I Didn’t Do It!

Wash the bike, that is. Wild West Honda/BMW did. Aren’t they nice?

I dropped the R1200ST off at the Katy, TX dealer early this morning for new brake pads and a brake system bleed. While I was there, I purchased an oil filter and some new Teknic gloves.

A few hours later, I got a call; “You have some extra wiring and plumbing under the body work, so the labor costs will be a little higher than you were originally quoted.” Sheepishly, I said that was fine.

When I came back at 5:30pm to pick up the bike, the service manager remarked, “You’re a Rider.”

“Oh?” I said, “How can you tell?”

“Well, you have a whole lot of ‘stuff’ installed, and it’s obvious the bike only gets a bath when it rains. We washed off some very ancient dead bugs.”

I gave him my standard response, “Every bug is a Badge of Honor!” before paying and heading out to the parking lot to don my dusty, bug-gut streaked riding jacket and black helmet with white bunny ears.

Evening Ride

When I left work at 6:30 tonight, I fully intended to go home, have dinner with my family, and attack the R1200ST with a hose and bucket of warm soapy water.

When I was about halfway home, I realized that the evening was just too beautiful to waste. I decided that I would gear up and head into the city for the bike night at Ming’s Cafe.

Riding out of my neighborhood, seeing the sun still relatively high in the sky and enjoying the mild evening breeze flowing over me, I somehow found myself turning west on the highway instead of east into downtown.

I raced daylight up to Waller and FM362 where I followed a fellow motorcyclist off the highway. I passed him after a few turns and settled into the business of leaning my motorcycle. It took a few turns to warm up, but I quickly settled into the wonderful feel of setting up for a curve and then accelerating smoothly out.

By the time I hit my favorite close-to-home road, FM2979, I was feeling good. I slammed down the road in 3rd gear, the ST raging out of the corners. The road was lined with yellow and orange flowers, with the occasional stray bluebonnet. The pine trees along the road were casting lengthening shadows when I turned around to do a repeat heading east, away from the setting sun.

I try not to ride backroads at night, so my fun was essentially over at this point. I debated what to do next. I was too far from Montgomery to crash the meet there and too far from the city to have time to talk to people before needing to head home again.

I idly explored east on FM1488, rolling through Magnolia, TX before heading south on 249 to Tomball. Feeling hungry, I stopped at a chain restaurant in Tomball and enjoyed a strawberry lemonade and dinner accompanied by a book that I keep in my sidecase for times like this.

It’s been a long time since I’ve made time for an after-work ride like tonight’s. I can partly blame it on my overriding (pessimistic?) feeling that there isn’t anything close to my house that is truly worth a quickie ride...but the smile that I can’t seem to wipe off my face tonight emphatically says otherwise.

BIG Smiles

It was truly beautiful this evening...80 degrees, clearing skies with low humidity.

I got home from work around 7pm, perfect timing to finish installing the seat and bags onto the BMW and do a short shakedown ride to the TWTex bike night at PO's Burgers.

I had almost forgotten how much the R1200ST *growls*. :D

I'm happy to report that there are no immediately noticeable problems with the front end. I have an appointment to have the brakes bled and new brake pads installed at the dealer on Saturday.

Oh...and....I think....I *might* have to give the ST a bath. I was getting a lot of grief tonight over the fact that the cleanest thing on the bike was the front wheel. If you'll remember, the last time I rode it was in that huge Dallas dust storm in late February. Yeah. It's dirty.

Sleepy Kitty

Cali gave us a little scare last weekend.

He decided not to eat breakfast on Saturday, instead choosing to lounge on my bed. Happily, by dinner time he started to show interest in food again.

By Sunday night he seemed to be completely back to normal. I assume he ate something around the house that didn't agree with his stomach.

Roadside Assistance

When I got my license to drive at age 16, my parents handed me a AAA card along with the keys to the car. I vividly remember the first time I locked the keys into the car and had to wait an hour or so for the tow truck to come rescue me. A few of those experiences later and I was sold-for-life on having some kind of roadside assistance plan.

In September 2004 I found myself in Brady, TX with a broken motorcycle and no real plan. AAA (or at least the California version at that particular time) had no coverage for motorcycles, and I was roughly 2000 miles from home. Luckily, my parents lived half a day away, so Mom and Dad graciously wasted a day driving back and forth across Texas to rescue me, and then provided lodging for my Yamaha in their garage until I could drive back and retrieve it.

I was prepared in 2005. The AMA has a roadside assistance program called “Motow” for a little extra money on top of the membership fee. Happily, my mishaps in 2005 were minor or close to home and I never utilized the service. I dropped AMA membership after a year, mainly because I didn’t agree with many of their key lobbying issues (but that’s not a subject for this post).

My motorcycle roadside assistance needs were theoretically covered in 2006 by the plan provided by BMW with purchase of a new motorcycle. I am very thankful that I never needed the plan, because it covers shockingly little…

…which brings me to 2007… and a little matter of running over some lumber in the road. I was 115 miles from home. Through barest luck, my dad was around that weekend and able to drop what he was doing to drive 4 hours round trip to rescue me yet again.

But what if I’d been living on my own? What if Dad hadn’t been available? What if all my other truck-owning friends were out riding and thus unreachable?

For that matter, what if I’d been 1000 miles from home with a broken down bike? It’s happened before and it’s eminently possible that it will happen again, possibly even this summer while I’m out on one of my various tours.

As a frequent long-distance sport-tourer, motorcycle roadside assistance is something that has been on my mind many times in the past few years. I’ve done a lot of research on different plans and options. I’ve read countless discussions on various forums and mailings lists. I *think* I’ve found the best option.

KOA RVRoadhelp.

For about $80/year, you get unlimited towing to the nearest “capable service provider”. From every review I’ve read, unlimited really means unlimited. If you’re 200 miles from the nearest real town in the middle of Nevada, well, the towing is covered. No other plan (that I’ve seen at least) provides this level of service. The plan covers all your vehicles, not just the motorcycles.

It also includes a KOA Value Kard for discounted camping at KOAs. Some people may not ever use this, but it’s been something I’ve purchased pretty much every year for the past few years. I stay at KOAs often when on tour.

I’ve been putting it off, but I finally signed up this morning… so whatever happens (knock on wood) my 2007 summer touring season is covered.

Bewheeled

I've been incredibly busy with work lately... deadline upon deadline has meant no time to work on the ST. I even worked last weekend! So......

I skipped bike night at PO's *gasp!* to install the new front wheel tonight. The R1200ST is finally off the jack. WOOHOO!

In other news, my 2003 Chevy Silverado, purchased new in October 2002, was finally paid off this month. I got the title in the mail from the bank a few days ago. It's exciting to know that the truck is finally mine....and the extra $500+ per month will be nice too.