Farkling the F650GS - Round 2

Today was like an early birthday! The F650GS and I got presents!

My ZTechnik windshield arrived from A&S Motorcycles around noon. A few hours later, the Quest RAM cradle and Widder battery hookup showed up from Whitehorse Press. I stayed late at work helping a coworker with a project, but hit the garage as soon as I got home.

The windshield install was super easy.

The unmolested GS with my long-ignored CB350 in the background (yeah, I need to sweep the leaves out):


The windshield kit'o'parts: sheld, u-shaped plastic spacer, screws, washers, and simply! good instructions:


GS sans stock fly-shield (3 screws removed):


New windshield installed. Easy Cheezy!






Sitting on the bike, this windshield is fairly tall. At 5'-4", I'm definitely going to need to keep the windshield clean, but I can easily see over it. I don't think I've had a shield this high since I sold the GL650. I have high hopes for it's effectiveness battling wind at higher speeds.


Next on deck was the RAM cradle for my Quest2 GPS. I'd been toying with the idea of fitting it with conduit hangers (like I did on the R1200ST). In the heat of the moment, I decided to simplify my install (and avoid scrounging through my *boxes of stuff*) by pulling one of the RAM balls off the ST and installing it onto the mirror of the GS. I found a diamond shaped plate with a ball attached in one of my spares boxes, along with a short RAM arm to connect it all to the bike.

Visible in this picture on the left side handlebar is my old Formotion glow-in-the-dark thermometer. I got pissed off at it's unerring inaccuracy last year and removed it from the R1200ST. I've decided to give it another chance.

You can also see the switch for the heated handgrips duct-taped (silver) to the left side of the cockpit. I still haven't made it over to my parent's house for a larger drill bit.

Finally, I connected the Widder vest battery connection to the BlueSea fuse box (clear cover, yellow latch, colorful fuses) that got installed two weeks ago. The F650GS now has full cold-weather capability.

The red line running along the subframe toward the rear of the bike (top-right side of the pic) is the switched wire from the tailight. I'm really trying to keep this install tidy.


If I can get my act together tomorrow morning, I'll give the new windshield a whirl. Watch for a review in the next few weeks.

Farkling the F650GS

Farkling the F650GS has been an exercise in procrastination. I've had the initial main parts (fuse box, grip heater kit) sitting in my garage for weeks now, but haven't quite gotten around to doing the installation.

With the winter cold that Houston has been experiencing, this has led to a decreased desire to actually Ride the bike.

I resolved to spend this weekend taking care of it, finally. After work on Friday I ran around to a couple of hardware and auto parts stores, stocking up on stuff for my install. I bought an automotive relay, an inline fuse, 12 and 18 ga. wire in red and black, and various electrical connectors. I have acquired a good sized collection of crimp-on electrical connectors through the years, but I've also learned that when doing an install, I always seem to have insufficient quantities of the connectors I need most.

My first order of business on Saturday morning (after feeding Cali and giving Sorscha her dried cranberries) was to pull the existing grips off the F650GS. I've helped with heated grip installs on 3 bikes at this point, so I had the grips off quickly and prepped the surface for the stick on heaters.

Note: Heated grip kits are often available locally from stores like Cyclegear, but I've always preferred the Symtec kit with attractive OEM-looking round rocker switch offered by CAsporttouring.

Some people swear by insulating the clutch side with duct tape or even insulation, but the Symtec kit is specifically made to not require that measure. I stuck it right onto the painted metal of the handlebar, confident that it would provide the right amount of heat. The throttle side was a little harder, with little ridges on the moveable tube. I wound some electrical tape around the sticker to hold it in place and pushed the OEM grip back on.

An air compressor hose stuck under the grips is supposed to make it easier to get the grips back on, but I found that my little electric tire inflator did next to nothing. Elbow grease got the job done. I routed the wires to the desired switch location with some small black zip ties.

Next I needed to provide a power source. I had bought a 6 circuit Blue Seas fuse box at Academy Sports (~$28) a few weeks earlier. Now I needed to find a place to put it. Rooting around in my under-seat area, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my GS had in fact come with the OEM tool roll. The previous owner said that it he didn't have it! Apparently the very complete tool roll hadn't been used in the life of the bike! I relocated it to the locking compartment under the rear *rack* and fit my fuse box into the tool roll slot.

