The Equipment

The motorcycle I have now is a BMW K1200RS. This was an upgrade from a Yamaha FZ6.

The bike, as you probably know, has a flat four cylindar liquid cooled engine. It includes ABS, heated grips, standard seat, cruise control and currently I have Maxxis tires that replaced Metzlers. The tires weren't by choice, long story, I might post that story one of these days. The Maxxis are definitly a lot better compared to cupped Metzlers!

I have the BMW side cases along with a Givi top case (everything else is stock). For directions and entertainment I use a Garmin Zumo 550 which hooks into my Autocom for music, directions, FRS Radio bike to bike communication, cell phone and rider/passanger comms. I don't yet have the traffic and weather update subscription on my GPS, but that's part of the thrill!

The pic to the right is from when I first picked up the bike.

As far as riding gear, I have a riding jacket (Joe Rocket), boots and cheap bycicle gloves (they work great and let plenty air through). Finally, I carry a rain suit in the top case. I have yet to use the rain suit as I just ride in the rain with just my riding jacket. Maybe I'll get to use the rain gear on next Big Bend trip.

I bought the motorcycle from BMW Motorcycles of North Houston and have so far been on a few rides to Hill Country, been once to Big Bend last year, been to Arkansas once this year and on October 11, 2007 will be heading through Austin, via Alpine to Big Bend.

While I work on posting the route about the upcoming Big Bend ride, you can enjoy some pictures from previous rides here: http://portal.bmwmch.com/

While we are on the topic of bike pictures, and you don't feel like browsing through a bunch of them, here's a different view of my bike without the top and side cases. The one immediately to the right of my bike is a K1200LT, the luxury tourer, a little too bulky for my taste.