A Testimonial to Those Who Are Real Riders

Funny and true. He's also wearing a BMW jacket/w pants and they're about as expensive as the bike!
 
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:rofl1: :rofl1: :rofl1: :rofl1: :rofl1:

PS: I own the best GS ... R1150GS ................

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I was hoping to see how he got it up after dropping it.

Mike
 
I was on my way to ride the 3 Sisters in the TX Hill Country one day when I passed two old codgers on farkled out GS1200s. They pulled into the scenic turnout where I was taking a break to ask me questions about MY NT700. They were very intrigued by it and had lots of nice things to say and also some great advice for anyone riding The 3 Sisters.
95% of the people who come out to ride the 3 Sisters have a natural inclination to ride them clockwise. If you ride them counter clockwise you stand a much smaller chance of getting stuck behind a large group of slower moving American made bikes. And it works!
The problem is, though, the area has become a Mecca for Texas riders of all stripes and car clubs too; so a lot of the joy of the trip has been sucked out of the ride
 
My son and I rode the three sisters in October 2019 and pretty much had the roads to ourselves. Cool and sporadic rain showers kept most every body away. We rode counter-clockwise.

Mike
 
mikesim said:
My son and I rode the three sisters in October 2019 and pretty much had the roads to ourselves. Cool and sporadic rain showers kept most every body away. We rode counter-clockwise.
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Mike have you ever ridden north on 55 from Camp Wood to Rocksprings? One of the best rides in Texas
 
ST1100Y said:
LOL! šŸ˜†
Dead on... except: beemers don't wave at any other make... šŸ˜›
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I know this all too well. A guy that Iā€™ve been seeing just about every morning on a BMW sport bike for the past 3 years or so would never wave back to me. I would see him everyday prior to the pandemic. I see him every time Iā€™ve had to go in the office since after the pandemic had started. He still will not wave at me or anyone else either. Iā€™m at the point Iā€™m ready to flip him the bird to see if I get a response from him.
 
Brillot2000 said:
I know this all too well. A guy that Iā€™ve been seeing just about every morning on a BMW sport bike for the past 3 years or so would never wave back to me. I would see him everyday prior to the pandemic. I see him every time Iā€™ve had to go in the office since after the pandemic had started. He still will not wave at me or anyone else either. Iā€™m at the point Iā€™m ready to flip him the bird to see if I get a response from him.
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If you put an HMW roundel on your bike, it confuses them. They wave tentatively, they try to take it back, and then end up waving semi-tentatively.

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Phil Tarman said:
Nice looking bike, but it's not anything I'm familiar with. What is it?
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It is a 1979 Suzuki GS850G - basically a big fast DOHC air-cooled four cylinder with a 5-speed transmission and a shaft drive. The GS850G didn't do anything spectacularly well - but it did everything very much more than competently and it had no apparent vices or weaknesses. The four-cylinder GS Suzukis were available with 550, 650, 750, 850 and 1000 cc 2-valve DOHC engines. They had more conservative styling than the Kawasakis and were less common than the Honda 750 (which was being left behind by then) - but were generally felt to handle better than either due to extremely stiff frame construction, larger diameter fork tubes and substantially better suspension components.

The GS bikes were all chain-driven except for the 850 (and later a version of the GS1000 and the GS650 - both with the "G" suffix) which was only available as a shaftie. The 650 and 1000cc models could also be had with a drive shaft (having a choice was fairly unusual and still is). These bikes were smooth, quiet, fast and as reliable as a chunk of granite. The very similar GSX series bikes built after about 1983 had four-valves / cylinder and came a bit later in the same displacement categories except that there was no 650 or 850 model and I think that they were all chain-driven. In my experience, Suzuki dialed-back the power and fancy styling just a tad - but went for durability and structural integrity more than the others - and that is not a slam at H, K or Y - just an observation.

The GS850G was in production from 1979 to <I think> 1983 but some of the latter years had a cruiser version known as "L" models with high bars and hideous stepped seat that must have been torture on long rides. Nonetheless, the GS850G had some pretty nice advanced features for the day (remember that bike was built 42 years ago):
  • extremely reliable and durable engine and driveline (I never had one second's greif with it in nearly 100,000 miles);
  • a long broad, flat seat - with dual density foam (at the time it was widely judged to be - by far - the most comfortable seat ever put on a motorcycle);
  • adjustable damping rear shocks from the factory - in addition to the usual adjustable pre-load;
  • wheels suitable for tubeless tires (tubeless tires weren't widely available then, but once they were, switching was easy);
  • triple disk brakes (which the dealer drilled for me);
  • gear position indicator (very useful as the engine was so smooth that if you weren't paying attention, you'd be roaring along at 70 MPH in 3rd or 4th gear);
  • self-cancelling turn signals - an excellent system that never failed to work precisely as I would have done manually;
  • an accurate fuel gauge AND the usual trip odometer;
  • a "dash" mounted choke knob;
  • mirrors with rubber inserts in the stalks so that they stayed clear at all speeds;
  • 5 Imperial gallon fuel tank - good for well over 225 miles;
  • high output permanent magnet alternator (no brushes to mess with).
I bought the bike new in 1981 (she was a left-over '79 model) and the only farkles I added to it were the colour-matched Hannigan Sport-Tourer fairing (built in Toronto), a set of low-rise flat bars off a 1979 Kawasaki Kz650, a Martek electronic ignition (the 1979 was the first year of the 850 model and the last year for ignition points and a kick starter - which I never had to use) and a Q-Switch electronic headlight modulator. I also added a rear luggage rack, air-assist on the front forks and a tank bag (not at all common back then).