The F650GS is unique in that the gas tank is under the seat and the battery is up inside the faux *tank*. The FAQ at F650.com gives easy instructions for removing the center tank panel to access the battery without having to remove all the fairings (as is described by the BMW owner's manual).

Using my 12 ga. wire and yellow connectors, I created a harness running from the battery back to the fuse box. The ground wire is black, with a ring connector at each end. The hot wire is red, with an inline 30 amp fuse and female spade connector on one end to plug into the relay. Another 12 ga wire goes from the relay to the fuse box. I tucked the wires away under the *gas tank* fairings. To switch the relay, I used a scissors to scrape away at the electrical tape around the tail light wires and put a *vampire* connector onto the gray/black wire of the tail light. I ran a red wire from the tail light to the relay. Another black wire to the fuse box grounded my switched connection.

My fuse box ready to go, I ran a red/black pair of wires to the heated grips switch location, put a 5 amp fuse on the circuit, and hooked everything up for a test. The grips quickly heated up, so I buttoned up the bike.

Early Sunday morning I drove to the hardware store to pick up a 13/16" drill bit to make a hole for the switch, but the store wasn't open. In hindsight, I'm not even sure that my little 9-volt Makita could handle such a large bit. I might have to run the bike over to my parent's house to drill the hole. Dad will definitely have everything needed.

The grip heater switch is duct-taped in place for now. The fuse box is ready to go for easy install of additional electrical farkles. A heated vest connection and XM radio will probably come soon.

I also have a ZTeknik windshield on order and am waffling over which luggage rack to go with.

First Look: RKA 8.5 liter 3-point “MiniX” Tankbag

With all the luggage capacity on the R1200ST, people often ask why I need a tankbag too. My tankbag holds only items that need to be quickly and easily accessible: wallet, phone, camera, and face-shield cleaner. It’s kind of like a woman’s purse, in that it holds essentials, but inevitably gets cluttered. Stuff “expands” to fill the space allowed, so I prefer to keep my tankbag small and unobtrusive.

I’ve been getting more and more frustrated with my current tankbag. It’s a cheap Chase Harper mini strap-mount bag. I’ve been mostly satisfied, but it’s bigger than I’d like and the attachment system sucks (my tank is plastic, so I have to use strap-mount bags). Sometimes I think that tankbag does more sliding around on my bike than I do.

A few months ago I saw another R1200ST at Ming’s Café. This one had a RKA tankbag that utilized some built-in attachment points that I hadn’t even known existed. It was rigidly mounted and perfectly sized, but at $80 I hesitated and continued my research. Two weeks ago, with some extra money available and my summer riding trips fast approaching, I finally ordered one.

RKA is a small California-based motorcycle luggage company that’s been around for a long time. Being a small but very successful outfit, they have a great reputation for quality and service. A few hours after I placed my order on RKA’s website, I received an email from Richard, the “R” in RKA, letting me know that they were backordered and there would be a two week delay in shipping. With my next trip several weeks away, I was fine with that. We bantered briefly in email over the weirdness of a California phone area code and Texas address. I was left with an impression of friendliness and good customer service. If I ever need spare parts (buckles?) or bag repair, I would feel confident contacting the RKA in ways that I never would when dealing with a larger company.

And now back to the actual bag, which arrived yesterday…

From the description on RKA’s website:
7.0"W x 10.0"L x 2.5"H / 7.5"H. Main compartment, Expansion, total 525 ci. Lifetime-limited warranty. Raincovers are optional, Map holder is thick 20th Lexan material and is removable. Inside usable dimensions are 6.0" x 8.0. Attachment system and shoulder strap included, Beautiful rubberized handle, Orgabizer and key chain holder in the lid, PVC coated polyester Slip-Not bottoms and backs to all luggage. Slip Not is an anti-abrasion grip fabric, waterproof, strong and washable. All luggage is made out of a 600 Denier solution dyed Polyester urethane coated and/or 600/300 denier vinyl laminated PVC, diamond embossed material. All zippers are YKK and inserts are 60th ABS (Plastic) or polystyrene in areas where needed. All luggage is finished and lined in main compartments and major areas. a 3/8 inch foam combined onto a 200 denier coated nylon for the inside lining.

