Sacandaga Loop

Today I met up with FasterPill for the BMW Sport Touring Forum for a ride. We met up at the Country Cafe in Saratoga for breakfast and discuss a ride. I arrived first around 8am.


FasterPill showed up in a couple minutes.


Here is FasterPill and his K1100RS


We had talked about a few options and looked over the map. We eventually settled on riding around Sacadaga Lake on some county routes. Then it was onto more important matters, namely breakfast! I had the Pumpkin Crunch French Toast. FasterPill had Oatmeal pancakes and just one egg and corned beef hash. I like a dummy forget to get the requisite food shot.

We finished out hearty breakfast and head out for our ride. We went out toward Lake Desolation and took to the dirt.


The RT doesn't seem to mind the dirt.


RTs and RSs are just like GSs right?


Then we crossed Sacandaga at the Edinburg Bridge. I wanted to take a picture so FasterPill ran blocker for me.




Here's FasterPill running blocker.



Then we went north on County RT 4 toward the Conklingville Dam.

Then I stopped at the dam to take some pictures.




County RT 7


The other side of the dam on the Sacandaga River.


The spillway.


FasterPill waited patiently while I took a bunch of photos.


After this set of photos We went up County RT 10 toward NY RT 9N. We had so much fun we ran it back and forth 3 times. It was my first time on that road. It was pretty awesome FasterPill led most of the time and rode a brisk challenging pace. I led a little bit and I hope I didn't hold him back too much. Once we were done playing on RT 10 we said our goodbyes since we both had things to do in the afternoon. I was cool getting to ride with someone and even better than we both rode a similar pace.
It was a great day for riding.

Garmin 2730 Install

This weekend I installed the 2730 on my RT. I wanted to install it near the bars but not down by the ignition because I didn't want the tank bag to block the view of it.
I removed on the factory bolts and and got a longer one. Then I found a spacer I had hanging around the garage that I was hoping to use.


The spacer was too thick though to fit in the hole for the bolt though. So I ground the bolt on the bench grinder.


Then I finished it off using a hand file to get it nice and round and did a couple test fits. Then I would file more. Finally it fit just fine.


Then I removed the left side body work and ran the wiring to the battery. I think I will end up getting the Centech fuse block. I don't want to have too many things running to the battery.

Then I just used a RAM mount to finish the install.
Here is the top view


Here is the finished product.

Autumn Ride Fall 2007

First weekend with my new BMW R1200RT. The weather was nice on Sunday so I decided to take it for a trip around my favorite stomping ground Lake George along RT 9N over Tongue Mountain riding along with the yellows, oranges, reds, and maroons of fall.





I spent a little bit of time the day before dialing in the suspension to my liking. It hasn't taken my long to be able to ride it quick. I cannot get over how nimble this bike is. Its not Gixxer or Ninja by any means but it can be ridden quick.

This is the road, Rt 9N, I descended from.


Here's the RT after having just come over Tongue Mountain.


Not much of a chicken strip left after one trip over the mountain. I guess I am getting used to it pretty quick.


After playing on Tongue Mountain I head out from Hague up toward Brant Lake on RT 8. Another favorite road of mine and part of a normal 100 mile loop I do.


The colors are amazing.


It's days like this that motorcycles are made for.


One last shot of the RT.

So after a 300 weekend on the RT all signs are positive so far. I do miss my R1100S but I think more for the memories. There are some things I will have to get used to on the RT but I can't wait to start making new memories. I will be taking it on its first camping trip the first weekend of November. Stay Tuned.

Goodbye to old friends, hello to new ones...

Well the time has come. I remember last year or even early this year I kept saying this bike was perfect for me and I would probably keep it forever. I guess forever was a lot shorter than I thought. Today I traded in my trusty R1100S, aboard which I have shared many travels and adventures. I will miss it greatly.

However, recently every time I ride the S I get a horrible carpel tunnel pain in my wrist and any ride longer than a couple hours makes it hard for me to open and close my hand for the next couple days. That, coupled with the fact that my knees get to aching when I ride it, meant it was in the words of a co-worker "time to embrace my age" and get a more "age appropriate bike." I don't fully agree with that as I am still a punk and I like to ride briskly. My body does not like my sport-tour bike. I decided I should start thinking about a more tour-sport type of bike.

I went to my local dealer Max BMW and arranged for some test rides. I took out a R1200GS first since I had been kind of wanting one for a while. It had a big wide bar for good leverage in the turns and it was light, plus you can take it off road. It also had nice power. I liked it, but I didn't really love it. I have no idea why. Everyone likes them. It just didn't get my blood going.

Next I took out the R1200RT which I have actually always found not very attractive. As soon as I got on it I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get it into gear. Then I realized the position where my feet normally go on the S is the rear passenger pegs on the RT. Thats how different the peg position is. I was actually trying to click into gear using front peg. Once I figured that out, off I went. I was surprised at how light it felt while maneuvering around the parking lot. Then out on the open road I went. The acceleration was good, better than I thought, although it does have more power than the S and more torque too. The real test would be in the turns where I like to ride most and I was expecting it to be a pig. You know what? It wasn't. It handled well and even the first time out I probably rode it pretty close to how I would ride the S. The brakes are awesome. After my test ride I spoke with the sales manager and we discussed some numbers. So I left. A few days later I was thinking about the bike again so I went back for a second test ride. Now that I was familiar with the bike I liked it even a little more. So this time I worked out a semi-deal but I still left. We negotiated back and forth through email and phone on trade-in value, price of the bike, accessories. In the end I got what I wanted for my bike, I didn't get a ton off the bike, but I did get all the accessories I wanted. I tried getting a Rally suit too but there weren't having any of that. You have to ask though right? Part of the deal was that I would keep all of the upgrades and accessories off of my current S.
I've spent the last number of days taking all the upgrades off. It has been odd. At first I was excited. Then as I started taking the goodies off the S I started getting a little sad because I had so much fun on it, including the Nova Scotia trip. Now that its time to get the RT, I am excited again. Hopefully I will get a lot of riding in on it and make lots of new memories with it.

Green Mountain Rally 20070914

Okay just to relive the memories one last time, I finally got the pictures off my camera. I didn't take many but I will share some of what I have.

Paul Bachorz on the left and Ron hanging out while I set up my camp


One more of Paul and Ron


Ron and I had lunch at A&W on Friday


All American Food!! My Favorite!


My R11S and Rons GS in front of our respective tents after returning from lunch


A pop-up camper that I think was towed behind a K-LT


Some of the bikes there early Friday


The Ocean State club was in full force.


Nice LS!


The campground before all the rain came.


When the rain finally broke Ron and I headed to Ben&Jerry's for a factory tour and came upon a vintage Time, Speed, Distance Rally while looking for lunch.


Old BMW Hack


A really nice Bevelhead Ducati


A beautiful MV Agusta!


The Ben&Jerry's gift shop


waiting to purchase tour tickets


The movie theatre where you see the movie about the history of B&J. You were not allowed to take pictures of the actual area where they make the ice cream.


Free samples!!


I didn't take many pictures this trip because of the rain and I just wasn't in the mood. I didn't do a whole lot of riding either because of the rain and it was fairly close to my house.