There was one nice surprise waiting for me at the dealer, in the form of Charley Boorman's R1200GS Adventure. It's the bike he rode from John O'Groats Scotland to South Africa in Long Way Down. Ewan and Charley's bikes came preregistered with the license plates "XXXX JFK" for Ewan's bike and "XXXX JLO" for Charley's. So I got to check out JLO from stem to stern. The bike is still covered in African dirt and a quick rummage through the tank bag revealed that absolutely nothing was changed since the end of the trip. There were candy wrappers, a coffee cup, and even baby wipes for washing the hands.
I had Candon snap this photo of me with JLO.
With work completed on the bike, I had to do a shake down run before the trip. I did the Rock Store run to Malibu today. It's about 250 miles with some fantastic Canyon riding. Matt (Honda F4i) and Mark (BMW K1200GT) rode with me today. Mark showed us a new piece of Mulholland. Fuck me, that's a great stretch of road. Now that Latigo Canyon has been left to rot in desperate need of repaving, Mulholland is my new favorite section of twisty.
The Rock Store was filled to the brim with it's usual weirdness. But the highlight was for sure the Ducati Desmosedici. Woo wee. That bike is the real deal. A true MotoGP bike with headlights. It literally shook the ground as it idled. Whoa. Wow. Woo wee. Wowzers. Whew.
Arghhh. Mark is totally fucking with my head.
I'm all set and ready to roll on my R1200R, but Mark generously offered me his K1200GT for the trip. The GT is a continent eater. A one man TGV. It's got gobs of horsepower, cruise control, fantastic wind protection, a plush saddle. He's going "Dude, you've got to take it. Come on, take it."
He's right. It's totally the right weapon for the war. But... it's not my bike. I've been planning this for MY bike. For better or worse, in sickness and in health. Naked bike from coast to coast.
Now I'm second guessing myself. "Is this the right bike for the trip? Should I have gotten an RT? Is my ass going to give out on me three days into the ride? WTF??"
I literally had to go down to the garage this evening, push my bike into the street and just stare at it for a while. It's beautiful. It's so fun to ride, and comfortable to ride. No... it's not a motorhome on two wheels. But I'm totally cool with that. I love my bike. It whups ass in the canyons and chows highway.
I think I need to do something to the bike to personalize it. I'll see what I can come up with.
I'm putting together my final checklists before the trip and pretty much ready to go. Less that two weeks until I leave! I'm looking forward to the trip, but dreading being away from Gwen and the boys.
I'm not sure if this trip is going to be my "Farewell America" trip or if I'll come away with a new found fondness for my mother country. Maybe both. I desperately want to move to Europe. I hope it could happen soon... but I doubt it will.
