As some of you are aware I have sold my GS12 to a good home I believe. I have been thinking long and hard about my motorcycling future, not taken lightly after over 35years of it. I visited a specialist a few months back, with him say "I was crazy" still riding motorbikes and a further off could proof to be quite detrimental to my future health. This effected me badly, thinking of only the worst things that could happen (always the pessimist me) never considering the joy that bikes have bought me.
Riding the big GS on the road was fine once up and running on smooth roads with minimal traffic, but around the city, especially on left turns it was hard work to say the least, off the bike I couldn't pick it up or push it, pushing it resulted in the bike turning sharp right as my right arm couldn't hold it.
I made the decision to sell it with no bike to buy, to see if I could go without a bike in the garage.
I found this hard to say the least, most of my friends ride bikes, most of my social life and holidays have been planned around bikes, I soon realised that I needed two wheels in the garage of some sort, so the hunt was on for a suitable machine.
The main thing for me was weight, I needed to be able to push it and pick it up with no problem. I also needed to like what I saw when I opened the garage, and it must be reliable.
As you know I had a F800gs but as much as I loved the look of it it wasn't significantly lighter than the 1200 and the weight was carried higher up as well so that was a know go.
I looked at the offerings from Japan but they were all around the 200kg mark unless I went down to a 125/250, there was the DRZs or XRs and I am partial to a Honda, but finding a nice XR600 was not easy and I soon gave up
I looked at the 690r from KTM, now these fitted all the criteria but there were some issues, my local dealer was not to my taste and I know I will get shot down for this but they don't inspire confidence in their reliability, I am probably wrong but thats what I thought, also there was the issue of cost to buy and running costs, considerably more than other bikes.
This left me in a dilemma, so I looked at the current BMW 650 sertao and G650gs, reasonably priced and a good dealer on the doorstep, but both around the 190kg mark, still not light enough for what I wanted.
Then it came to me, a BMW at under 150kg fully fuelled, reliable and as cool as penguin poo;
The BMW 650X challenge, but where would I find one with less than 80 registered in the UK?
There was one on ABR a few months ago but he decided not to sell, I still contacted him and tried to twist his arm and offered him what he wanted with no haggling, he agreed so I sent him a deposit,and with the bike being in Kent it wasn't that far to travel. With a few days to go before I collected it I got a message that the vendor had decided not to sell and he returned my deposit, I was gutted to say the least. So I now had no bike in the garage, can't remember how long it has been since that has happened. I put a wanted advert on a BMW forum for a XChallenge but it was a long shot to say the least as there was none on eBay or bike trader. But to my surprise someone said they might be selling theirs later in the year after they had commuted on it a bit. It turned out to be a 2008 with under 3000miles on it, but it didn't take me long to see why it was such a low mileage bike, every panel was damaged, dented front wheel, smashed exhaust, poor wiring and generally abused, it was an ex BMW off road schools bike.
But it was the only one in the uk for sale and I had my heart set on one, I looked at the pictures and made the decision to drive to Wales to have a look at it.
When I arrived it was like it was in the pictures he sent me, probably worse to be honest. They guy had two of these and has owned four of them over the years, with a TE in the garage as well. It started ok but was a bit rattly, I engaged the clutch and it lurched forward, the throttle was stiffer than a rampant teenager but it rode straight and pulled ok. I could go on listing all the problems with it but it would take forever.
Anyway money changed hands and I pushed it into the back of the van and drove back to the flat lands. Once back it failed to start, as the battery was knackered so I made the decision to strip it and do a bit of a rebuild. The engine had only done 100miles in the last year and gave me the impression it just wanted riding so apart from a new air filter and exhaust, and servicing I decided to leave the engine alone.
I do have before and after pictures but how you have to post on this forum here is the finished article.
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