Touratech parts

Got the parts from Touratech USA. For the most part every thing worked out.

The Touratech Gearbox Reinforcement for the BMW R1100 GS .In the silver to match the BMW frame color. Matt over at Acme had to mill a little piece out as they don't work with the Hepco-Becker crash bars on the right side. You would think Germans and Germans would talk to each other???

The Touratech sump guard protects the central stand and the front silencer against damage from stones or other objects protruding from the ground when riding off-road. As the sump guard plate is tabbed upwards, it prevents sand and dirt from penetrating the space between the engine and the gearbox. Thus, it protects the crankshaft ring from dirt and increases its life considerably.

Be careful, I found the the weight of it has made the stand not go up and we may have to put a different spring on it.

The steering stop on the R1100GS can break during a heavy fall. It is a time-consuming and quite expensive job to replace the yoke. With a broken steering stop, the fuel tank can be damaged as well. And sometimes the frame is damaged at the point of steering stop contact. For those among you who don't want to worry about bike repairs after a heavy fall...

This I feel is worth all the money. It is cheap insurance. Another good item is the Oil cooler guard, as puncturing the oil cooler on your bike even a few miles away from home can be a major hassle and a major expense. Protect the oil cooler on your R1100GS with this sharp looking, laser-cut, Touratech aluminum oil cooler guard. Its design allows lots of air to flow onto the radiator but also protects it from branches, stones and other debris that might be kicked up and hit the front of the bike on road or off. Cheap insurance.

One last note. I had REALLY would never buy this item. The R1150GS stands much more firmly even on a soft surface with this kick stand support extension. If you park the motor bike in a meadow or other soft surface such as sand or hot asphalt, you don't have to look for a small stick or rock, or at least not on line. It did not fit and we had the modify it and let it still did not work. It's a great idea but for half the cost and it looks better I had Matt at Acme to just weld a nice piece of metal on the end of the stand. A shot of black spray paint and Bob's your uncle.

Just incase you don't have it here is there link

www.touratech-usa.com

Hey and they sent me a Touratech decal. WOW what about a t shirt on all orders over $100, the t shirt cost $5 and think of the advertising.

Cheers PB

Cool Photos

While working on the bike. I thought being a photographer I should take some cool shots for you to look at. Also Barry and his friends have been nice enough to invite me to ride with them to Death Valley with them in Jan 2009..... Can not wait as I have never been there and it is meant to be amazing, and of course will tell you about it and show photos, maybe video
Cheers PB

Upper Crash Bars on finally

Finally got the upper crash bars on, what a pain in the ass. Will need to take them off and miss with them, but for now they are on. Hope I never need them and man they look cool.
Here are some photos with the top shelf that Matt made for me, but the big problem is the head light grill won't fit now. Always something to keep you in the garage.

www.eurotechmotorsports.com

Cheers PB

New Seat Cover...

Chris at SF scooter center gave me the name and number of this killer craftsman and cheap guy to recover the seat. It was a Corbin seat but had seen it's days of having butts on it. Corbin seat wanted $400 and would take 4 weeks to do it . This guy did it in 2 days and at a price wayyyyyyy below that. If you want his details let me know. Looks good hey...

www.sfscootercentre.com

Cheers PB

Taking the bike to the next level

1. PIAA lights are bright

Painting the upper bars


Well finally got the Hepco Becker crash bars from Germany and the PIAA lights. Barry was nice enough to help me with the lower bars and the upper bars did not fit... DAM IT.
After going back and forward with Marin BMW the agents sent me a new upper bar. And with alot of help from Matt at ACME Machine shop we chopped the old bars and made a carry shelf on the top. Matt also made the mounts for the PIAA lamps which took me some time to mount and wire, but now no one misses me, those things are bright. Put the flashing LED brake lights on so everyone can see you from the rear.

www.adventurersworkshop.com/hepco_becker.htm
www.marinbmw.com
www.piaa.com
www.eurotechmotorsports.com
/www.cyclegadgets.com

Let me know what you think.
Cheers PB

First road trip camping.

the chruch

our friend





It was winter in Northern California and I had the bike a few weeks. Got my camping stuff together with few trips to REI. Where to go?.My friend Christian had been camping a week earlier, when it was nice and warm and told me about Salt point and how beautiful it was. I had never been there. It is on the way to Sea Ranch on highway 1. So got all prepared git the bike loaded and was ready to take off. It was cold, unlike the weekend before when Christian was there. It was also November and I didn't think anyone else would be out. On the bike early, the girls said good by and gave me a nice note and I was off, well one quick stop for gas. Though Petaluma and up on to Hwy 1. It was cold, but so nice. Made my first BMW screw up and thought the bike had broken down. While trying to set the cruise control I hit the kill button and the bike stopped at 70 MPH.
When I told Barry he laughed and said welcome to the club. Stopped at my kids favorite store Kite and Candy in Bodaga Bay to get them a little something, cause they don't get much candy. And back off to Salt Point. WOW the 1 is so beautiful, we are so lucky to live in Nor Cal. Found the camp site and as I tought it was pretty empty. I rode around and saw these two guys on big Harley's one on them had a camper on the back. I pulled over to talk to them , they looked like they had every thing so I asked if I could share the site with them "yes of course" I joked with one of them the in camping world there trailer was like the Ritz Carlton. I took a quick trip back into Town to pick up some fire wood etc and back to the camp site. Set up the tent and started the fire. After some small talk we all took a ride down to the beach, cold but so stunning. the rugged beauty of the coast, the photo can not do it justice. It was getting dark, so we headed back. I was ready to have my soap cooked over my REI stove and the crazy but nice guys pulled out half a cow, which was feed range, and were nice enough to share. WOW what a surprise, meeting two nice guys, sharing there site and fire and now the Ritz is serving me up prime meat for dinner. After a few drinks and a great meal we had some visitors, see the photos. We also had a fox, but he was too fast to get photos of him. One of the guys said we should go lay flat out on the road and look up at the stars, wow what a great idea,I saw shooting stars and the milky way. Things you don't see in the city. Off to bed and man did it get cold, Now I was not laughing about the penthouse suite inside the Ritz next door to me. But off to sleep. Of course some time in the middle of the night had to pee, you needed to know that. And at about 3am our friend came back looking for food and woke me up, you hear everything in a tent, so everyone in the Ritz slept though it. Woke up and there was some ice on the bike. Has some breakfast and the other two guys while I was packing up said we should go for a ride and see this church 50 mile up the Hwy 1. Now when two Harley guys ask you to go see a church what goes through your mind. But these guys were cool. Nice ride up the 1 had we found this church, so cool. Check out the photos if toy are up near Sea Ranch check it out. After that I had to take off but thanks to my new found friends. I learnt a lot on this short trip, so hopefully the next and bigger trips will go better. Hope you enjoy the photos

