I'm actually a bit hesitating whether to start this blog or not...
This is my second attempt to document the modifications I have done to my 2004 BMW K 1200 LT motorcycle over the years. The first attempt was actually flushed in the toilet by Google when they bought the Picasa photo album. I had a quite extensive photo album stored in Picasa with a lot of text explanations attached to each photo until one day I received a message from Google where they told me that "your Picasa pictures can be found in this and this address but unfortunately the texts attached to the files will not be supported any more".
But here the story starts...
LT is my first motorcycle. Many of my friends have heard how I got to start my biking career but for those who have not, a long story long:
Since young boy I have always been interested in all kind of motor vehicles which is quite common I guess. My first rides on a motorized two wheeler were on my grandpa's "Komet" moped with a 1,5 hp Sachs two stroke engine right after I turned 15 years. Since then I was always dreaming of having my own moped at first and then later a 125 cc motorcycle which was allowed for 16 year old kids. Unfortunately there was one major obstruction on my road to start my early biking career. My loving parents. Their opinion was that motorcycling is too dangerous and I would just get myself injured if not killed with it.
Well, instead of allowing me to buy a two wheeler I got myself a go-kart and I got into racing with those. The "ZIP" kart with a 125 cc KTM / Sachs engine with about 30 hp and 5 speed transmission satisfied well my need of speed. My go-kart career ended the year I turned 18 (1973) and I went as an exchange student to USA for one year. I lived in Archbold, Ohio and incidentally that little town had a couple of US champions in go-karts. That added to the fact that my American host family was keen in cars and bikes I was able to test ride all kinds of vehicles from dragsters to 1932 Harley-Davidsons (with hand shifter).
After coming home and going to university I forgot the motorcycles and concentrated on customizing my 1976 Chevy SportVan which was officially a delivery truck of our family bakery.
In later years I met my lovely wife, we started a family and were busy with three kids so motorcycles were obviously not my top priority those days. But occasionally over the years I brought the subject up. And my wife killed the conversation with a comment like "Grow up finally" or "Kids are too young to be orphans". I did not want to start a major family crisis so I gave up. However occasionally I just mentioned to Irja how "I would love to have a touring bike and ride it in America". This conversation never went further though.
Then came year 2003 and summer was nice. I was in charge of a bakery building project in Lappeenranta, Finland and in late July I needed to visit a robot building company on the West coast of Finland, some 250 km from my home. I thought that this would be a perfect motorcycling weather but I have no bike. So I called my long time business associate Jouko whom I knew to be a keen BMW rider and I boldly asked him if he could borrow his bike (2002 LT) to me. His company was located about half way to this robot firm I was supposed to visit so I drove my car to his place. I had some kind of leather jacket to block the wind and borrowed his helmet and off I went. (I had not told Irja about my plan...)
I am of the generation who got a motorcycle drivers licence automatically with a car licence without riding a bike at all but luckily over the years I had test ridden all kinds of two wheelers so I had the motor Skills in my muscle memory. So I was able to ride the heavy bike and return it to Jouko without dropping it. The experience hit me like a hammer! This is the bike I would love to have! When driving home from Jouko's company I even called the BMW dealer and asked if they would have any LT's and I learned that there was one new 2003 model available. OK, nice...but I had not told my dear wife anything yet...
When I returned home I told Irja that today I had ridden a really nice touring bike and this is what I would love to have! I was prepared for the typical "grow up to be a man" -kind of comment but to my surprise she said "Not this summer". "Not THIS summer..." well, is it possible that some summer this dream could come true? I was clever enough not to keep pushing this conversation any further since I realized that end of the summer is not a good time to buy a bike anyway. So I let it be and occasionally during the following autumn I brought the bike subject up and I noticed that the resistance is decresing...
Then came 2004 and Helsinki Motorcycle Show at the end of January. I told Irja that I was planning to visit the show and she only said "why not". So I went and saw the new 2004 ('05 in US) BMW K 1200 LT and I was drooling all over the bike. I found a dealer rep and started talking business with him. What color, what all options are available? Tick everything!
Before shaking hands with the dealer I call my wife since I thought I need to tell her what I was about to do. Irja says: "Do as you please". I could not believe this! Do as you please...well, I told the dealer that "let me sleep one night and I will call you tomorrow". After 18 years of absolute resistance I did not want to believe that this is true and I did not want to create a massive scene at home in case I had misundertood something.
I came home from the show and my first words to Irja were: "Were you really serious when you said do as you please?" And she replies: "Well, when a man has wanted something so badly for 18 years, I don't have the heart to deny it any longer, you can really do as you please. Go ahead and by your bike, but on one condition." One condition, what...What is the condition, what you want? New furniture, new diamonds, moon from the sky! Name it! And Irja says: "You come to dance classes with me."
