with a kickstands-up time of about 8:15 AM.
The group is known as the WKRMC (Walter's Kawartha Riders MC) - named after Walter, a retired bank executive and our Fearless Leader who rides a 2019 H-D Road Glide / King / Chromasaurus...something-or-other. The other guys on this trip were Paul (a retired General Electric nuclear engineer) on 2016 Honda F6B which is a GL1800 bagger, and my cousin Grant - a retired building contractor, riding a 2021 GL1800 Gold Wing - so I had, by far, the oldest and least sophisticated bike.
I have attached a couple of maps of Ontario so that interested readers can follow along. Ontario is a pretty big province (eg. it is about 800 km from Windsor in the extreme southwest to our national capital city of Ottawa near the eastern end of the southern part of the province). You will note that much of northern Ontario is only sparsely populated. About 90% of Canada's 34M inhabitants live within a 100 mile-wide strip of the US border and about half that number (around 14 million) live in Ontario - the vast majority of whom are in the southern Ontario "band" between Windsor and Ottawa. Once you get north of that "band", the countryside really is beautiful, but it is mainly rocks and hills and trees - all the way north until people start using the Cyrillic alphabet. Like many Canadians, I have travelled widely outside of our country but, sadly, I have never been north of say... Kapuskasing (oh, I'd love to hear people from abroad try to pronounce that town name) or Kenora. There are very few, if any, roads to places like Attawapiskat, Bearskin Lake or Fort Severn and travel up there is mainly by air or rail.
Here is a photo of the WKRMC beside Hwy. 17 - just south of North Bay in typical northern Ontario scenery (left to right: Walter, Paul and Grant). The highway is in good condition but there is nobody else around and the bush begins literally about 20-30' from each side of the road. Wildlife abounds and large animals such as deer and moose pose a serious hazard to traveler at night. The rule of thumb is that if you hit a deer, you will likely be injured and your bike wrecked (as has been found by several ST Owners) - but if you hit a moose, you will be dead. European visitors often ask about wolves and bears - but they are rarely seen near roads and don't pose much of a concern unless they are startled, feel cornered or their young are nearby. If you want to see a bear - go to a town garbage dump in any northern town - but stay in the car and keep the windows UP. Only total idiots would ever attempt to feed a bear. They are not meat-eaters, but they are big and strong, have sharp claws and teeth and can run much faster than any human. If you piss-off a bear, you will lose. Wolves...never seen one up close - they are generally shy and don't want human contact unless they are hungry and smell food waste or a small dog etc.
NOTE: Gretel is parked on the Brown aftermarket sidestand and it seems fine at this point in the trip (but, more about that later).
The WKRMC Summer 2021 trip was basically from Peterborough north to New Liskeard (between Cobalt and Englehart) and then the plan was to go into Quebec to Val d'Or and then south to Mont Tremblant (a major skiing destination in the winter - near Mont Laurier) and then back to Peterborough via Ottawa. BTW - Peterborough is just north of Oshawa (not Ottawa) - just east of Toronto on the map. Aren't aboriginal Canadian names fun?
So, to beat some impending rain, I departed Windsor after lunch on Friday Aug. 6 and stayed with Marie, my #3 daughter and her guy Adam in Kitchener (about 275 km from Windsor) and then the next morning, I rode to my own hometown of Peterborough (about 240 km) - arriving in time for lunch and a bike-washing session. I stayed with Walter that night.
The group left on Sunday morning (08/8/2021) and went east to Kaladar and turned north up Hwy. 41 past the big Bon Echo provincial park and campground and on to Pembroke (halfway between Ottawa and North Bay) where we grabbed a nice Best Western hotel and had a refreshing swim in the pool.
The next morning (Mon. Aug. 9) we road up the Ottawa Valley past the little towns of Chalk River, Deep River and the big CF Base at Petawawa and on to New Liskeard. History buffs may recall the key roles played by the Chalk River Nuclear Labs in refining the uranium used in the two WW-II Manhattan Project bombs and the NPD (Nuclear Power Demonstrator) reactor - the first CANDU nuclear reactor to generate electrical power built near the little town of Rolphton in the early 1960s. Good ole' Hwy 17: a pretty historical road by any standard. That evening, we tried to get hotels in Val d'Or and Mont Tremblant - but August is holiday season in La Belle Province and there was NOTHING at all available in either town.
