Pedro

Pinky under the bottom of the glass to provide support, remaining fingers serve only as an anti tip-over with minimum squeeze.

That was the original plan, Bob, but my friend has this shed of a BMW that is about to expire and decided to get a pair of stickers from the UK for it before it does. If you're cool with guiding them on a little ride around cool roads and there's somewhere near yours with safe parking for the night, I'm sure he'd be happy to invite you and Ersilia for dinner.

A cruel one, as crossing the moss would give you a better view

My friend is going to be a little bit more optimistic as he wasn't yet born in 76. He seems to have gotten a little carried away today though, and convinced by @Sofia has gotten himself booked on ferries to go over and see what it´s all about the UK little roads and what not. Baps and all that... He is intent on being nice and comfy in jeans with a pair of rain plastic overalls for the ocasional cover as he was promised that September is great in the UK. Actually there's substantial splash coming from the front wheel from under the cylinders on a GS in heavy rain. My friend and @Sofia are maybe going past your way ...

"all the water", what do you mean by "all" the water? My winter boots are Stylmartin leather boots with a sort of waterproof liner. I guess I'll go shopping ...

In Portugal they might not have been drinking coffee (not tea either ), and after would be hanging around the exit of the next 60kph motorway exit with a speed gun waiting for me.

If you were to ride around a couple of weeks in the UK in September, northernmost the Isle of Man's latitude, do you think you'd bother with proper waterproof boots or would the occasional small shower proof leather boots be good? Also, would one be really cold or ok with jeans? Asking for a friend...

I love the moss in the middle, but it's frightening not to see around bends. That looks like riding on a narrow tunnel.

They look ok-ish, in a budget sort of way. But if you put one next to an Africa Twin they look proper shit. I like that cafe, Bob! Never been much a fan of hanging around traffic police but I think they're different in the UK.

15.000.000km Don’t polute my brain with doubts! I tended to this engine’s main failure point, which is the rocker arms, appart from that there are no real known failure areas for my generation engine. I’ll deal with symptoms as they appear and try to do as much preventive maintenance as is practical to do so and advised by my mechanic, then it’s up to luck.

109000km today

I did I change tires when they feel bad to ride on, and amazingly these never did so far.

At 16000km these are running out of thread, but amazingly very smooth and a delight to do corners as long as you remind yourself they’re not a sporty tire. I decided to see how far the would go because I’ve never had a worn tire that handles as nicely as this (no rain, though). I think there is no better tire for a big trip on a big trail bike. In a couple of days they’ll be replaced with some Continentals. The next pair of Mitas is already in the garage, but only to be fitted a few days before the next Morocco trip, which so far is very uncertain regarding dates.

Rode north today, with the 3 hours motoway trip extended another hour or so for smaller roads long way alternatives

I checked their website, there is a 500cc version previous to this one with a one cylinder engine. On that 500cc there is a scrambler version which is the base version with 150mm non adjustable suspension travel, but then there is a 200mm suspension travel with adjustable suspension. Maybe there’s some of that coming to the 700.

Back then a vtwins’ rear engine overheated easily. This also spins the right way to exit transmission via a drive shaft, which they wanted for being more resilient to war. Also they were quite fast. On today’s boxers you could obviously get more specific power on other configurations, however heat is still an issue on warmer climates when you travel not going very fast on higher output engines, ask anyone with a KTM or a Ducati, the character of the engine suits travelling and ease of use, and people still like the shaft. I personally like how it both pulls from 2500rpms and also sounds like an airplane at 8 or 9000rpms. I am aware it’s a Nazi airplane, though, it’s a guilty pleasure.

Is it really a Yamaha engine though, or a copy?

Do you access your garage through the house? A secured from inside garage door would be ideal if that’s so.

Looks nice in black. I have been pondering the same.

You would think so but no. It was gone long before I got the 1150.

I ‘ve said before, the holocaust, climate change, plenty of stuff not your fault. Sadly my hair is also one of those things, but if I catch who did it I ‘ll be pretty upset

I think where they are probably their buying power at that age makes them not really worried about bikes. Nowadays most people on a new GS are renting it, at 2 or 3 years they just pay a grand or two and switch over to another bike, this makes that they don’t really care about the bike. Also they’re clueless, you see plenty of people in that video being equally clueless on lighter bikes with offroad tires. The equipment doesn’t save you if you’re going from a high grip surface onto slippery wet ground while cornering and adjust nothing.

It’s your doing, Pete, being so charismatic all the time and now making fun of him openly. Shouldn’t play with people’s feelings like that!

A friend of mine has one. Feels heavy and a little lazy around interesting roads, and not really frugal on motorways at normal speeds. An oldschool touring bike I think, he misses his Strom 650 except when taking his wife for Sunday morning coffee.