From: wallich@iti.org (Kenneth Wallich)
Newsgroups: ba.motorcycles
Subject: Re: Loans for new motorcycle.
Date: 31 Aug 92 21:45:17 GMT
Distribution: ba

mayer@sono.uucp (Ron Mayer) writes:
>> I wrote

>>You forgot to tell us what you were thinking of buying.  No fair
>>whetting our appetites like that, then not coming through with
>>the main course.

>With this set of criteria 1) reliable, 2) dual-purpose, 3) good on
>roads, 4) fun, 5) same poser manufacturer as my cage:-); the only bike
>which excelled in all these areas was the BMW R???GS.

I bought my GS just after I sold my Beemer convertible.  I figured the
payments on the GS would be slightly less than the cost of regular
maintentance on the car.  Didn't know the GS maintenance would be
almost as much.

>Yesterday I test drove a '92 BMW R100GS at the dealer on Middlefield
>Great test drive!  

I told you the test drive sold me on the bike.  Kari took me out for
about 30-45 minutes.  Two of the guys that "just came to visit" the
shop went out with us for about 20 minutes of the ride.  Pretty fun
stuff.

>>(due to the "low" price (i.e. < $10k) you mentioned, I assume it
>>isn't a BMW or a Harley ;-)

>C'mon BMW's aren't that bad.  The only bmw's that list over 10k are
>their big engined K bikes. It's their accessories that can't get for
>under $10k (1/2 :-) 

Got your first service yet ;-)?  How 'bout checking on the price for
the Paris/Dakar tank?  I really wanted to get that tank on my GS, but
when I found that it would cost me over $1000 to get one, painted
(including the $200 for the new (really small) fairing sides).  I
decided 200 miles between fillups wasn't so bad.  I've got the $20
light-up oversize official BMW key, though.  The service prices did
shock me, but compared to a complex Honda, they're comprable.  The
thing that bothered me about service (since you asked) was that
although the twin is about as reliable as taxes rising, it is more
complex to do things like break line maintenance and carberator
synching than I thought it would be.  So, they charge a lot, but
I'd rather have them do it than me.

The GS and the Roadster are my favorite two beemers.  A friend dropped
(at a stop sign) their K100RS (on top of another friends ST1100), and
it cost $2k for the body plastic (to be fair, it cost $1500 on the
ST).  When I had a pickup cut me off, slam on his breaks, fishtail,
and hit the center barrier coming to work on 17 one morning, the only
damage I got (I ended up braking hard enough to lock the front wheel)
was a broken turn signal and some scraped paint on the cylinder and
the engine guard, and a small scrape on the saddlebag.  It cost me
$10, since I glued the turn signal back, and ended up just buying some
BMW touch up paint (the best touch-up paint on the market, from what
I've seen).  I love my GS.

>>In the case of my BWM [...]

>Thanks for the great info about your dealings with these dealerships.
>My story's starting out exactly the same way; except I started at Cal
>BMW's sale.  I'm slowly juggling how much I can put down and how much
>I'll finance.  If I can get my financial situation together before the
>sale ends, I'll soon be the new owner of a R100GS!

I'd bet Kari will "extend" the sale if they still have them in stock.
The next question is, which color combination are you looking at? (and
don't say "yellow", it's BLACK, dammit, black with yellow "accents"
:-).  Good luck.  If you hurry (well, you'd have to hurry *a lot*),
you and Erik can pick up your bikes together!



--
Ken Wallich
wallich@ncd.com  
ken@wallich.com