Sarah's new ride is coming!

[BlueLghtning]

Well, we are finally putting a BMW in the family. :)

We sold the XT225 & Ninja 250 tonight. The Ninja 650R is getting picked up tomorrow. With all our street bikes spoken for, we wasted no time putting a deposit on the bike we've been eying for Sarah.

2006 BMW F650GS (twin spark model) with 15k miles. It's located in Dallas, TX. I think most likely one of us will do a fly and ride next weekend as that's a horrible drive to make both ways! LOL. Sarah's itching to go get it this weekend, but I've got work all weekend. :(

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2676/4136342882_d612315bc0_o.jpg

Has a few extras like a touring windscreen and the BMW hard case.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2649/4136342876_38b9286bae_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4136340594_474ab2af14_o.jpg

Its got the engine guards/crash bars also!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4135577315_1807cc5a82_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2652/4135577307_f6011706f0_o.jpg

It has the heated grips and ABS also!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2760/4135574087_e57e187e73_o.jpg

[Snafu484]

Aww man that is a SWEET lookin machine ! Grats ! :up:

[Reece]

very nice - congrats, sarah!

[Troutman]

Very Nice, you must be getting some kind of deal to travel that far.

[Georgiacbr]

nice Bike and Texas to Ga ain't that bad I did this same deal when I picked up my bike and made a trip out of it. Dan Texas has some good areas to ride into.

[ramm]

big congrats on that. Love it! :up:

[Ibleedgreen]

Nice, she will love it.

[BlueLghtning]

Well, she is on a plane! This was all so last minute, it was crazy. Called the seller last night, and put a deposit on the bike. I had originally told the seller we'd be there next weekend. Got up this morning with a wild hair checking flights, booked her a flight before we even had confirmation that the seller would be around! I just now got the seller on the phone again and told him she was coming! His words were like "WOW". I'm waiting to hear back from him with the VIN so I can put insurance on it.

Her plane just left Atl at 9:45am ET. Lands in DFW at 11:29am CT. (Delta flt#1917) We have a friend of Dbl K's picking her up from the airport and taking her to Allen, TX where the bike is. Wow! its crazy.

I'm nervous as heck, and I'm not even the one doing all the flying and riding.
__________________

[ninjagirl06]

Yeah Sarah got a new toy! You know she'll be riding back with a big smile on her face!!! Now, we have to come back over to see it :) When will she be back??

[IceCreaMan]

congrats! definately be safe riding it back home

[BlueLghtning]

Yeah Sarah got a new toy! You know she'll be riding back with a big smile on her face!!! Now, we have to come back over to see it :) When will she be back??

Well hopefully tomorrow evening sometime if everything goes smooth. She's going to get as far as she can today, grab a hotel, and then continue the rest tomorrow.

[The Lazy Destroyer]

Awesome!!! Looking forward to the ride report ;)

[BlueLghtning]

She's got the Spot on - http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?&glId=0UDnRMa14mnq4lmJyAyKPkkUsIbZvzsSy

She's currently on the way to the bike in Allen, TX.

[shnyhed]

welcome to the eurotrash club :)

[Mortalis5509]

nice looking bike and should be a pleasure to ride.

[wallypiper]

She made good progress yesterday, about half way. Seems to be sleeping in today. Get going, Sarah! OK. It's pretty cool out. I guess you can have a leisurely breakfast and wait for it to warm up a bit.

[Troutman]

Safe travels.....

[BlueLghtning]

I posted this last night on BSB, but forgot to post it here. She's having a bit of an adventure with the bike.


I just talked to her. She's gonna push on as long as she can tonight.

The seller had told us he suspected the battery was getting a bit weak (its original battery), but it was starting okay, just a tad slow. Last time when I talked to here, she said when she stopped to take a break and went to go start it, it really started slow and died right away. It took a couple tries to get it to catch.

I sent her with a battery tender just in case. I'm hoping she can just throw the bike in a hotel room with her and charge it over night. Otherwise, it may turn into a rescue mission in the morning. Keep your fingers crossed.


Well, she got to the hotel. Bike won't idle, just dies. It did start back up though which is weird? You would think if the battery was dead enough where it wouldn't idle it would be so dead it wouldn't start.

Even though she's on a ground floor, she said there's no handicapped ramp and no way for her to get it up over the curb. She said if she tries, she'll have a dead bike laying on its side in the middle of MS! :lol:

I was hoping at the very least she could just get it up on the sidewalk next to the room so she could charge it, but that's not looking good.

I'm really having my doubts if it is the battery that she'll get it cranked and keep it running in the am. We'll see.

[BlueLghtning]

So after trying to get Sarah to find a way to put the bike on the charger last night, this is what she's doing this morning. She hasn't yet tried to start it, but figured putting it on the charger couldn't hurt. She's going to let it warm up some too before she tries to hit the road again.

