I’d been reminiscing about my trip across Europe and into Ukraine recently, and wanted to try out a R 1300 GS - not because that’s what we rode (we were on R1200T’s, which suck btw), but because it seemed like 50% of the people when we rolled through/in/around the Alps were on them. I’ve spent a fair bit of time on the 1250 with Rawhyde and on buddies’ bikes, so am a little familiar with the lineage, and I’m super curious how different the new beasts are. In terms of fit, they’re remarkably more compact and svelte.
I started looking around at Colorado Motorcycle Adventures, and their fleet is quite thorough - just about every popular ADVish bike on the market, and this time of year their rates are significantly discounted. So… I rented a 1300 GS to ride tomorrow and Wednesday. The point being: renting a bike from them for a couple/few days might be a much better way to go vs a dealer “test ride” when you’re considering a new bike, or just want to experience something you haven’t ridden. I’ll report back.
If anyone wants to do a C-type cruise Tue/Wed let me know. I think @RC_John and I may get out for a bit on Wednesday.
For those following along, a small group of us are meeting at Spruce on N. Broadway at 10am today. No plans, no route - we’ll just wing it. Very chill today. I have to be back home by around 2pm to get the tug boat back to CMA this afternoon, and they’re down in Lone Tree. The process with CMA was super easy, and Colin is a super nice guy. Highly recommend them, or if you have buddies coming into town, it’s a great place to source a bike for some days.
The bike review: Sublime. It is peak Maxi-ADV design and engineering, and a familiar place to be if you’ve ridden the 1250 GS. But everything, and I mean everything is better. Handling precision, center of gravity, ease of riding it at any speed is improved. The power is breathtakingly (scarily) fast, and the tech is amazing (although the BMW user interface is the typical convoluted mess, just like their cars and past bikes). I’d never used a heated seat before, but toasty taint at 40º was surprisingly useful at 10,000’… It’s a bike you can ride all day, but as with any honkin’ bike, would be a “work out” in technical terrain.
I rode basically all the canyons and dirt roads in the local area yesterday, and am looking forward to more seat time on this rhino in ballet slippers today.
P.S. the new menu at Ned General Store (which used to be Salto, and is now part of the Gold Hill General Store empire as well as Salto in Rollinsville) is much better. And they have The Cookie in Ned now.
I may have gushed about it here already, but that 1300GS is indeed sublime like you say. I could not believe how good it is. I have only ridden it on pavement, but it’s the kind of bike that will make you sell your sport bike, your Goldwing, your sport-tourer, and maybe your adventure bike. I’ve spent two longish days on one now, and it’s become a bucket list item for me. I rode the M1000R in this picture as well, and I still prefer the GS over that.
I recently rode one, from somewhere, and it was wild. The low cg really gives the impression of a much lighter bike, like 320ish lbs. But will quickly reveal itself if it tips over more than the average kickstand angle. The suspension and brakes were really the highlight.
Given the variety of bikes in the club, I think the only and most obvious solution is to hold a Bike Slut Speed Dating Day at IMI: bring your bike out and let other guys ride her like she’s the dirty slut she is…while you do the same with the other dirty bikes at the party.
I bring the salad bowl to collect the keys.
Come on, I can’t believe it took us this long to reach this obvious solution
I’m disappointed that you didnt take this to it’s obvious conclusion, by which I mean hiring strippers to hand out cool beverages and wipe face shields at each bike swap, while topless.