Pictures of the bag mounted on Richard’s R1200ST (from RKA’s website):





I was impressed last night when I unpacked the bag. It appears to be solidly constructed, with attractive black material and lots of reflective piping. The zipper pulls are nicely sized for use with gloved hands. The expansion zipper is neat, spiraling around in a way I haven’t seen on other tank bags. I don’t foresee using the expansion chamber very often, but it might be useful for stowing a jacket liner or other bulky item for short periods of time.

Even in the heaviest downpour, I’ve never used the included rain cover on my Chase Harper tank bag, so I chose not to order RKA’s optional rain cover ($10). RKA advertises their bags as completely lined and finished inside: “The most water-resistant product on the market today.”

I haven’t mounted it on the R1200ST yet, but you can be sure that the bag will get thoroughly tested this coming weekend on my ride to New Mexico for the Sport-Touring.Net Region 2 Meet.

Revised my dash

One of my gripes with my ST has been a lack of good mounting points for gadgets. My xm radio and gps have been mounted on RAM arms attached to the mirror stalks, but I couldn't find any other places to cleanly put a RAM ball for my camera.

A couple of companies make expensive mounting products for the R1200ST, notably "The Gadget Guy" and Z-technik. They are nice, but I didn't like their lack of rubber-mounting and especially with "The Gadget Guy" mount, the need to spend even more money on base mounts.

A few months ago I noticed that Touratech had developed a gadget mount for the ST. It was amazingly cheap ($29.30!) and looked nice and clean. It was also labeled "backordered", which discouraged me from ordering.

I ordered the Touratech mount two weeks ago. To my surprise, I received notification that it had shipped only a week later. I installed it on the bike on Thursday night.



Of course, after spending only $30 on the mount, I wasn't about to go out and purchase Touratech's expensive mounting brackets, so I made do with some 1/2" conduit hangers that have been rattling around my "bits box" for a while. (The black stuff is a bicycle inner tube that I use as a convenient roll of rubber shims for anything that needs vibration damping or shielding between metal mounts)(I used fender washers to widen the base for my Quest gps mount)


Aaaaaaand with everything mounted up. The xm radio gets waterproofed 100% of the time because I can never tell when Texas will decide to let loose on me. The ziplock freezer bag is held on with a band of double sided velcro.




And now, with 2 RAM balls and all my RAM arms freed up, I can mount other really cool things!

Review: Racer Multi-Top Gloves

Waterproof & Good Feel, Without Compromising Protection:

I'm kinda a gear-collector (to put it nicely). I have several different pairs of jackets, pants, gloves, and boots. I look for quality and comfort, but also protection.

Lately I've been particularly challenged in choosing gloves. My every-day riding gloves (Tourmaster Scarabs) are leather, with armor over the knuckles, a long adjustable gauntlet, and a wrist-strap to keep them on my hands in the event of a crash.

My cold-weather riding gloves are similar. Tourmaster Coldfront Carbons are leather, waterproof, and have the same protective features with a whole lot more bulk in the form of insulation. Problem is....they suck to ride in. The insulation takes away from feeling the controls.

I've also got a couple of cheap pairs of less bulky waterproof textile gloves, but I never felt comfortable with the protection levels offered and tend to avoid riding in them.

I really wanted a happy medium.... something with good protective features, but waterproof without the bulk.

About a year ago I found just such a wonder: the Racer Multi-top. I finally scraped together the cash to purchase them two weeks ago.

I first tried them on last year at Road Rider, a large gear store in San Jose, CA and later found them available online at Motostrano in Redwood City, CA.

From the description on Motostrano http://www.motostrano-store.com/ramuwamegl.html

Aniline-nappa leather l kangaroo-leather palm and fingers l HIPORA Waterproof l Schoeller® Keprotec® backed l plastic mesh knuckle protector l 2-layer reverse leather palm l non insulated for exceptional fit and feel. A sporty waterproof and breathable touring glove, kangaroo leather palm, Keprotec abrasion resistance, and highest quality craftsmanship.

