Being a man of varied taste, and a weak soul in addition, a number of motorcycles have had me in their possession over the last few years. After a lay-off (kids and all that which I wouldn't have been without) I decided to start riding again and a BSA Spitfire (remember those…?) was dutifully restored before shaking itself and me to pieces. Then one day I saw the most beautiful thing – a thing of smoothness, power, exclusivity and…. well, we'll leave it at that.The shop was a decent one with a profound understanding of the value of a real motorcycle, and they agreed to do a straight swap between the low-mileage K100RS , best year 1985 vintage, and my exclusive, highly desirable, gleaming red Spitfire (Don't know how I made them believe that, but they did..). The K and I (after our relationship was firmly settled, he introduced himself as Helmut..) spent 8 years and 240.000 kilometers (sorry..150 thou miles) together and then one day an inner voice told me that he was worn out. Helmut was traded for a Honda Varadero ,which I suppose was allright, apart from a ferocious thirst and a remarkable unwillingness to do anything decent below 3000 revs. The H... lasted 1 season, then my fancy was caught by a gleaming new Lucifer Orange Tiger 955 from the excellent 05 production. This was fun - I mean- serious fun. I spent the summer vacation pogosticking around England and going up the 33% gradient of Hard Knott Pass with passenger and full holiday luggage was..... interesting. Till the spokes in the rear wheel started snapping. Which was when I realised that the 06 Tiger had cast wheels and in September same year I was owned by one. This was very well till spring came along and I discovered that the new Tiger actually handled pretty marvellously and could be ridden ridiculously fast. Which disagreed with Her On The Pillion ,so if I were to continue my career with bikes I had to do the decent thing, which I did and bought a 1200 LT. This was a surpise as, after I fitted Wilbers suspension and got a bit more ground clearance, it could be ridden at a very decent pace without Her On The Pillion really noticing. We dashed around in Europe indecently fast till reality caught up with me. That is - it caught up with my wallet in the form of the dreaded 60.000 K service. Having paid the bill, cancelled all holiday plans for the rest of the year and cut down to two warm meals a week, it was decided that the LT had to go. It was replaced by, of all things, a new H.... Varadero. Don't ask why, because I do not have a plausible explanation, but the fact remains. The H actually stayed for a full season and even a winter in the basement but my inner man told me, in no uncertain terms, that things had to change. It was about this time that I spotted an R1150RT, dark blue and actually rather attractive, apart from the fact that it was a boxer and I never liked boxers because they were so retro and wide and gutless and oldfashioned and...So I took the thing for a ride which lasted an hour longer than I thought it would have. Then I gave Her On The Pillion a ride (no, gentlemen... on the bike :wink:) and to my great surprise I was suddenly and most unexpectedly owned by a Boxer. We did 22000 miles the first season, no troubles whatsoever. Right now, Gottfried is sleeping his winter beauty sleep in my heated basement and, being such a loveable, charming and deceptively fast and easy-handling charmer, I think I finally find a worthy replacement for Helmut the K. Who, by the way, has now covered 350.000 K (OK-218 thou miles) and is still in excellent health. I spoke to the new rider the other day, and he says that the compression test now reads exactly the same as it did at 60.000 miles. (I gave him the read-out of that one..) I guess my diagnosis of worn out was more about me than Helmut..So, if any of you gentlemen ever doubted it - motorcycling is about love and finding The Right One. And enjoy the hunt .... just like in real life 😀
