A few years ago I acquired my father’s BMW R60/2 from my brother who was the keeper of the machine after my dad stopped riding. A hectic schedule prevented me from getting the bike on the road initially, but eventually I completed the rider safety course, satisfied all the state documentation and got the bike roadworthy. If you haven’t owned a vintage bike before, it is a 
rather addicting hobby in which I have become fully immersed. On one side is the gratification of locating necessary parts for keeping the bike running. On the other side is the constant head turning that a 40+ year bike has when you ride it. The bike has certainly helped to acclimate us to biking and within a few months my wife and I have come to really enjoy riding. Our ideal ride is more of touring than of performance (or I should say tailpipe volume which seems to dominate the market today). So the R60 has been a great start for us and I fully expect to continue for years to come.
The limiting factor with a vintage bike is that although in it’s day, it was probably the most comfortable ride available, it just isn’t the case anymore. Even with its “large padded touring seat”, you begin to feel the ride a bit prematurely.
Of course, there are quite a few factors that can cause this but for now we will just blame it on the bike and not the condition of the riders... In any case, the result is typically maximum of a 30 to 60 minute ride before the need of a butt rub comes to mind (I understand that this phenomena has been termed monkey butt – I now understand why...) Actually, while riding two up with my wife she has added a new rule that restricts to 29 ½ minutes between stops while on the R60. This really isn’t that big of an issue until you start riding with other bikers. After some good friends of ours purchased a new Gold Wing, our trip compatibility became a little mismatched. Now there are quite of few other rationales that I can throw at this equation to balance out the purchase of a new bike, but I think you get the gist of what direction this is leading.
After looking for some parts for the vintage bike I ran across a 2004 BMW R1200CL located in Barrington IL. After a fair amount of discussions about the machine as well as the need for a break in our routine, my wife and I agreed to go forward with the purchase of the bike as well as a road trip to get it from Barrington Illinois to Nesconset New York (Approximately 850 miles). More on the route planning later on…
I was a bit nervous about buying a bike on-line. Something about not being able to see or touch a major purchase of this kind of puts your hair on edge. Quite frankly, the experience could not have been better. Many thanks go to the folks at CycleWerks in Barrington (especially John) for making this transaction painless. Trust me, this plug is well deserved, these buys were great – check them out at http://www.cyclewerks.com/.
So now on to the trip. The Blog will highlight the trip planning, some lessons learned which (will be helpful for newbie riders) and outline our travels around the bottom of the Great Lakes, through the Ohio Valley heading east to Long Island…
rather addicting hobby in which I have become fully immersed. On one side is the gratification of locating necessary parts for keeping the bike running. On the other side is the constant head turning that a 40+ year bike has when you ride it. The bike has certainly helped to acclimate us to biking and within a few months my wife and I have come to really enjoy riding. Our ideal ride is more of touring than of performance (or I should say tailpipe volume which seems to dominate the market today). So the R60 has been a great start for us and I fully expect to continue for years to come.The limiting factor with a vintage bike is that although in it’s day, it was probably the most comfortable ride available, it just isn’t the case anymore. Even with its “large padded touring seat”, you begin to feel the ride a bit prematurely.
Of course, there are quite a few factors that can cause this but for now we will just blame it on the bike and not the condition of the riders... In any case, the result is typically maximum of a 30 to 60 minute ride before the need of a butt rub comes to mind (I understand that this phenomena has been termed monkey butt – I now understand why...) Actually, while riding two up with my wife she has added a new rule that restricts to 29 ½ minutes between stops while on the R60. This really isn’t that big of an issue until you start riding with other bikers. After some good friends of ours purchased a new Gold Wing, our trip compatibility became a little mismatched. Now there are quite of few other rationales that I can throw at this equation to balance out the purchase of a new bike, but I think you get the gist of what direction this is leading.After looking for some parts for the vintage bike I ran across a 2004 BMW R1200CL located in Barrington IL. After a fair amount of discussions about the machine as well as the need for a break in our routine, my wife and I agreed to go forward with the purchase of the bike as well as a road trip to get it from Barrington Illinois to Nesconset New York (Approximately 850 miles). More on the route planning later on…
I was a bit nervous about buying a bike on-line. Something about not being able to see or touch a major purchase of this kind of puts your hair on edge. Quite frankly, the experience could not have been better. Many thanks go to the folks at CycleWerks in Barrington (especially John) for making this transaction painless. Trust me, this plug is well deserved, these buys were great – check them out at http://www.cyclewerks.com/.
So now on to the trip. The Blog will highlight the trip planning, some lessons learned which (will be helpful for newbie riders) and outline our travels around the bottom of the Great Lakes, through the Ohio Valley heading east to Long Island…
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