Thank goodness I sent her with the battery tender that has the much longer cord on it.

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/Motorcycle-Odd-Ends/Forums/Forums/F650GS-charging/804296916_p55Bd-L.jpg

[BlueLghtning]

We did some searching and found that when the battery starts getting weak on these bikes, it can definitely screw up the mapping which keeps it from idling correctly as she experienced last night, especially if you use the throttle to start it which she had done. There's a pretty easy sequence of events you do with the bike on but not running to reset things. She's going to try that to reset everything.

We are hoping she can get it started this morning and go get gas and then make it another 200 miles. At that point if she's having issues, I can just head out in the car meet her and trailer her the rest of the way in.

[BlueLghtning]

She's back on the road. I just talked to her. She did the throttle reset and its idling fine again. Battery is still showing signs of being weak, but she's running. She left the bike running while she filled up and just hit the road.

The SPOT is tracking again.

[BlueLghtning]

Woohoo, AL border.

She's going to have to stop at some point here and get something to eat, fill up, and take a break. We'll see how that works for her.

[BlueLghtning]

Almost to GA.

I do find it interesting that before this, I couldn't get her to do more then 100 miles at a stretch. She's about to knock out two back to back 200 mile stretches!

[Batgirl]

Congrats on the BMW, Sarah. Hope you enjoy it.

[BlueLghtning]

Yep, she is home!

When I went outside and saw how nice it was outside (65+ degrees), I was dying to go on a quick ride, so I jumped on the 650R and went ahead and started heading towards the direction she'd be coming in from. I didn't even get 10 mins from the house and saw her coming the other way. Our Scala's synced up and we started chatting about dinner.

She asked if I wanted to ride the Beemer, so we swapped bikes and I rode it to dinner. I know I'm tall, but I really think it has the low seat on it, but either way I can tell you I'd have been miserable on that seat. It really throws me into the tank. It's a great handling bike though and the center of gravity is so low. It handles so well. Its perfect for Sarah and I see why the ladies enjoy it so much.

I took a few pics and I'll get them uploaded. She is still all smiles after 400 miles today.

[BlueLghtning]

Sarah didn't bring a camera along, so no pics from the trip. I went out to go meet her and got about 10mins from the house.

Here's the library parking lot where we stopped and she was going to let me have a spin on it as we headed towards dinner.

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001811/804723306_7aKuw-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001812/804723642_KMEiD-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001814/804723896_ayT3S-L.jpg

The SPOT tracker that we've all been watching the whole trip
http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001816/804724651_Mqywq-L.jpg

The Ninja 650 and the F650 (Two very different handling bikes)
http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001818/804725023_CM5Qj-L.jpg

Heading to the house finally
http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001820/804725625_tNUxm-L.jpg

The bike fits her small frame awesome!
http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001823/804726655_M9XUp-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001824/804726821_Pvtrn-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001825/804727017_wD8Gb-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001826/804727229_UV2As-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001827/804727457_bhyry-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001829/804728373_Yo5gm-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001831/804729602_qNjJv-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001834/804730949_CyLPM-L.jpg

http://bluelghtning.smugmug.com/My-Motorcycles/F650GS/Sarahs-first-pics-riding-the/1001836/804731722_KbEAK-L.jpg

[Gypsyangel]

I'm home...and completely wore out. I'll post full report when energy level returns to normal.So this'll be a bit rambly.
Some highlights:
Love this bike! It's uber heavy when you straighten it off it's sidestand,but once you get the tires turning, all the weight goes away. And it's quite nimble. I did two U-turns on this trip and never even thought twice about it. I usually hesitate quite a bit on the Ninja.
Basically, I don't know why I spent so many years trying to turn my sportbikes into a BMW instead of just BUYING the BMW.
This bike is alot peppier than I remember from the demos. It was actually a bit difficult keeping it around 75-80mph. It kept wanting to go faster. And it absolutely humms along happily at 4500 - 5000 rpms (redline is around 7-8k)

I did make a shortlist of things that needed tweaked for long ride. First would be that 100 mile seat. I call it that cause that's all you're doing comfortably on it. Needless to say, I was quite figity after a 200 mile stint.Gotta look into sending it to Spencer in Florida for some long distance foam. It does have a nice wide "pocket" for your butt to rest in, but it's quite hard.
The handlebars need to be dropped a bit for me, no biggie.
You REALLY need someplace else to put your feet on long rides. I'm thinking a set of highway pegs mounted to the crashbars will let you stretch your legs a bit.
Finally, maybe a wider windscreen.

Will look into all the fun farkles later.Just glad to finally have her home.....and to be home.

Thanks for all your encouragement and good vibes. More later.....

[Reece]

welcome home! :)