THE QUEST

Reality

The first dose of reality surrounding this long distance trip that came to me once the euphoria of the thought of travel started to abate slightly, was thoughts of my bike.  The motorcycle I was driving when I came up with this brilliant idea to see my own country was my 2007 Yamaha FJR, Thelma.  She is a really nice bike.  She has her drawbacks though.  And I started to wonder, would I be able to drive this thing all the way across the country and back?

Chatter the cat likes driving Thelma

Ideas

For about a year previous to this bright idea of cross country travel, I had been debating a new bike.  As lame as it sounds, given the troubles with my left hand, I wanted an automatic.  The riders among you will know there isn’t such a thing.  Well, not really.  However, I had read the BMW was making a bike with something called Shift Assist Pro.  This allows you to shift your motorcycle without the use of the clutch or accelerator.  At first I thought, “Ah-ha!  An automatic motorcycle!”  However, that isn’t the case.  You do still need to use the clutch when stopping (or you’ll stall and maybe fall over), when you are in town, and when you are in stop and go traffic.  This led me to a lot of research regarding this miraculous new technology and I was impressed.  It looked like something that would make my riding life a lot easier.  Additionally, many of the bikes I was looking at, had cruise control.  That was a big bonus that could help the pain in my right wrist on long trips.

Something new

Thinking about these issues led me to the decision that, before I went on this trip I wanted a new bike.  Here’s the rub though.  Mostly I drive my motorcycle back and forth to work, round trip about 120 miles a day.  Although with the onset of COVID-19, I didn’t really go anywhere, we are on indefinite telework.  I sometimes, like when I went to Crater Lake, went on small trips for fun, and I sometimes ride with my BFG.  Although the rides to work put a lot of miles on the bike when you do them daily, now that we weren’t going back to the office for the foreseeable future, could I justify a new, and pretty pricey bike to myself?  I liked the FJR and I’ve had a lot of fun on it.  Did I really want to give it up?  Up until I got the FJR, I rode cruisers because they are much lower to the ground and far easier for a short-ish woman to firmly put her feet flat on the ground.  My dream bike, however, was a Suzuki Hayabusa!  I don’t know what is wrong with motorcycle designers, but come ON!!  Women have shorter legs!  And some of us would love to ride those 30-foot tall crotch rockets.  I’m guessing some shorter men would too.  However, I’ll save that rant for another time.

My dream ride, a Suzuki Hayabusa!

Decisions

Now I just had to decide which bike I really wanted.  I know after researching many bikes that it is going to be a BMW, the R1200 RT or R1250 RT, the R1200 GS or R1250 GS, or the F750 GS.  I know the K1600 also has the Shift Assist Pro, and the Honda Goldwing has an automatic option, but those are just too big.  Since I use it as a commuter, I don’t need a bike that large that gets that kind of gas mileage.  The 1250 is at the high end of the size in which I was interested.  In order to get the Shift Assist Pro, I need to get a 2015 or newer bike.  The GSs are really tall, and I would struggle to touch the ground.  While there isn’t a CRAZY amount of difference between the R1200 RT and the R1250 RT, the 1250 is newer, premiering in 2019, so I would likely pay more.  The tradeoff is mileage.  Most, if not all, of the 2015 to 2018 bikes have a significant amount of mileage on them and I’m not looking for something I can ride for a couple of years before it gives up the ghost or costs me a fortune in repairs.  Another thing about these bikes, at least at the time I was looking, they are hard to find.  And, when I did find one, someone bought it before I could even talk to someone to put down a deposit.

A BMW R1250GS, a R1250RT, and a F750GS.  Which to choose?

Although my family thinks me impulsive because I usually mull things over in my head without ever saying a word before coming to a decision and then telling them, I do think about things a lot.  I am a terrific insomniac and the wee hours are a good time for thinking.  I also do a lot of research.  I LOVE research!  I just don’t TALK about it, so my decisions always seem a surprise to my family.  In this case though, I had been casually mentioning that I might need a different bike for about a year.  I had some significant trouble with my left hand and was actually unable to ride for a while as I was wearing a brace on my left hand.  I contend they blew off my intimations regarding a different bike while they swear I never said a word!  I’ll let you decide who is correct here, but you know it’s me.  After spending a couple of months thinking about it, weighing the cost, the pros and cons, I decided to sell Thelma and get something new.  When I told them, they were shocked to say the least and begged me to think on it and not make a rash decision.  I explained I HAD thought about it and this is what I wanted to do.  It didn’t take them long to support my decision and do whatever they could to help me in my quest.

Searching

This search was not as easy as it sounds.  As I mentioned, the bike I was looking for was really tough to find.  It didn’t help that I live more than an hour from the nearest dealer, and in my neck of the woods, Harley’s are far more popular and much easier to find.  I found one BMW I was interested in, in the Bay Area, and it was gone before I reached the sales guy.  I found one in the Sierra foothills and when I called him, he said it was sold, he was waiting for the check to clear.  I expanded my search.  I found one in San Diego.  I spoke to the dealer and decided to put down a deposit.  I asked him if I could put down a deposit over the phone and he told me the other salesman just sold it.  I found one in Santa Barbara but the seller wouldn’t even talk to me.  And so it went, disappointment followed by disappointment.

I was beginning to despair ever finding the right bike.  While I hadn’t give up on the idea of taking this epic trip, I did wonder how much I would enjoy it on Thelma.