By Bill Kenney
So Roy says he wants a write up on the trip to pick up a new GS. Here you go Roy.
It started a few months ago when I decided to downsize the collection mostly due to the thought that I might be getting older and more sensible. My wife agrees wholeheartedly with the first part but laughs uncontrollably when I mention the second part. The decision was to buy a smaller version of my beloved S1000XR with 70k miles on her. Every one of those miles brought a smile to my face. The seat height is 34.5 inches which puts a strain on my 29″ inseam; so the logical choice was to give it to my son Bryan who likes the bike almost as much as I did.
After a couple months I finally found the ’25 F900XR that was to be my dream bike. I did some farkleing that would make Roy Bertalotto proud. Radar, P3 Denalis, EzCan, Admore Brake light, iPhone mount, Akrapovic, engine guards and some other stuff. It is an awesome bike! Does everything well, handles, plenty of ZAP but just didn’t put a smile on my face. What’s the sense of riding a motorcycle if it doesn’t make you smile?
I mention this to a buddy, Paul Parillo, who has had a multitude of bikes and he tells me I am welcome to try his new 1300GS, which he said might be the best bike he has ever owned. That is a large statement from a little guy. He’s not that little but he might be reading this. He also baited me with a , “take it for a ride anytime you want”. A week or two goes by and I stop by his garage on a Monday to steal his bike, he wasn’t home and his wife gave me the secret code to the garage door. To make a long story short, the hunt was on for a new 1300GS. The new F900XR would go on Cycle Trader with 1100 miles on it.
(The F900 found a new home in Albany, the RC has a home in NH, the RT is up for sale so I have the GS and the ZX14 Sidecar left for fun. Don’t tell the wife but I am thinking of buying another used track bike to have some fun with Goppold and my son.)
Razee wasn’t going to be able to get what I wanted. Wagner, Hermy’s, Greater Boston, Bob’s and even the infamous Max couldn’t get what I wanted. I neglected to say that Paul’s had Adaptive Height Control which drops the height 30mm when coming to a stop below 10 mph. That was a mandatory requirement for my new bike along with a clutch and side cases. What’s so hard about that? Well, unless you opt for the Trophy model it is near impossible to get a 1300GS with a clutch. Now every dealer except Razee and Hermy’s (especially the one on the NY/CT border) will tell you they can have one in an hour or so. But even after the promise of having six in the warehouse (by the one on the NY/CT border) my phone stayed silent for two weeks. This was to be a cash deal, no financing, no dealing with a trade-in, just cold hard cash out the door with AHC and a CLUTCH lever!
Paul was in Florida when he decided to replace his Honda Afro Twin with a 1300GS so my next move was to call Ben at Tampa Bay BMW. He said when I was done “dicking” around with the @%$@#&’s up north to give him a call and with a small deposit he would have a photo of a GS with a clutch at his dealership. He lied but I will get back to that later. I made arrangements for a flight down and pick up the bike Tuesday, August 12th. Joey gave me a ride to airport at 4am and off I went. Ben forgot to tell me the bike was at their partner dealer 80 miles away and that I wouldn’t have it until later that afternoon. Oh well.
The bike I ended up with is the R1300GS Tonawanda (or something like that). The engineering that went into this bike is beyond belief. Besides the height control, the dynamic suspension is equal to that of my S1000XR, the engine has 145hp, torque equal to a HD and only weighs 525lbs. It has radar front and rear that allows it to do everything the modern autos do including warning of any lane changes when other vehicles are there before you, adaptive cruise control (which Roy likes and I can’t get used to). The list goes on and on and on. I am constantly finding new stuff but I don’t want to write a whole owner’s manual here, I just want to let you know I am impressed which is not an easy feat all the time.
I left Tampa in 103 degree temps so I just jumped on RT I75 north to escape to GA border to grab a room and a meal. Luckily the bike doesn’t have one of those automatic rev limiters for the first 1000km else I would still be in the heat. Following day was more of RT I75 up to Stone Mountain where President Dave said was “must see”. Something to do with Civil War Generals carved into their own version of Mount Rushmore. The kid at the park entrance told me it was $20 just for a look and see. I even told him I would be back in half hour…just sightseeing without a picnic lunch! Nope, he wasn’t hearing it, I thought about threatening him as he was smaller than me but they have a lot of guns in GA and …never mind.
So I continued up some roads that took me to the Chattahoochee National Park which the GS just loved. Twisties, switchbacks and elevation. I was really getting to like the suspension and torque of this motor! Got onto the Cherahola Skyway and ended up spending the night at the San Ran Motel in Robbinsville, NC. Just as I was getting off Cherohala Skyway in Robbinsville, there was a large police contingency stopping a large group of motorcycles. I noticed a MA license plate on the bike in front of me and figured it had to be one of those YB guys the police were after. Naturally the first thing I said when they asked for my license was, “I’m not with those guys”.
BMW pays for the first service if under 750 miles and at this time I was around 700 so I called Carl’s “buddy” at Asheville BMW to see about cruising in for an AM service the following morning. He said he could get me in but if I was ONE mile past 750 that I would be paying $400 for an engine and differential oil change! I said no thank you and figured it would have to wait until home.
I made my way up to RT 219 in VA via Waynesville, Maggie Valley etc. until I had to jump on RT I81 for a hundred miles. It was actually nice to have a break at warp speed for a bit. I spent the night in Elkins after a great day of mountain riding up RT 219 which takes you through the Monongahela National Forest. When I left in the early AM it was cloudy and wet fog or so I thought. Elkins sits at around 2000 feet of elevation and after an hour or two I broke through into brilliant sunshine and took one of the photos I hope Joey posted. I was climbing through the clouds and broke through ~3000 ft into the sunshine! God it was beautiful! One of the reasons we ride motorcycles.
Next stop was Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA.
https://www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm
If you ever find yourself within 100 miles of here, I strongly suggest you stop and feel what it was like to be a united country. A country in pain and anger but united. I have been there numerous times and it is the only place I have ever been that makes me feel the way I do when there.
I was not in a rush to wrap things up so continued up RT 219 to two lane RT 6 which winds across the top of PA’s farmland and hills. Stayed in Towanda on the Susquehanna River and home the next day after picking up RT 84 in Port Jervis. What a great ride! Hardly any rain and hardly any traffic. Had most of the back roads to myself and turned a 1500 mile ride into a tad over 2k.