Comment from another friend who owns these gloves:
"warm, comfy, well built, good mid-weight gloves"

Feel:

The soft kangaroo palm is flexible and the liner slides comfortably against skin. The hipora waterproof and breathable liner doesn't add much bulk, but these gloves definitely aren't as sensitive as a single layer of leather. Still, when you compare them to something like the Tourmaster Coldfront Carbon (which I own for arctic temperatures), they are like a second skin.

I find riding with the Tourmasters to be difficult. The lining in the Racers subtracted a little from feel, but I would be quite comfortable running some tight twisties in them. I could feel the throttle turning under my fingers and had no problem reaching for the levers.

Warmth:

I haven't done extensive testing, but I had to commute home a few nights ago on the freeway in 50 degree weather (a half hour ride). I felt no need to turn on my gripwarmers. They are advertised as unlined, but the extra few layers that make them waterproof seems to add some significant windchill protection...at least enough to get you down to cold temperatures supplemented by gripwarmers.

Sizing:

These gloves seem to run a bit small. I normally wear a men's small in gloves. The Racer men's medium was a better fit, leaving more room for my thumb when curled around the bars, without too much excess in the other fingers. A friend purchased a men's large about a year ago and decided later that a men's XL would have been a better choice. Women's sizes are available.

Going up in size a little bit might be iffy in daily wear race gloves, but isn't an altogether bad idea when it comes to cold weather gloves. I often find that my fingers swell and get stiff in really cold weather, making gloves that fit well in a warm store become slightly constricting and annoying in the cold.

Cost:

Pricey - $155 from Motostrano. I managed to catch them during a sale and got $10 knocked off that price, with free shipping.

New Gear & One Year on the R1200ST

Just in time for winter.....

I decided a few months ago that my FirstGear Hypertex Air Pants weren't going to cut it for winter. While I don't expect to see any snow, Texas does get colder than California.

After much research and agonizing, I settled on a new Tourmaster Transition jacket, Tourmaster Caliber pants, Sidi Strada Tepor boots, and Racer Multi-top gloves. I updated my gear page with short descriptions of my new gear.

A good in-depth review will have to wait. I've had the stuff for about a week, but only ridden once. The weather has been bad and I had to deal with Cali's illness. Furthermore, I'm leaving for Cancun on Wednesday for an office "retreat" that will last through next weekend.

Look for pictures from Cancun over the next few days, and hopefully a gear review and maintenance write-up once I get back. (Yeah - I still haven't done my 18k service).

In other news, I will have officially been a BMW owner for one year on November 13. In celebration, I finally joined the BMWMOA (BMW Motorcycle Owners Club). The birthday boy R1200ST has 18,800 miles as of today, and I doubt I'll be able to put any more on by the 13th.

Trip Prep

The preparations for a trip can be almost as exciting as the trip itself. They can also take longer.

In reality, I don’t have much to do, even though this will be my first overnighter with the R12ST (I know… WTH have I been doing all this time???).

• New tires two weekends ago (with pictorial evidence - on the way to get them swapped in) Continental Road Attacks. They rock. They’re also broken in. I’ve got about 500 miles on them. Great wear so far.
• Rewired the Givi tail-light to use a continuous wire instead of the funky spring connections that have only worked intermittently for the last year or two.
• Finally got the headlight modulator installed and working. While I was at it, I swapped an Osram Silverstar that I had lying around into one of my headlights. The removed bulb was carefully packaged and placed into my onboard tool bag as a spare.
• Applied a 3M reflective sticker kit to my saddlebags and trunk. I now have something like 4 square feet of rear reflectivity at night. These sticker kits are really neat. They are black in daylight, but reflect white at night.
• My cruise control is not currently working. I’ve been intensively troubleshooting it for the last few weeks, but no dice. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to not having it for this trip. I guess it’s not so bad. Most motorcycles on the road don’t have cruise control. I keep reminding myself that if B12Bill could go cross country without a throttle lock OR throttle rocker (as he‘d tell me whenever he heard me whining about cruise control troubles), I’m not so bad off.
  