The next day (Tues. Aug. 10) it was p!ssing down rain and so we donned our rain gear and headed into Quebec with the goal of riding down the east shore of Lake Temiskaming and the Ottawa River and simply returning the the Best Western hotel in Pembroke. That went fine except for a 10km stretch of muddy highway construction just south of Notre Dame du Nord just over the Quebec border from New Liskeard. Sooo...we all got very wet and dirty - but hey, if you don't have a sense of humour about the weather, you shouldn't be a Canadian.
The next day (Wed. Aug. 11), we headed east through the nice little Ottawa Valley towns of Renfrew ("The 'frew") and Arnprior ("The 'prior") and I split off from the group to go see an old Ottawa friend who is terminally ill. The rest of the gang went cross-country to Cornwall down near the Quebec border (there is a nice hotel that we like there). As it happened, my buddy was too ill to see me - so I rejoined the group in Cornwall in time for the afternoon swim. It was nearly 38C that afternoon (that is more than 100 deg. F - not much by Mailman standards - but pretty danged hot for the rest of us) and very humid, so the swim was a welcome diversion.
After a fitful sleep in Cornwall, I got up at 2:00 AM on the morning of Thursday Aug. 12 and left alone for Windsor - a ride of just over 800 km (a tad under 500 miles). The forecast was for rain later in the day and so I figured that I might just make it home before getting wet(ter) than I already was. The other guys carried on snoring until they left for Peterborough at about 8:30 AM - by which time I was getting totally soaked just north of Oshawa (and boy, did I get wet). I finally pulled into Windsor at about 1300 (1:00 PM) by which time I was pretty-much dry again.
The long ride across southern Ontario was challenging and there was a lot of traffic around Toronto (basically the roughly 200 km between Oshawa and London) but the bike ran perfectly and I do enjoy the challenge of a long solo ride. Here is a close-up map of the major landmarks of our trip...
At least it wasn't cold - in fact, the nighttime temperature seldom dipped below about 23C during the whole trip (that is about 73 deg. F for our American friends) and during the day it was upwards of 32C or 90+ deg. F, and even much higher on Wednesday and Thursday.
So much for Canada being an Arctic wasteland all year-round....
....to be continued.....
I ride with a group of guys from the central Ontario city of Peterborough (about 500 km northeast of me in Windsor) and I am the youngest by about 8 years. The group has a lot of fun; we don't ride for more than 90 minutes without a stop for a pee-pee (older guys ya' know) and we seldom do more than about 350-400 km/day (around 200-250 miles). We stay in reasonable hotels and do not eat at McDonalds, although Timmy's meals are typical - 'cause we are all Canadians. Each afternoon we dismount and have a "healing circle" which involves adult beverages etc. and then we walk or cab (NEVER ride) to a decent restaurant and usually we turn-in by around 8:30-9:00 PM with a kickstands-up time of about 8:15 AM.
The group is known as the WKRMC (Walter's Kawartha Riders MC) - named after Walter, a retired bank executive and our Fearless Leader who rides a 2019 H-D Road Glide / King / Chromasaurus...something-or-other. The other guys on this trip were Paul (a retired General Electric nuclear engineer) on 2016 Honda F6B which is a GL1800 bagger, and my cousin Grant - a retired building contractor, riding a 2021 GL1800 Gold Wing - so I had, by far, the oldest and least sophisticated bike.
I have attached a couple of maps of Ontario so that interested readers can follow along. Ontario is a pretty big province (eg. it is about 800 km from Windsor in the extreme southwest to our national capital city of Ottawa near the eastern end of the southern part of the province). You will note that much of northern Ontario is only sparsely populated. About 90% of Canada's 34M inhabitants live within a 100 mile-wide strip of the US border and about half that number (around 14 million) live in Ontario - the vast majority of whom are in the southern Ontario "band" between Windsor and Ottawa. Once you get north of that "band", the countryside really is beautiful, but it is mainly rocks and hills and trees - all the way north until people start using the Cyrillic alphabet. Like many Canadians, I have travelled widely outside of our country but, sadly, I have never been north of say... Kapuskasing (oh, I'd love to hear people from abroad try to pronounce that town name) or Kenora. There are very few, if any, roads to places like Attawapiskat, Bearskin Lake or Fort Severn and travel up there is mainly by air or rail.
