To Wave Or Not To Wave? Wink, Wink ;-)

From “To Wave Or Not To Wave; Is That The Question?” (on ADVRider.com):

All your brothers and sisters riding motorcycles are part of your family. Over the years, we’ve developed a “cultish” like requirement whereby we are peer pressured to openly express our love to our extended family.

It’s called “The Wave”. You know, the signal that tells other riders that you recognize their sense of adventure, the freedom of the open road, and that yes, they too are cool.

I did not know there were so many different ways to greet fellow-bikers! Beware of the ‘ADVRider Inmate wave‘, though…

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New Isn’t Always Better (Looking)

BMW has just proposed a new motorcycle model, based on what BMW calls the “heritage” line: the ‘R nine T /5‘. This model is built as an tribute to the /5 series, the line of motorcyles from 1969 on that allowed BMW to counter the Japanese competion of that era.

The ‘R nine T /5‘ may be a nice and modern bike, but I still prefer the look of the source of its design – especially in this picture from Flickr user ‘Elmar‘ (click on the picture to see it – and the bike – in its full glory).

(c) Elmar – Click on the picture to see the original on Flickr.

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Is The BMW R1100S A Classic Already?

Flickr user “Classic Dreams” has an extensive collection of pictures from all kinds of classic motorcycles. The albums are about bikes from Indian, Zündapp, Harley-Davidson, BMW, and more – even Ducati makes the list ;-)

And sure enough, the BMW R1100S is one of the subjects. Classic Dreams‘ photos of the R11S do a great job of illustrating the elegance of this particular model. Here’s a sample illustration of the lightness that the design of this bike projects, with the rear wheel perfectly and fully visible when looking at the left side of the motorcycle. A fine bike, yes indeed, shown off perfectly in these excellent pictures!

This is just one of the pictures in the R1100S album of ‘Classic Dreams’ (click on the picture to see them all)

It’s clear that the BMW R1100S is indeed a classic bike, at least in the eyes of “Classic Dreams” – and in mine, of course ;-)

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Long Weekend, Long Rides ;-)

Yes, I took to the road with my motorcycle during the (four-day) weekend. What motorcyclist would not do that, given the splendid weather we had for Easter? Most cyclists did the same, by the way ;-)

(Click on the image to see the big version on Flickr)

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Time To Get My Motorcycle Out Of The Garage!

The weather is not yet perfect, but I have taken out my bike for a couple of little rides the last few days. It’s nice to be back on two wheels, in preparation of the summer and the extended bike trips I already have planned. Fun when riding a bike, that’s what this picture I found on Flickr also shows:

Picture titled ‘BMWs on the Angeles Crest’ by ‘thelostadventure’ (Click the image for the full version)

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The R1100S Remains Fascinating

Most motorcyclists know it: no matter what bike you’re riding today, there’s always another, very special bike that no other can replace. Perhaps you rode it already, perhaps you are just wishing you owned it. Readers of this blog know of my love for the BMW R1100S, and I’m just adding this post as further proof of that fact.

Pelican Parts user ‘LGB’ expresses this feeling very succinctly: “It was fun while I owned it… sold to a friend. Now I’m looking for another.” I can dig that, and his bike was truly made for touring: it even includes additional lights low on the fork – nice touch!

I’m not (yet?) looking for a replacement for my F800GT. But the R1100S remains in my heart, that’s certain.

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A Late Autumn Ride Turned Out Better Than Expected

Past Sunday saw us ride our annual Autumn Motorcycle Trip – us being a dozen like-minded bikers of different walks of life. Usually we plan this trip in October, to hopefully enjoy the last summer-like days of the year. But we had to change our plans this year, and the weather forecasts weren’t too great. It is November, after all.

But somehow the ten of us managed to ride the whole trip with just a few drips of rain, not enough to don our rain gear. Better: we even had a few minutes of nice sunshine, right in the middle of the Dutchess Hedwigepolder (sorry, in dutch only) in the Netherlands.

Yellow is the best colour for a motorcycle in this autumn sun!

We went there for a last visit – on a bike – to a part of the Schelde estuary that will soon be returned to the river and the Northsea, in order to diminish the risks of floods further up the river. Combined with the “Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe” the Hedwige and Prosper polders will be converted to a single natural reserve. Perhaps I will be able to go there on a bird-watching safari in a few years?

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