  Sidenote: I’m truly glad that I’m far past the death grip stage in my riding career. I vividly remember riding my CB350 from San Jose to San Luis Obispo (3 hours) with a death grip keeping the throttle pinned. That was painful. I don’t know how newbies do it.
  

I also bought a few new accessories for the road.

• Battery powered toothbrushes have really come down in cost. I picked up an OralB for $5. I used to hate the feeling of using a manual toothbrush when on the road, instead of my deluxe rechargeable. Now my teeth should be squeaky clean morning and night.
• Adapter cord for charging electronics. BMW uses a funky power socket, so while I have one built in on the bike, I couldn’t actually use it. Until now. I’m thinking that my old Giant Tank Bag ™ is going to get strapped to the rear seat and get used as a charging station for all my various goodies. With the ST’s giant saddlebags, the tent and sleeping bag should no longer take up seat space.
• I also acquired a cheap bullet camera for taking onboard video. I’m not going to hype it until I see how it does.
  

Loose Ends:

Among the stuff that will have to wait for last minute:

• Business cards with rocketbunny information to hand out to people I meet. I’ve been meaning to do this for a few years. I have a design in mind and the pre-cut cards to do it with. I just need to sit down at my graphics computer and do it.
• Refresh my ebook collection. I carry a Ipaq loaded with ebooks for night and meal reading. I usually load at least 5 books. The pda is smaller than a paperback, so using it for this really helps save space.
• Load a backup MP3 player. I’ve been meaning to raid Dad’s classic rock collection. This will be for those times when the XM craps out due to canyon or tree cover.
• Oh, and my Givi trunk? It’s a mess. I gotta go in with a trash bag to make space for clothes and the laptop. Of course, nothing in there is really “meant” to be there, it just migrated through repeated use. At least the saddlebags are relatively neat right now.
  
  Ahhhh…anticipation.

Acquired a new camping stove

At the end of a long day on the road, I usually can't face getting back on the bike and searching for a place to eat.

Therefore, on each multi-day tour or camping trip, I carry a backpacking stove, lightweight metal pot, and several packets of freeze-dried backpacking food. BTW: "Backpacker's Pantry" makes the best food. They have interesting, great tasting entrees. At the end of the day, I boil a couple of cups of water, pour it into the foil packet, and wait a few minutes before eating, usually accompanied by water from my camelbak. I've even done this in a hotel room, after a very wet day when all I wanted was to get warm and go to sleep.

Unfortunately. the camping stove I've used for the last two years wasn't actually mine, so I left it in California with it's owner.

No fear! This last weekend, REI had a 20% off one item sale for members. I've been eyeing the Jetboil camping stove system for the last few months. This was my opportunity to knock a significant chunk off the purchase price.

I haven't actually tried it out yet, but I unpacked it to see how it all fits together.

The neat thing about the Jetboil is that the stove, fuel canister, and pot (insulated metal cup actually) all fit together for light and compact transport. It will trim the size required to stow my cooking system by half! It's easy to use too, with an ignitor button and little black knob to control the flame. To cook, you just screw it on to the fuel can, turn the knob to get the gas flowing, and press the button. Presto! Hot water in minutes. Caffeine junkies can even buy an accessory that lets you brew coffee in the cup (not my thing).

The stove + a fuel canister came out to ~$60 with the sale. Check out Jetboil's Official Website for more info.

Belated Weekend Report

For once I feel like I had an incredibly productive weekend.

I went out with Mom on both days and did a lot of clothes and shoe shopping both for Vegas and to cope with the Texas summer heat. I picked up a couple of pairs of sandles and lots of capris and sleeveless shirts.

I've been wanting to repot the peace lily I keep at work, so we went into the newly opened Lowes to see if they had any cute pots. Silly me...I just can't seem to get out of a hardware/garden store without a new houseplant.