I considered her proposal for about 0,78 seconds and replied: "This is a deal. No problem I will come to dance classes with you."
The next thing I did was to call the dealer and corfim the purchase of a new 2004 Dark Graphite color LT with all the possible factory options. Except the BMW intercom. The dealer refused to put it in. They had had so bad experience with the factory intercoms with the three bikes they had sold previous year (all of them came back to warranty repair with bad success) so he will throw in an Autocom instead that I have to install myself. "OK, but for this you have to throw in a BMW battery charger" I said. And he agreed.
I picked the new bike up April 13th in 2004 and incidentally in the afternoon the first dance classes started.
After attending the dance classes for a year I brought the subject up to Irja and said that "are we about even now, haven't I done my share?" She replied: " Did we have a time limit in our deal? " Indeed, in my 0,78 seconds of considering Irja's original proposal I had forgotten to ask how long this deal is valid. Now I was told that "as long as you ride and I ride with you we will attend the dance classes."
Really, it was 100% ok with me as well. If my wife (never being a biker girl in her youth) dares to ride with me to all the places we have been been, it is a small service in return from side to do something that she enjoys. This is a true win-win case...
The bike
So this blog is actually about my bike and the "improvements" I have done to it over the years. I used to document my work with photos and luckily I still have them. Only my original explanations were lost and now I need to recreate them. I don't know when / if this blog will ever be completed but stay tuned and give comments or questions if you feel so.
In the meantime, while waiting for updates of my bike's "farkles" like
- auxiliary lights
- oboard air compressor
- jacket, trousers, socks, gloves heating systems
- motorized seat and backrest adjuster
- twin exhaust pipes
- camera systems
- highway handle
- luggage rack / trailer hitch and Uni-Go trailer
- extra gauges
- satellite tracing system and remote shut-off of the bike
-etc etc
You can visit this (English) blog from 2006 which tells the story of a bike trip across Canada and US. My buddy on this trip was the same Jouko whose previous LT I got to ride three years earlier...
http://finnstoccr.blogspot.com/
My other travel blogs are only in Finnish, sorry!
This is my second attempt to document the modifications I have done to my 2004 BMW K 1200 LT motorcycle over the years. The first attempt was actually flushed in the toilet by Google when they bought the Picasa photo album. I had a quite extensive photo album stored in Picasa with a lot of text explanations attached to each photo until one day I received a message from Google where they told me that "your Picasa pictures can be found in this and this address but unfortunately the texts attached to the files will not be supported any more".
LT is my first motorcycle. Many of my friends have heard how I got to start my biking career but for those who have not, a long story long:
Since young boy I have always been interested in all kind of motor vehicles which is quite common I guess. My first rides on a motorized two wheeler were on my grandpa's "Komet" moped with a 1,5 hp Sachs two stroke engine right after I turned 15 years. Since then I was always dreaming of having my own moped at first and then later a 125 cc motorcycle which was allowed for 16 year old kids. Unfortunately there was one major obstruction on my road to start my early biking career. My loving parents. Their opinion was that motorcycling is too dangerous and I would just get myself injured if not killed with it.
Well, instead of allowing me to buy a two wheeler I got myself a go-kart and I got into racing with those. The "ZIP" kart with a 125 cc KTM / Sachs engine with about 30 hp and 5 speed transmission satisfied well my need of speed. My go-kart career ended the year I turned 18 (1973) and I went as an exchange student to USA for one year. I lived in Archbold, Ohio and incidentally that little town had a couple of US champions in go-karts. That added to the fact that my American host family was keen in cars and bikes I was able to test ride all kinds of vehicles from dragsters to 1932 Harley-Davidsons (with hand shifter).
After coming home and going to university I forgot the motorcycles and concentrated on customizing my 1976 Chevy SportVan which was officially a delivery truck of our family bakery.
In later years I met my lovely wife, we started a family and were busy with three kids so motorcycles were obviously not my top priority those days. But occasionally over the years I brought the subject up. And my wife killed the conversation with a comment like "Grow up finally" or "Kids are too young to be orphans". I did not want to start a major family crisis so I gave up. However occasionally I just mentioned to Irja how "I would love to have a touring bike and ride it in America". This conversation never went further though.
