This post was originally written on BARF for the 2008 Cal24. (original thread here). I've tried to edit out the non-bike-specific comments in this post, but if parts of it now don't make sense, the original thread will fill in the blanks.
________________________________________________
It's a 2005 R1200RT. I picked it up new as a leftover in 2006. It has just about every option BMW offered at the time, save for heated seats. While the bike would be reasonably comfortable and likely competitive in the rally right off of the showroom floor, what fun would that be. So I've added a few gadgets and farkles along the way to make it just a little more capable.
From a comfort standpoint, I've got a Rick Mayer seat, which is truly all-day and all-night comfortable, compared to the stock seat that can't claim as much. The bike has a Gerbing heated clothing controller installed on the dash, with the pigtail for my heated jacket liner coming out right at the front of the seat. I can dial up anything from a little extra heat to nuclear. Between the Gerbing and the heated grips, cold simply isn't an issue. I've installed a Cee Bailey windscreen, which is significantly taller and wider than the stock BMW screen. The screen is electrically adjustable, so when it is in the all the way down position I can easily see over it, and am never looking through it in the twisty bits.
But when the road straightens out and I want some peace and quiet, or at least zero wind noise, I can move it up on the fly:
There are a few gadgets on the handlebars. From the left I have a Valentine One radar detector, a Garmin 60Cx GPS, the iPod Nano, and finally another Garmin GPS, the Zumo. The V1 needs no explanation, but the reason I have two GPS's may. Initially I had meant to replace the older 60Cx with the Zumo, but it turns out that the Cx has some very useful features that were left out of the newer gadget, so I just kept it on the bike. Also, having 2 GPS's on the dash allows me to aim them at different points during the rally. I typically have one always aimed at the next checkpoint, and the other at whatever bonus location I am currently searching for. This lets me know how I'm doing on time compared to the checkpoints, so I always know when it's time to drop everything and head straight for the barn. All of the audio from these gadgets is wired to an Autocom unit installed under the seat, so a single wire coming from there to my helmet allows me to hear all of them at once. The Autocom prioritizes the devices, so for example everything else is immediately muted the second the radar detector sounds an alert. The Zumo connects to my cell phone via Bluetooth, and allows me to make and receive calls on the fly; the audio is piped right through the Autocom to my helmet speakers/microphone. The clarity is surprisingly good, it's easy to hold conversations at speeds much faster than it may be recommended to have conversations at.
From a performance standpoint, I've swapped out the BMW's ESA shocks, which had worn out by 15k miles, and replaced them with Ohlins front and rear. The spring rate is set up for a larger than average bear, who likes to ride faster than average on twistier than average roads. It remains a smooth highway cruiser, but it is also surprisingly capable when the going gets twisty. I've run quite a few different types of tires on this bike, and my favorite, by far, are the Michelin Pilot Road 2's. The RT has a 7.1 gallon fuel capacity, and rarely gets less than 38 mpg. I usually fill up between 200 & 250 miles on a tank, but if I'm in fuel-saving mode I've gotten over 315 miles at a single stretch (on the 2007 Cal24, in fact, the leg before the checkpoint in Lone Pine). The trip computer has a miles-to-empty feature, which comes in quite handy. When it hits zero miles, which it likely will at least once during the rally, there are still 20 miles or so of gas left. Lighting is pretty important on these 24-hr rallies, so I've made some pretty substantial upgrades. Each of the 3 H7 bulbs has been swapped out with Ultrastars, which gave a nice bump in brightness and distance. I also installed two Touratech auxiliary lights; one HID on the left and one fog on the right. The HID is absurdly bright, while the fog is actually more useful for folks to see me rather than lighting up the road.
From a safety and reliability standpoint, I've added Hyperlites to the back of the bike to augment the standard brake light, these are two banks of LED's next to the license plate that flash continually when the brake light is engaged. When the 3 bags are installed on the bike, I feel that the stock light isn't as visible as I'd like, and these help. In the glove box on the top right of the fairing, I've stashed a maglight (there will be several flashlights in different places on the bike), a reasonable set of tools for minor roadside fixes, a tire plug kit, and an electric air compressor that plugs into the BMW's auxiliary power sockets.
I've saved one of the neatest gadgets for last, the SPoT Satellite Messenger. This is a small hand-held device that communicates with the Globalstar satphone network to report position, and a few different types of alerts. It sits right inside the top of my tankbag. I will have it configured during the rally to send up my position every 10 minutes, so people here can track the bike throughout the day.
But just in case all of the electronics get hit with a solar flare, I can always rely on some human assistance stashed in the topcase. Remind me to poke some holes in the plastic...
I've posted all of these pictures (in full 10 mp resolution) , as well as a short video, up at this smugmug gallery. Here's a video of it as well:
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by cal24admin