Didn't get any riding in, but did a bunch of work on my bike. I installed the new stuff from Cyclegadgets. The Kisan headlight modulator is giving me trouble, and I'm expecting a call back from the great guys at Kisan Tech this morning. BMW seems to be keeping them on their toes as far as Canbus and pin-out wiring changes.

As a last proof of my productivity for the weekend, the BMW got it's first ever wash. Yup, first wash at just over 6000 miles. Yeah, I'm bad. Mom shamed me into washing *Big Green Truckly* too. The she pulled the Mini out of the garage and made me help her wash it. Not that it actually needed it.

I'm flying out to Vegas tomorrow afternoon. Watch this space for pics and reports!

Farkle Time!

It's been a while since I bought anything for my bike, but I've been doing a whole lotta commuting lately, and feeling slightly naked. My YZF had all sorts of safety oriented gadgets installed and I just haven't managed to get it together to order them for the ST.

I got onto cyclegadgets and ordered a Kisan Headlight Modulator, reflective tape to make my saddlebags go nuclear at night, a medical information pouch that sticks to your helmet (+1 for dad), and a Formotion thermometer. I also need to take the time to install the hyperlights (blinky red led strips) that I pulled off the Yzf before selling it.

Woohoo! Blinky shiny bike. Well, *ominous voice* SOON, anyway.

It was going to be a boring weekend

Tony was on-call at work, so he wouldn’t be joining me in any rides. The other usual suspects were busy. I didn’t feel like moping around the house, so Friday morning I called my sister Jessica to see if she was going to be around.

The plan was to ride down to San Diego and have dinner with Jess and Dave and then spend the night there before riding back the next day, hopefully hitting up some nice roads on the way.

In preparation, I went to Road Rider after work on Friday to pick up a tank bag. I’ve been doing lots of research and waffling on tank bags for the past few months. I had pretty much decided to eventually purchase a $100+ RKA when I had the cash, but was thinking I’d buy a $50 Tourmaster Mini to tide me over. It was smaller than I really wanted, but would work. As luck would have it, I browsed a little before making my purchase and found a Nelson Rigg strap-on bag that would work perfectly (about the size I was looking for). I also purchased a combination balaclava/turtle-fur neck warmer in hopes of a warmer solution than my current thin balaclava.

I left the house at 5 am, wanting to slab down 101 in the pre-dawn hours to make it to 58 bright and early. All was going well. The ST’s headlight was proving itself capable in the dark. I found that with the grip warmers on, the throttle rocker stiffened up the throttle, acting as a kind of throttle lock (more later, I don’t really like this, but it was convenient for freeway travel).

I was thinking that things were going my way when I hit pretty bad fog around San Miguel. For the next 20-some miles, it was foggy. It was also starting to get light out, but I was amazed to see that very few cars had their lights on. It made me very nervous to come up on dark shapes running in the fog without marker lights. I tried following other cars at times, but many of them were going much faster than I was comfortable with in bad visibility.

I finally made it to Atascadero, where I’d planned to get gas. At every exit I peered through the fog looking for the In&Out Burger that was my usual landmark for my favorite gas exit. I never saw it, conditions as they were, so I found myself hitting the Santa Margarita/58 exit with my tank just a few miles from empty. I circled back around on a farm road (one of the scarier parts of the day, very bad fog) to find another gas station. I asked an attendant there if he knew when the fog might burn off. The blank look he gave me was not confidence inspiring. I think he wasn’t the brightest, because he told me “maybe by afternoon” and then seemed to hang around the entire time I was fueling up, in between emptying the trash bins and refilling the paper towels.

I went back to Santa Margarita, heartened that conditions on the freeway were already improving. Once I got into town, I found that it was still pretty foggy though, so I stopped for breakfast at “Tina’s Place” which I think used to be called “Jo’s Roundup Café” back when I was in school in the area.
I lingered at breakfast for over an hour, watching the fog slowly lift, before getting going again at around 10 am. I decided at that point that I wasn’t feeling up to riding all the way down to San Diego, mainly because it was pretty cold out and I just wasn’t feeling like facing any more freeway that day.