Then came year 2003 and summer was nice. I was in charge of a bakery building project in Lappeenranta, Finland and in late July I needed to visit a robot building company on the West coast of Finland, some 250 km from my home. I thought that this would be a perfect motorcycling weather but I have no bike. So I called my long time business associate Jouko whom I knew to be a keen BMW rider and I boldly asked him if he could borrow his bike (2002 LT) to me. His company was located about half way to this robot firm I was supposed to visit so I drove my car to his place. I had some kind of leather jacket to block the wind and borrowed his helmet and off I went. (I had not told Irja about my plan...)
I am of the generation who got a motorcycle drivers licence automatically with a car licence without riding a bike at all but luckily over the years I had test ridden all kinds of two wheelers so I had the motor Skills in my muscle memory. So I was able to ride the heavy bike and return it to Jouko without dropping it. The experience hit me like a hammer! This is the bike I would love to have! When driving home from Jouko's company I even called the BMW dealer and asked if they would have any LT's and I learned that there was one new 2003 model available. OK, nice...but I had not told my dear wife anything yet...
When I returned home I told Irja that today I had ridden a really nice touring bike and this is what I would love to have! I was prepared for the typical "grow up to be a man" -kind of comment but to my surprise she said "Not this summer". "Not THIS summer..." well, is it possible that some summer this dream could come true? I was clever enough not to keep pushing this conversation any further since I realized that end of the summer is not a good time to buy a bike anyway. So I let it be and occasionally during the following autumn I brought the bike subject up and I noticed that the resistance is decresing...
Then came 2004 and Helsinki Motorcycle Show at the end of January. I told Irja that I was planning to visit the show and she only said "why not". So I went and saw the new 2004 ('05 in US) BMW K 1200 LT and I was drooling all over the bike. I found a dealer rep and started talking business with him. What color, what all options are available? Tick everything!
Before shaking hands with the dealer I call my wife since I thought I need to tell her what I was about to do. Irja says: "Do as you please". I could not believe this! Do as you please...well, I told the dealer that "let me sleep one night and I will call you tomorrow". After 18 years of absolute resistance I did not want to believe that this is true and I did not want to create a massive scene at home in case I had misundertood something.
I came home from the show and my first words to Irja were: "Were you really serious when you said do as you please?" And she replies: "Well, when a man has wanted something so badly for 18 years, I don't have the heart to deny it any longer, you can really do as you please. Go ahead and by your bike, but on one condition." One condition, what...What is the condition, what you want? New furniture, new diamonds, moon from the sky! Name it! And Irja says: "You come to dance classes with me."
I considered her proposal for about 0,78 seconds and replied: "This is a deal. No problem I will come to dance classes with you."
The next thing I did was to call the dealer and corfim the purchase of a new 2004 Dark Graphite color LT with all the possible factory options. Except the BMW intercom. The dealer refused to put it in. They had had so bad experience with the factory intercoms with the three bikes they had sold previous year (all of them came back to warranty repair with bad success) so he will throw in an Autocom instead that I have to install myself. "OK, but for this you have to throw in a BMW battery charger" I said. And he agreed.
I picked the new bike up April 13th in 2004 and incidentally in the afternoon the first dance classes started.
After attending the dance classes for a year I brought the subject up to Irja and said that "are we about even now, haven't I done my share?" She replied: " Did we have a time limit in our deal? " Indeed, in my 0,78 seconds of considering Irja's original proposal I had forgotten to ask how long this deal is valid. Now I was told that "as long as you ride and I ride with you we will attend the dance classes."
Really, it was 100% ok with me as well. If my wife (never being a biker girl in her youth) dares to ride with me to all the places we have been been, it is a small service in return from side to do something that she enjoys. This is a true win-win case...
The bike
So this blog is actually about my bike and the "improvements" I have done to it over the years. I used to document my work with photos and luckily I still have them. Only my original explanations were lost and now I need to recreate them. I don't know when / if this blog will ever be completed but stay tuned and give comments or questions if you feel so.
In the meantime, while waiting for updates of my bike's "farkles" like
- auxiliary lights
- oboard air compressor
- jacket, trousers, socks, gloves heating systems
- motorized seat and backrest adjuster
- twin exhaust pipes
- camera systems
- highway handle
- luggage rack / trailer hitch and Uni-Go trailer
- extra gauges
- satellite tracing system and remote shut-off of the bike
-etc etc
You can visit this (English) blog from 2006 which tells the story of a bike trip across Canada and US. My buddy on this trip was the same Jouko whose previous LT I got to ride three years earlier...
http://finnstoccr.blogspot.com/
My other travel blogs are only in Finnish, sorry!
I see you added a luggage rack off an LT to your Unigo. I did this too. I have not put anything on it but I do like the high center brake light addition. Good job.
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