Here is a photo of the WKRMC beside Hwy. 17 - just south of North Bay in typical northern Ontario scenery (left to right: Walter, Paul and Grant). The highway is in good condition but there is nobody else around and the bush begins literally about 20-30' from each side of the road. Wildlife abounds and large animals such as deer and moose pose a serious hazard to traveler at night. The rule of thumb is that if you hit a deer, you will likely be injured and your bike wrecked (as has been found by several ST Owners) - but if you hit a moose, you will be dead. European visitors often ask about wolves and bears - but they are rarely seen near roads and don't pose much of a concern unless they are startled, feel cornered or their young are nearby. If you want to see a bear - go to a town garbage dump in any northern town - but stay in the car and keep the windows UP. Only total idiots would ever attempt to feed a bear. They are not meat-eaters, but they are big and strong, have sharp claws and teeth and can run much faster than any human. If you piss-off a bear, you will lose. Wolves...never seen one up close - they are generally shy and don't want human contact unless they are hungry and smell food waste or a small dog etc.
NOTE: Gretel is parked on the Brown aftermarket sidestand and it seems fine at this point in the trip (but, more about that later).
The WKRMC Summer 2021 trip was basically from Peterborough north to New Liskeard (between Cobalt and Englehart) and then the plan was to go into Quebec to Val d'Or and then south to Mont Tremblant (a major skiing destination in the winter - near Mont Laurier) and then back to Peterborough via Ottawa. BTW - Peterborough is just north of Oshawa (not Ottawa) - just east of Toronto on the map. Aren't aboriginal Canadian names fun?
So, to beat some impending rain, I departed Windsor after lunch on Friday Aug. 6 and stayed with Marie, my #3 daughter and her guy Adam in Kitchener (about 275 km from Windsor) and then the next morning, I rode to my own hometown of Peterborough (about 240 km) - arriving in time for lunch and a bike-washing session. I stayed with Walter that night.
The group left on Sunday morning (08/8/2021) and went east to Kaladar and turned north up Hwy. 41 past the big Bon Echo provincial park and campground and on to Pembroke (halfway between Ottawa and North Bay) where we grabbed a nice Best Western hotel and had a refreshing swim in the pool.
The next morning (Mon. Aug. 9) we road up the Ottawa Valley past the little towns of Chalk River, Deep River and the big CF Base at Petawawa and on to New Liskeard. History buffs may recall the key roles played by the Chalk River Nuclear Labs in refining the uranium used in the two WW-II Manhattan Project bombs and the NPD (Nuclear Power Demonstrator) reactor - the first CANDU nuclear reactor to generate electrical power built near the little town of Rolphton in the early 1960s. Good ole' Hwy 17: a pretty historical road by any standard. That evening, we tried to get hotels in Val d'Or and Mont Tremblant - but August is holiday season in La Belle Province and there was NOTHING at all available in either town.
The next day (Tues. Aug. 10) it was p!ssing down rain and so we donned our rain gear and headed into Quebec with the goal of riding down the east shore of Lake Temiskaming and the Ottawa River and simply returning the the Best Western hotel in Pembroke. That went fine except for a 10km stretch of muddy highway construction just south of Notre Dame du Nord just over the Quebec border from New Liskeard. Sooo...we all got very wet and dirty - but hey, if you don't have a sense of humour about the weather, you shouldn't be a Canadian.
