My BMW R1200 GS Adventure is ready for riding season…well almost but since tomorrow I am embarking on a week long off-roading adventure around North Carolina with the BMW of Quebec Group and the only modification left being shocks that are setup for my weight and riding style, I feel that it’s appropriate to visually share the bike as it was stock and as it is now. No effort was made to frame these shots identical to each other.
Delivery, September 2017, a fully stock GS Adventure Triple Black standard suspension with every feature and option available:
Truly a gorgeous bike by default. While I purchased dozens of modifications (farkles) for the bike, I took my time and spent a full 3 months in the off-season carefully crafting everything for the perfect look. Honestly, even I had no clue that this bike would turn into one of the best functional modern GS models on the road. There are a lot of show bikes and fantastically modified oil-cooled models but this bike has it all and it’s mine. Let’s fast-forward to today but first…she’s come a long way!
This is the bike completely naked as every part is off being powder coated for a full month:
Then, both wheels are sent off to Woody’s wheel works for Lacing & Truing to strengthen them beyond OEM spec:
More Progress:
Crash Bars are back from being powder-coated:
Wheels are back from Woody’s and Continental TKC 80s are on:
The bike w/o a seat goes to Max BMW for a full checkup:
….then, it’s time to ride!
I started riding this year on March 18th. The low this week was 4 degrees Fahrenheit and the high was 41. I rode the bike in all of the weather in between and even some snow.
..and now for some fashion shots of the bike with my good camera.
This is the soft-luggage setup..actually the bike is in a bit of an identity crisis here. The plan is to have Soft Luggage + RotoPax + Machine Art Moto Slipscreen for days and nights off-road. I only have the soft luggage mounted and testing it out.
Here’s the bike w/ the hard boxes mounted for a passenger and on-road touring w/ the passenger seat and only a 1 Liter fuel canister attached:
I went with Jesse boxes because of the shape, mounting and build is superior to everything on the market. I grabbed some mounting racks for on top of the boxes and a bottle mount.
Oh and I also added the Clearwater Billie Brake Lights, Erica and Darla with CanOpener 2.1 for 16K additional lumens forward in front of the bike:
Stock:
Half Brightness:
Full Brightness + High Beam:
and here’s the Slipscreen off-roading up close:
and here’s the rotopax setup where 1 gallon of water on bottom and 2 gallons of fuel up top mounted to an AltRider luggage plate except I already sold the Bumot boxes as I wasn’t too happy with the built quality of them.
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As far as the list of mods, I NEED to document this but it’s massive. Maybe I’ll document ones I can remember now from Memory? No, It’s 8PM and I need to make dinner and finish packing. Thanks so much for reading. Stay tuned!