BMW R1200GSW Adventure

2016 BMW GS Adventure

KC and I will ride nearly identical 2016 BMW R1200GSW Adventure (GSA) bikes on this years tour.  Since KC and his son Kyle (probably the world's best motorcycle dealer) became a BMW dealer (Hourglass Cycles, Buford, GA) about a year ago I have been flirting with the idea of buying a new GSA.  Following last year's trip in the Rockies, I swore that my next bike would be a GS Adventure because of the greater fuel capacity and range.  The reason for this was that during the first day's ride I nearly ran out of gas in a very remote area of Wyoming and I was not keen to repeat this.  Plus, on my two previous GS's I had converted the rear end storage to the BMW Adventure racks and panniers, so there wasn't a whole lot of additional expense to simply starting out with an Adventure.  So KC picked out a blue one for me and I wrote the check.  

I was truly sad to see War Pig (my '12 GS) move on, but its new owner, Scotty Ball, is enjoying the heck out of it as he and his son Ryan (a new rider) explore the southern Appalachian Mountains together. War Pig resting in "The Shrine"...
 

2012 BMW 1200GS- "War Pig"

And of course, the '06 R1200GS was the bike that started my love affair with BMW GS's.  The '06 was last known to be thrashing the Rocky Mountains under her new owner, Rob Glass.  Rob has been doing very some technical mountain riding with the GS and has ridden it all over the US.  Rob has also been using the '06 in a variety of RawHyde Adventure off road motorcycle training classes that specialize in big bike dirt riding...I'd say he's getting his money's worth.

The '06 before Rob got it dirty....

2006 BMW R1200GS

I am pathologically unable to own a motorcycle without embarking on what seems to be a never-ending course of accessorizing the bike and the 2016 GSA was no exception, though I will admit that the new water cooled GS's don't leave a whole lot left to be done.  Still, I've managed to add a set of BMW aluminum panniers, air horn, bar risers, fuse block, charging circuit, a Spot satellite tracker, a power lead for a heated jacket, a front fender extender, Grip Buddies, a BMW tank bag, a Puig windshield and have my order in for a Russell Day Long saddle.  The GSA is just about complete...I hope.

We are now in the dog days of summer (and in the midst of a Severe Drought), having run a string of 35 consecutive +90F days with no end in sight.  This is the kind of riding weather I despise (I'm an "all the gear, all the time" kinda guy) and have barely managed to get the 600 mile break in period behind me.  Unless we have a substantial cool down ahead of us, and I seriously doubt this will happen, I probably won't ride the bike much before we leave in September.  Even if the weather did turn cooler, I'll be without a saddle for most of August and the first part of September as I wait for the Russell people to convert my instrument of torture (the OEM seat) into a leather topped easy chair for the GSA.

There are a couple of things that were not present on my previous GS's that I love about the new GSA...most notably, I find the cruise control and the brilliant integration between the GPS, the motorcycle and the handlebar "wonder wheel" to be my most favorite things.  The added fuel capacity is, at a minimum, a significant convenience boost (stopping for gas about 2/3 as often...what's not to like?) and the added range (an extra hundred miles or so) may come in VERRRRY handy someday.  And while the engine is better on the new bike, it is not so much better that I find myself in awe of it.  Mostly the bike's power and handling seem very similar to me.  I liked the War Pig's tires (Michelin Pilot Road 4 Trail's) a bit better and I will undoubtedly switch to PR4's soon enough.  War Pig's aftermarket wind shield was taller and a bit quieter and I suspect I may end up in favor of the new Puig screen.  I guess that I see incremental improvements between the 2006 GS, the 2102 GS and the 2016 GSA.  

All are great, great, great bikes.

The Big Picture.

 "All paths are the same, leading nowhere.  Therefore, pick a path with heart!"
                          - Carlos Castenada


The Four Corners Tour 2016 follows last years adventure, Tour the Rockies in which KC and I hauled our bikes to Denver, had Sherry and Karen fly in for a week of playtime and then followed this with a 2400 mile tour on the BMW GS's from Denver to Glacier National Park and back to Denver.  This year's adventure follows with a similar structure...our wives fly into Phoenix, we all tour northern Arizona in KC's sumptuous (ever tried air conditioned massaging seats??) Ford F-150 for a week, the girls then fly home and (finally) KC and I do a motorcycle tour centered around the Four Corners region of the great southwest...New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona.  There's a "cherry on top" on our way home...details to follow.

I've done a rough route plan for the Four Corners portion of the trip in Garmin Basecamp and the map below shows this.

Garmin Base Camp route map

This year's agenda begins on September 15th with KC and I hauling our bikes and trailer from home in north Georgia to a storage facility in Albuquerque, NM.  On September 18th our wives will fly into Phoenix, AZ. Since neither Sherry or I have seen the Grand Canyon, the primary focus of the first part of the trip will be to see this.  We'll also spend time in Sedona, AZ...another place we've never seen... and do other fun desert stuff.

After the girls have returned home on September 24th,  KC and I will drive back to Albuquerque and park the truck and trailer.  We'll then ride our BMW 1200GSA's from Albuquerque, NM to Taos, NM to Pagosa Springs, CO to Telluride, CO to Mexican Hat, UT to Holbrook, AZ and back to Albuquerque, NM.  We are using Garmin Basecamp, Butler Motorcycle Maps and a book KC had on riding in Colorado to plan our route on the best motorcycle roads in the Four Corners region.  The highlights include:

-New Mexico's Enchanted Circle
-Colorado's Million Dollar Highway
-Utah's Monument Valley
-Arizona's Painted Desert

The Four Corners ride should take us about six days.

Now for the "Cherry on top"...

After the Four Corners ride, we'll load the bikes back onto the trailer and haul them to Clarksville, AR.  There's nothing special about Clarksville except that its right on I40 and right on the edge of a maze of blue ribbon motorcycle roads scattered throughout the Ozark Mountains.  So, we'll base out of Clarksville, AR (bottom center on map below) for three days riding the bikes in the Ozarks with our friend Jim Dennis, who's riding from Atlanta to meet up with us.  My Butler Map for The Ozark Mountains reveals a staggering number of high quality motorcycle roads (Red=Good roads, Orange=Better roads, Yellow=Best roads) in the area and anyone who's ridden there RAVES about it. 

Butler Motorcycle Map of the Ozarks

It's been on KC's, Jim's and my bucket lists for a long time and we're excited about adding this to our tour.  From there we drive back home...a total elapsed time of roughly three weeks.

We will begin our drive west on September 15, 2016 and should arrive home around October 4, 2016.  Or so....