The next day (Wed. Aug. 11), we headed east through the nice little Ottawa Valley towns of Renfrew ("The 'frew") and Arnprior ("The 'prior") and I split off from the group to go see an old Ottawa friend who is terminally ill. The rest of the gang went cross-country to Cornwall down near the Quebec border (there is a nice hotel that we like there). As it happened, my buddy was too ill to see me - so I rejoined the group in Cornwall in time for the afternoon swim. It was nearly 38C that afternoon (that is more than 100 deg. F - not much by Mailman standards - but pretty danged hot for the rest of us) and very humid, so the swim was a welcome diversion.
After a fitful sleep in Cornwall, I got up at 2:00 AM on the morning of Thursday Aug. 12 and left alone for Windsor - a ride of just over 800 km (a tad under 500 miles). The forecast was for rain later in the day and so I figured that I might just make it home before getting wet(ter) than I already was. The other guys carried on snoring until they left for Peterborough at about 8:30 AM - by which time I was getting totally soaked just north of Oshawa (and boy, did I get wet). I finally pulled into Windsor at about 1300 (1:00 PM) by which time I was pretty-much dry again.
The long ride across southern Ontario was challenging and there was a lot of traffic around Toronto (basically the roughly 200 km between Oshawa and London) but the bike ran perfectly and I do enjoy the challenge of a long solo ride. Here is a close-up map of the major landmarks of our trip...
At least it wasn't cold - in fact, the nighttime temperature seldom dipped below about 23C during the whole trip (that is about 73 deg. F for our American friends) and during the day it was upwards of 32C or 90+ deg. F, and even much higher on Wednesday and Thursday.
So much for Canada being an Arctic wasteland all year-round....
....to be continued.....
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,962
- Location
- near Harrow, Ontario, Canada
- Bike
- '83 BMW R100RS
- STOC #
- 8870
PART 2
So, how did my dear old Gretel do on the trip? She ran absolutely great - not a single hiccup despite very high temperatures, a fair bit of high-speed riding (120+ km/hr) and a good deal of rain. She burned NO oil at all and the electrical system was flawless. Perhaps the legend of BMW Airhead durability is accurate...
Now - for the issues that I did have (and there were two):
![[IMG]](http://www.xs650.com/attachments/wkrmc-aug-21-04_browns-sidestand_repair-jpg.196694/)
Overall, I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed riding my "dream bike" more than 2600 km across the province in rain and shine, night and day - and mud...
Cheers,
Pete
So, how did my dear old Gretel do on the trip? She ran absolutely great - not a single hiccup despite very high temperatures, a fair bit of high-speed riding (120+ km/hr) and a good deal of rain. She burned NO oil at all and the electrical system was flawless. Perhaps the legend of BMW Airhead durability is accurate...
Now - for the issues that I did have (and there were two):
- the aftermarket "Brown" sidestand mount bent which resulted in my having to use the stock BMW sidestand (truly one of the worst design features of any motorcycle I have ever seen). I really do not understand why the Brown sidestand bent: these things are very widely used by Airhead owners and AFAIK nobody has ever complained about them bending before.
- the other problem was less annoying, but every bit as disappointing: the nifty Honda GL1100 top-box that I mounted on Gretel got a bit loose and wobbly in the latter part of the trip.
Overall, I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed riding my "dream bike" more than 2600 km across the province in rain and shine, night and day - and mud...
Cheers,
Pete
Sadlsor
Site Supporter
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2020
- Messages
- 4,289
- Age
- 66
- Location
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Bike
- 2008 ST1300A
- STOC #
- 9065
Really, really late Reply... sorry 'bout that.
I could ride either...
You start talking about 80s airheads, and I go back just a couple more years to those delicious-looking, svelte R90S's... both look great, and I am attracted to the orange.
I could ride either...
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,962
- Location
- near Harrow, Ontario, Canada
- Bike
- '83 BMW R100RS
- STOC #
- 8870
yup, those ARE very pretty bikes indee!
I'm partial to my K1200GT from 2003. The last ones of the flat-fours and a great ride!
Then again its more important that you ride that what you ride with
Cheers all, Rene
Then again its more important that you ride that what you ride with
Cheers all, Rene
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2005
- Messages
- 1,898
- Age
- 64
- Location
- Out in the sticks of NE SC
- Bike
- R1200 GSA / S1000XR
Somewhere is WV
Here’s my GT ...
