bmws are for wannabees of course / more or less nklr

[billmonahan]

I like the klr, and am readying mine for a trip through the Idaho backwoods, which is becoming an annual trip for me. However, when I need to cross the Nevada desert, the KLR will dawdle along at 85 or so, painfully slow for a person like me. I don't like to fool around. My beemer will take the same trip in a liitle more than half the time, loping along at a buck and a quarter, getting 45 mpg or so. It's an R1100RS, a 97, with ABS brakes. When I need to come to a quick stop in gravel or on ice, it just stops. Fast. When the fog rolls is around here and I'm stuck with light gloves, I flip on the heated grips, giving a very endearing warmth to the hands. It doesn't matter what motorcycle I come up behind, unless there is some race pilot (no wannabees) at the bars, the beemer smokes right on by, on the nastiest turns soaking up gnarly pavement and allowing me to use max brake power entering a turn. It one time took me from Calf Creek Utah to Santa Rosa CA in one day. I was home after leaving Calf Creek at 8 o'clock sharp, drinking a beer in my house in Santa Rosa at 9 p.m. When I come through town or past a snoozing CHP on the side of the road, I don't need to slow down much, just back off the throttle a little to keep it whisper-quiet. In town, foxy chicks who'd never give me the time of day if I had my helmet off, always wave and tell me what a sexy machine it is....even the harley girl types (well, some of them anyhow). And if I really wanted to enjoy these attributes, with the exception of the chickies, I'd trade that sucker in for an R1150 GS. On one of those a novice can smoke about any other machine, period, on the twisties that are so much a part of driving around here where I live in Northern California. . Yes, it costs money. I'm a poor boy, but I love good motorcycles. And sometimes I need to cover some serious ground. Backroad Bill