www.candyandkites.com
www.rei.com
www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=453
Cheers PB

FIRST DAY TRIP...

So we got back from a great holiday in Italy. I miss the 80 cent coffee, why do we need to pay $3 for a average coffee hear?. After the dust had settled and we unpacked, did 89 loads of washing (kidding) an looked though all the things were brought in Italy. Returned a million e mails and phone calls which Bernadette was nice enough to filter for me. I gave Barry a call. "Is the GS still for sale" Yes he said. That was it, I had been dreaming of this all though Italy, a little worried because now I have to go though with this. Wife gave me the green light and it had been boiling deep inside of me for ever. In a later blog I will tell you where the money came from and what the bike is called. Barry and I meet and it was done, the first time I rode it across the golden Gate bridge it must have been the most windy day ever and that thing is soooooo big, it kicked me around. Forgot I did not have my fast pass so got the ticket in the mail some time later.
At this point I should back up, because I forgot some thing that needs to be added. One person that helped me and got the spark relite is Jason a friend who lives next door to Fred, who is a friend and his girl goes to school with mine. But jason was perpairing an Air Head to go around the world and ever time I saw the bike I just got more and more in to it, again !!!.
Enjoyed for now and I will post some more stuff soon with photos.
Cheers PB

FIRST BLOG Dec 23 2008
My beautiful girl SZB just helped me set up this blog account which is going to be dedicated to my BMW 1995 GS 1100 motorcycle. The reason I wanted to do this was to keep a record of my events, travels and photos and to pass on all the adventures to who ever.

So it all started (one dark and cold night....JOKE) and I will keep it short in the beginning. When I was young I raced moto cross,started out on my Yamaha YZ 80 B, my hero was Bob Hannah, but age and time got the best of me and I was never the best. But one thing I always wanted to do was race in Adelaide Australia, where I am from, it was a 24 hours off road race. This was long before I new of the Paris Dakar which would be a dream to do. But sadly never got to do it. From there I always had the dream of riding around Australia and that never happened. You might start thinking I am a loser who never gets his goals done. Well you make up your own mind own that. Life went along and wife, kids, dogs, houses,business etc all great things, and the motorbike seemed to just be pushed off to the side.
I would always watch any form of motor cycle racing on TV and even go to racers when I could.
But still my life was fixing up old houses, taking care of kids and working. Back in 2001 my great wife brought me a 1965 RED Vespa (in perfect condition) for Xmas (she also had someone bring it over Xmas morning, something I always wanted (even the big Harley guys look at it and say COOL scooter). That got me though some hard no riding around the world times.
Some time in 2008 with friends over for dinner I told my wife my dreams and she said I should do it. She said plan it , work it out and see what happens. If you know me, give me an inch and I take a mile. So I started my plans. I was off, on the web looking for what bike, where to go etc. I new I had to start off slow, but the bike of my dreams and the bike most people got there leg over was the GS BMW. So I started looking and thinking what trips I would take.
So my dream was to ride around the world, but with two kids,wife, house and business that may be hard to pull off. But I kept looking for the bike, all over the country. WOW would i have to fly to Texas to get a bike, please no. Luck has it that I found a 95 GS 1100 in Marin Ca. The guy that listed the bike Barry seemed to have a good one. GS 1100 1995 with only 31,000 miles on the clock. My thoughts, who wiessd the clock, but no the bike was true. But hang on we were leaving for our family holiday to Italy and I did not want to deal with this days before leaving. I was also going though some other hard times in life and was not sure if this was the right move or not. Once I got the bike i had to do it, or something. I asked to Barry hold the bike till I get back from Italy and I will go from there. He is a nice guy and did it.Above are the first photos of the bike when I first went to look at it. From here I will keep you up to date.
PB



Which he did and the bike was everything I believe it to be. So here I am. To be honest off all the bikes I have ridden, this thing was a beast.... DAM BIG. So as they say I need baby steps. I need to do some day trips and then move on. At this point my first goal was from San Francisco to New York. But with a lot (hopefully) a lot of small trips in between. The no term goal has not been nailed down but I am working on it and that is what this blog is for.