Passenger comfort mods

[AVG1940]

The Mods I did to the NC passenger seat were a bit drastic. First I pushed the NC over to the other side of the garage, got it up on the center stand, then installed this. Costs the same as the mods to the '18 NC I bought in April (not kidding). Comes with custom Sergeant seats, All luggage, back rest, electric windscreen, heated grips, FI, ABS, shaft drive... Costs $35 to register and about $80/year to add to my insurance. Takes 5 min/side to do a valve adjustment. Wife will never complain about seat width or long distance comfort. 15 years old and still a great touring rig. All that and over $1K less (Total for 2 bikes, my '18 NC with all the mods AND this bike) than the 2020 750GS I almost pulled the trigger on. If you are not adverse to riding a whale of a bike, and have the storage (and HQ approval of course), these old RT's can be found VERY inexpensively these days. Right tool for the job. And leaves the NC to being a very personal bike (read, knobbies) with no concerns about passenger comfort mods. Just say'n.
View attachment 45481

 

[670cc]

Looks like you made a good move. It’s very difficult for one bike to be good at everything, thus owning multiple specialized machines Is quite understandable. The only possible “problem” is that when you cross that barrier from single to multiple bike ownership, it’s hard to limit the fleet to just 2 or 3.

 

[dduelin]

The right Oilhead can be a real bargain. Nice looking 1150. Have you had other BMWs in the past?

 

[AVG1940]

The right Oilhead can be a real bargain. Nice looking 1150. Have you had other BMWs in the past?

Lots (I do product launches for BMW Motorrad). And I have probably owned five or six twin spark '04 RT's. Touring's best kept secret. Cheap as snot, and you can easily find a freak-show owner who farkled the crap out of one and did crazy service to it. The bike I picked up yesterday just had the full 60K service (it only had 50K when done. The owner incapable of servicing himself) at the cost of $1000. Every system in nice working order. Compression perfect, as well as new pads and tires (another $500). These bikes are good for 120K without any major work if well maintained. Owner needed cash, just wanted to recover all the service cost and not actually give away the bike. Very well kept machine, $2500 and into the back of my truck. That's almost exactly what I have in gizmo's on my new NC. I've had several GS's...The swiss army knife of bikes. But the RT is hard to beat for all day comfort, two up. I will ride this thing for a season or two, hyper detail it out, then sell it for $3500. That's the normal bottom-out price for a twin spark RT. Or I will customize it like the one below and sell it for $8-10K. Soap, rinse, repeat. Wife's cool with it.

 

[dduelin]

I've had two R1200RTs and a 1981 R100 which started the boxer ball rolling. When I started looking for the second RT after not having a boxer for several years I considered the 1150s but couldn't see giving up the the extra power, cruise, and lighter weight of the 1200s for the beauty of the 1150RT - it's much better looking than the 1200RT. I rode a friends 1150RT in the looking phase but it wasn't well maintained to be fair and rode quite differently than the 1200. Because the Hexheads are available for not much more than the Oilheads I stayed with what I knew and paid $3500 for my current '07 25,000 miles ago. I've re-suspended it and it handles great. It's a solo bike for me as my wife won't ride on anything but our Goldwing.

 

[AVG1940]

I've had two R1200RTs and a 1981 R100 which started the boxer ball rolling. When I started looking for the second RT after not having a boxer for several years I considered the 1150s but couldn't see giving up the the extra power, cruise, and lighter weight of the 1200s for the beauty of the 1150RT - it's much better looking than the 1200RT. I rode a friends 1150RT in the looking phase but it wasn't well maintained to be fair and rode quite differently than the 1200. Because the Hexheads are available for not much more than the Oilheads I stayed with what I knew and paid $3500 for my current '07 25,000 miles ago. I've re-suspended it and it handles great. It's a solo bike for me as my wife won't ride on anything but our Goldwing.


View attachment 45489

Fully agree. I have owned several 1200's. Lighter, faster, cruise, actually easier to work on than the '04....
I paid $3500 for my last 1200, '09. It had like 38k miles? Guy needed money, there I was. I rode it for one season, put a front tire on it, fixed some scratches on one of the side cases, detailed it, sold it for $6500. I don't know why more guys (with the resources) don't just stash one in their garage. Cheap fun, very capable bike you can wake up and decide to ride across country any day. And I agree it makes a great personal bike. But after buying this little Honda, I was gob-smacked by how freak'n heavy the RT felt when I test road her. I think it will simply be my two-up bike now that I have the NC.

 

[dduelin]

The first '07 I bought for $1000 because it "had a noise" when it was shifted and the dealer told the owner it was $2500 -$3200 to fix it. I rode the bike and aside from the ca-ching noise it made when the clutch took up, it ran and rode great. I knew the owner well, having ridden many trips and thousands of miles with him, so I figured a new clutch would fix it and if it did not I wasn't out too much. I took it apart and found the output bearing of the transmission had failed and allowed the clutch to wobble enough to strike the clutch housing and make the noise. I sourced a tranny off eBay and clutch parts from Beemer Boneyard and had $1800 in it. I rode it for a few months but I just didn't have room in my life for it at the time (NC #2 and a long term ST1300) so I sold it for $3000 to a friend at work. It's the only time I ever made money on a motorcycle.

 

[TacomaJD]

Nice! I love a big ole comfy bike for long trips, rider comfort, and supple storage. I love my 2007 Kawasaki Vulcan Nomad 1600. Fiance can ride on the back of it all day long and never complain.

And I echo 670cc's comment, having multiple bikes that serve different purposes is awesome! I have 3 now, and thinking hard about adding a 4th soon, but may just replace one of mine, not sure yet.

 

[dduelin]

Three is the practical limit I've come to. And a scooter in the corner.

 

[AVG1940]

Just left a property with a barn. The barn was mine, had 7 bikes in there at one time (and three car projects). Waaaay too much crap and spares to store. When I moved, I had to get rid of soooo much stuff. Realized I was operating a mini warehouse.
Now I have just a small shop (14' x 30'). Down to The NC, the RT and a single vintage project bike on the lift (OK, a GasGas in the shed, but that doesn't count). Way more than I deserve, and plenty for one guy. This is half my old mess. Glad to be rid of it.

 

[AVG1940]

The first '07 I bought for $1000 because it "had a noise" when it was shifted and the dealer told the owner it was $2500 -$3200 to fix it. I rode the bike and aside from the ca-ching noise it made when the clutch took up, it ran and rode great. I knew the owner well, having ridden many trips and thousands of miles with him, so I figured a new clutch would fix it and if it did not I wasn't out too much. I took it apart and found the output bearing of the transmission had failed and allowed the clutch to wobble enough to strike the clutch housing and make the noise. I sourced a tranny off eBay and clutch parts from Beemer Boneyard and had $1800 in it. I rode it for a few months but I just didn't have room in my life for it at the time (NC #2 and a long term ST1300) so I sold it for $3000 to a friend at work. It's the only time I ever made money on a motorcycle. View attachment 45491

And we say we "made money" because we recovered parts cost. Toss in man hours and essentially I work for 12 cents/hr. Still a great hobby.