Five years in eight months

I purchased my current motorcycle at the start of the riding season this year. I was fortunate to pick it up used for about half of the current new cost with 8,200 miles and brand new tires. It is a 2005, BMW R1200 GS. I wanted to do longer rides and the small Ducati 695 sport bike design I was riding wasn't comfortable for me. The Ducati was a great beginner bike to learn on, but it wasn't for me, so I sold it to get the more comfortable and larger BMW this year.

This past Saturday I ran into a friend of a friend (Andy) at a cookout who always ends up talking about his Honda 919 and how it's fast and so on. I pointed out that I always hear about this bike, but I've yet to ever see him riding it. This phenomenon of motorcycle ownership without actual use was further exemplified with a quick tour of the showroom of a local used bike dealer. Last week I was helping my Uncle and Nephew pick out a used bike as their beginner bike and saw a mint condition sport bike with less than 400 miles! A few bikes later I saw two more perfect condition bikes with less than 1,000 miles on the odometer. You'd think these motorcycles were home fitness equipment.

I am by no means an accomplished long distance rider, but I have ridden 620 miles in a single day, and have recently tinkered with the idea of completing an Iron Butt - SaddleSore 1000 event. I would very much like to see the country and even Canada by motorcycle. Riding to Ohio this Summer for work was a great trip, but it's rare that I can ride a motorcycle to an event, let alone an out of state event.

As of today I have 13,186 miles on the bike and that is approximately how many total miles I have on all bikes to date. I have a goal of 16,500 miles by Christmas card time so I can send a card with a photo of the odometer reading to the original owner (Steward Manning) showing that I doubled the mileage on the bike in 8 months - what took him 5 years to clock.