Pedro

All I can say about macs is that my MacBook Air has been wedged on my sidecases for most of 50000km or more around Portugal and Morocco and does ok with that. Battery life isn’t the best as isn’t the wifi connection management but can’t ask more from it. I am not an IT guy, I want it to send emails and open the daily spreadsheet but if it dies midtrip that would be my business stopped.

It wants to be an oldschool CL, and fails because it’s not skinny and Honda isn’t Triumph when designing retro bikes.

I get it, but if they’re looking for long term sales they should comply with demands. BMW sure as shit would have a good warranty unless mandated.

Single most important reason seconded to how good the bikes are for their success in Portugal, is the bmw bank and the conditions to buy one on payments. I’m not one to do that on a bike but on the same monthly instalment you get on a cb750x you get an r1250gs, with full company car deductions!

For Clive: The man spends a long long long… long time planning an escape

For @XTreme, a nice NC750x, heavier, not less gay and above all no more topbox!

To @Six30, so there’s no more masking marks on tires:

A church with a nice garage, it’s Christmas after all

Surely there’s a minimum warranty for vehicles sold in the EU?

Batman doesn’t use mac, neither

They're all mine though, got the invoices to prove it Show me a brand that actually cares about their consumers and proper after sales assistance though, japanese parts cost and supply after a few years is a joke as well as their warranties. What happened with the shafts is that BMW were selling shafts as not being a serviceable item that lasts the life of the bike, when in reality that is clearly not the case. They took the serviceability out of the part to probably make it cheaper while at the same time taking a lot of the service it was needed on previous generations, but then bikes started getting abused with river crossings and inadequate pressure washing, and on top of that there was a design flaw that meant that water getting into the casing would no longer get out, causing a lot of corrosion issues. When a big part of the water-cooled 1200s started getting to high miles or long enough lifespan a lot of bikes were needing maintenance and BMW now wanted owners to pay up for what "suddenly" became a routine replacement part, that caused a lot of complaints and thus a scheme started in which they would inspect shafts for wear and corrosion and replace them at no cost when needed, on bikes with more than a certain mileage they'd replace them anyway as really they should be replaced at an average of 100.000km.

Bought a new shaft that arrived yesterday. BMW was not a nice company to it’s dealers, dealers earn a percentage of the parts value when they replace them free of cost to the consumer, so when BMW started it’s campaign of replacing shafts free of charge they reduced the cost of the part from close to 1000€ to 120€+vat, obviously shafting their dealers who now earn much lower on those thousands of free maintenance they’re doing. Me, who had one of those free parts fitted chose to take advantage of the current and probably temporary lower cost of parts and have now got a new original shaft for 150€, good for lubing up and keeping for when my bike finally needs another one, probably close to 200.000km. Happy about that, happy like a man with two shafts

I’ve never had that sort of relationship with a client!

I’ll nominate @boboneleg, just because of the overall uplifting mood he seems to always be in when he does anything with the bike. As my runner up I would nominate @MooN, his posts have a literacy that stands out from the norm, and I appreciate the content he posts. @XTreme gets a mention from creating the place and keeping it going despite some severely discouraging weeks sometimes. He enjoys providing a place for a group of people to call their internet home and honestly that is pretty cool.

I’m with Bob, the silly man would win outright but I’d rather not give him another stage. @busabeast would be my first nomination for being a self proclaimed hero, an accomplished motorcycling promise, and chief bandwagon catcher, plus stalker of Pete and Ian. Having already been nominated, I will then nominate my second choice for spending all year being superior to everyone else while travelling back and forward and not posting a single decent ride report with pictures, @Slowlycatchymonkey I think @XTremeis campaigning strongly with the pictures of his dick covered with a tissue, but as he would enjoy the nomination that alone places him out of nomination. It has been a twat like behaviour rich year, so don’t let yourself be discouraged, there’s always 2024.

Amazing views, what is the traffic like there?

Looking forward to some ride reports from where you are!

Great to hear, is it on standard gearing?

That’s completely not what I pictured as a tin of roses and peanuts

Hillbilly Ray, Billybob… sounds like a bad country song

Nothing, got nothing planned. Just walked down to Sofia’s practice and having a good sit now. Don’t feel sick at all except a little rough on the throat and my feet and my legs hurt and feel tired.