I headed out on 58, taking my few pictures of the day. It was swoopy and sweepy with very little traffic. I really enjoyed the western part, and the straights and whoops in the center. I’ve always been a little leery of the tight switchbacks and steep grades on the eastern part of the road. I remember watching the rider before me lowside his cruiser on some gravel in that area back during a group ride of Cal Poly students. The memory has made me very cautious on this part of the road.

I hit 33 and headed into the wasteland of California central coast oil fields. Rusty pumps nodded up and down. Gravel covered the road at places where trucks could swing out while crossing to other oil fields. I could smell sulphur and dust. I was amused to notice farms and orchards on one side of the road and then a strong demarcation line with ranks of oil rigs beyond.

At Coalinga I decided to skip my usual Harris Ranch lunch. Instead I parked in front of the Red Robin and enjoyed strawberry lemonade with my open faced mushroom and swiss burger.

I headed out on 198 at 3pm, wondering if I’d have time to do 25 or would have to head for 101 and slab home in darkness, as happened on my last group ride there.

As I left Coalinga, a lone rider pulled off a side road way ahead of me. It appeared to be an early 80’s touring bike, with hard bags and a big fairing. I never really figured out what it was, but followed him briefly, watching him ride the double yellow in a few turns. I passed when I had the opportunity, not wanting to watch this accident waiting to happen. I didn’t see him again, but he wasn’t going very fast (a good thing, actually).

A little while later I came up on a convoy of at least 7 slow moving cruisers. I didn’t really feel like following them either, so was very happy to see a passing lane come up. In the process of passing them, I was puzzled when the ST appeared to lose power a few times. After the pass was completed, I realized that I had been in 2nd gear and thus found out what hitting my rev limiter feels like. I tried to be more aware of how close to redline I was for the rest of the ride.

I feel like a broken record for saying this, but I really can feel my confidence improve each time I take this bike out for a long ride. I don’t feel that I was quite keeping to the pace set my last time on this road with Tony, but I was moving. 198 really is one of the better roads in California. I’ve ridden most of the ones that are usually mentioned in top 10 lists, but 198 just feels so good. Rollercoaster!

I made it to 25 at around 3:30 and made the turnoff. 25 was business as usual. It was pretty clean compared to my last time on it. I stopped briefly at the location of a fatal motorcycle accident that I’d been present for three years ago to pay my respects.

In Hollister, dark clouds ahead prompted me to stop for a caramel mocha and change to my clear shield. I also buttoned up for rain and moved sensitive equipment from my tankbag to the waterproof trunk.

I hit a good amount of rain on the ride back to San Jose, but found that the ST’s windshield is pretty effective. By tucking at the right angle, the wind driven off the shield cleared my helmet face shield of rain. Bonus!

I got home and found Tony at his computer, after a fun-filled day of providing tech support and working through an entire campaign on one of his computer games.

Not such a boring weekend after all!

Farkle Wishlist (sigh)

My R1200ST is a great bike, but as a sport-touring junkie I feel an overwhelming need to add schtuff. This list is to help me organize my thoughts.

Wishlist:

• $163 - Touratech R12GS Aluminum Cylinder head guards PN:044-0360 (These look significantly more durable than the plastic BMW brand guards for only a little more cash)
• $155 - Racer Multi-Top Waterproof Gloves. Men's medium (probably)
• $25 - 3M Scotchlite Reflector kit for Givi E450 from Twisted Throttle
• $300? - R12GS Handguards
• $108 - Givi R12ST Topcase rack from Twisted Throttle. I'm torn here. My old adapter plate works, but this would look much better. It does not appear to accommodate my Givi light kit, but it only works intermittently on my current rack anyway. This item can probably wait until I've exhausted the rest of the list.

The "It doesn't exist yet" Wishlist:

• Hella FF50 driving lights. Now I just gotta find someone who makes an affordable (or re-createable) set of mounting brackets that put them at headlight-level, NOT wheel-level. Yeah. I'd like them, but not till I figure out how to mount 'em.
• $500+ - Fuel cell. Maybe Touratech will modify their new R12GS accessory tanks to fit the ST. Wishful thinking?

Long -term Wishlist:

• $800+ - Aerostich 1-piece Roadcrafter