Aside from one (just one) valve adjustment on each of the eight valves, tires, a carb synchronization in year four, a couple of new batteries and A LOT of oil changes, that bike never let me down or needed any repairs of any kind over 10 years and nearly 100,000 miles of riding in all types of weather.

I deeply regret selling it - she really was the perfect touring companion. I guess that is why I am hoping to find a nice NT700V sometime....
 
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Phil Tarman said:
If you put an HMW roundel on your bike, it confuses them. They wave tentatively, they try to take it back, and then end up waving semi-tentatively.

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Phil, you know I have these and they are installed on DIVA behind the Honda wings. However, 50 to 80 feet width of freeway makes it difficult to see them.

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I simply refer to this guy as ā€œThe BMW Snobā€.
 
JustPassinThru said:
But the grizzled vets would be stopped under the canopies, talking about how badly their Hogs were knocking and overheating...and buying a LOT more gas. It was too hot to hang out and talk; and I was burning daylight - I didn't enquire what the event was. Until I got close to Sturgis and saw everyone pull off. Oh...wow...I landed in THAT.
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I was in Sturgis during my epic RV trip back in 2014. I think we rolled through town a few days after the 4th of July, about a month before the Rally. I said to my wife, ā€œPeople want to come to this small town for what?ā€ I did not see any appeal to the area. We did go to the motorcycle museum on Main Street. We got through it about an hour or so. At least that made it worth the trip through there. The day before or so, we stopped at Wall Drug just see what over 400 miles of road signs heading west was all about. At least I gained the bragging rights to say that I did visited the place.
 
Back in '80, my dad had just retired and I had just gone back into the ministry in Casper, WY. My folks and my wife and I (with our two kids, 15 and 12) decided to meet in the Black Hills, and then ride to the Custer battlefield, Cody, Yellowstone, and Jackson before heading back to Casper. We met at a KOA west of Mt Rushmore at about noon on a Monday and were surprised that the campground was practically empty. We drove to Rushmore and then back to the KOA. At about 3:30, motorcycles started coming into the KOA and by 5, it was full. Mom started wondering about what was going on. I went to the camp store for some ice and asked a guy in front of me what was going on. He answered, "Sturgis." "The town?" I wondered and he replied simply, "The Rally." Then he told me that it happened every year and that there would be about 50,000 people there. When I told Mom, she wondered if we'd be safe. By then most of the bikers were around campfires and things were pretty quiet. On Wednesday, Dad wanted to move closer to Lead, and my wife, kids, and I decided to go to the Badlands. We were ready to head back west to meet the folks when we pulled into one last scenic overlook.

That's where we met my favorite Harley rider of all time. We were sitting in our car (an 80 Accord that, in my brilliance, I had bought without air conditioning šŸ˜œ ) when a Harley that had no chrome and was covered with oil and grease pulled in next to us. The rider was as black as his bike. He was wearing cut-off jeans, a sleeveless t-shirt, a red bandanna, and combat boots. He turned off the bike, started rubbing his lower back, and moaned. He had a blanket roll and not much else on the bike. After a minute, he tried to get off the bike and couldn't get his leg over the blanket roll. He sat there another 30-40 seconds and managed to get off. I asked him if he'd like some water or a soft drink or tea and he said, "Man, water would be great!" I got out and gave him our Coleman 1-gallon water jug. He unscrewed the lid and started trying to pour water from the spigot at the bottom. I told him that we hadn't had any water out of it and that we weren't going to and that he could just drink straight out of the jug. He drank about half the gallon non-stop. He said he had left St. Joseph, MO, that morning and that the temperature had been 100F by 10 and he'd been riding into a 20-25mph headwind all day. "I've got to figure a way to carry some water on this hog," he said.

I noticed that he had Virginia license plates and asked him where he lived. He told me he was from Fairfax and I told him that we had friends who lived there. The wife worked as a comptroller in the Pentagon, reporting to an Undersecretary of the Air Force. I asked him what he did and he looked around to be sure no one was listening, then he leaned in close to me and said, "Don't tell anybody, but I'm a senior systems analyst in the Pentagon...except for three weeks every year, when I get on my Hog and ride to Sturgis, terrorizing white people all across the country." I asked him if he did anything special to spread terror and he laughed and said, "Look at me! Look at my bike! I don't need to do anything!"
 
I know that many people absolutely love them, but for me....well, here is my personal Harley story:

I rented a Harley for a week in Arizona a few years back. My family was going for a week over Christmas and I had always wanted to try one - so I thought, what the heck. I think it was a Street Glide...something or other. It had a batwing fairing, a GPS and all the bags etc. It was much smoother and quieter than I expected - but much slower (like really slllllooooowwwww in traffic) and lazier in turns. You really had to muscle-it around. The brakes were pretty high effort too and the fuel economy was no great shakes. The multitude of buttons on the handlebars were un-intuitive, but I'm sure I could have figured them out in several weeks. I found the riding position to be unnatural and crippling for ride of more than 20 minutes or so - but some folks sure like it so maybe I could get used to it.

But the thing that I found most tiresome and sort of...dumb - for a motorcycle brand whose major demographic is older riders - was the fact that the instruments were so far away from my eyes and even worse, the faces of the instruments and the markings on them were so small as to be nearly illegible. I don't normally need to wear glasses to ride or even read (I have the "ideal" combo of one near-sighted and one far-sighted eye) - but I truly found the Harley instruments to be just about useless unless I took my eyes off the road and leaned way forward to peer at them.

Overall, I found the bike to be impossible to like (and I had wanted to like it) and for the price, a total fail as a potential purchase - but of course, YMMV.

Pete
 
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