Again we are riding BMW bikes on this trip. Last year we had 650 Dakars for the boys and Joanne a 650GS on The Silk Road which proved to be the ideal bikes.This year the boys have chosen the bigger R1200GS as the bike for the American roads (easy choice for me I already owned two boxer GSs) and with the smooth power is proving to be a wonderful choice. Joanne has a 650GS again but still has it purring along at the 70mph needed to keep flowing with the huge numbers of large trucks on the roads here. That big boxer twin sure makes passing them fun though!
We purchase and own the bikes ourselves, crated them to be shipped in a shared container to Los Angeles then cleared by customs and railed across the USA to Charlston on the east coast where we picked them up. The slowest part of getting them there was the rail trip and forced us to drive two days north to the bikes rather than risk waiting to get them down to Miami as planned.
They have been running superbly to date with one using a little oil, which I put down to normal running in consumtion and seems to have settled down with an oil change. I had the same on an 1150GS I had in Australia. Had an issue with my bike here in the first two days with a brake failure warning light showing and after several calls to and from NZ discovered the front brake lever was held on slightly by the hand protector which had been moved in transit thus not allowing the sensors to initialise the system. Thanks Jo. All is now well.
We carry all our gear to be self reliant with tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, cookers, pots etc. A good tool kit with puncture kits, oil filters, satellite phone, cell phones, two computers, video and still cameras, three navigating GPS units,reference books,maps,as well as all our clothing needs with wet weather outers and the other dozen things we dont need. Each bike has panniers and a topbox with tank bags and a roll bag as well. Speed limits are up to 70 MPH on the highways,petrol $3US a gallon which is $1.28 NZ and to date we have done 7,300km since getting on the bikes. Mexico is next, looking foward to it.
Dave
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