still in love

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This is a picture of my 01 5th gen from a ride we went on yesterday. I have owned her for 10 years now. Bought in 02 with 6000 kms (she currently sits at 88000 km). We have ridden across the great USA twice, countless trips down the Blue Ridge Parkway and to the east coast for lobsters.

I have been into the adv-touring thing for the past 4 years riding a V-Strom (sold), and a great old BMW R80 ST (made into a G/S that truly is a keeper!) and most recently a F800GS. So the VFR has been sitting pretty much unused in the back of the garage for the past few seasons.
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I have had my F800GS for about 6 months now and I am not really getting along with her. She is a great bike but we are just not clicking. I am a little distracted from some of the niggly feedback she provides, I end up thinking too much about the bike and not enough about the ride. So sadly I think we will be parting ways.
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With one 800 soon to be gone. I took the VFR out for a ride yesterday and was still impressed on how well she goes, stops and turns. I rekindled my love for this bike (after about a 1/2 hour of adjusting to the contortion of a sport-touring bike). I guess we will stay together for a while longer.

Looks great in silver. Love your BMW ST. What did you do to convert it to a GS? All I know is the ST was the street version.

[image: View Post]rangemaster, on 24 May 2012 - 08:07 AM, said:

Looks great in silver. Love your BMW ST. What did you do to convert it to a GS? All I know is the ST was the street version.

ST and G/S share the same frame, engine (more or less) and running gear. I changed the front forks and wheel to a 21" from 19, longer rear shock, longer center stand and then a few other detail bits like handle bar, long range gas tank, solo saddle with rear rack, high mounted front fender..

Only had my 5th gen for about 2.5 years now. I've put a little over 30K on her in that time, and while I've ridden a quite few other bikes she is still my favorite. I am becoming quite fond of viffergyrl's R1150RT, but the VFR is still #1.

I am too still in love with my 01 with its classic looks and all around abilities. Small upgrades along the way, Power commander, Helibars, Corbin seat, shorty Pazzo levers, Pirelli tires but the next thing will be a handlebar conversion I have started but not finished and then the suspension. With the suspension I am going to have the forks done professionally at  http://www.rmrsuspensions.com/ by first removing them having the forks re-valved and possibly re-sprung while the back end I plan installing a new shock myself and then have the pros do the final set up.
The thing is I could buy a different bike but with these mods I think it would be the perfect compromise for me that being weight, comfort, performance and handling. 8D

By the way I hate the look of the 02's and up

Great minds must think alike. I have a 5th gen and sold my BMW  R80st to buy it. Those 80STs are fairly rare, so keep ahold of yours.

My 5th gen does everything I ask of it from dragging the gas cap to globe trekking. A special bike it is.

I've had mine for 13 years, closing in on 72,000 miles. It's a keeper, and a couple other bikes have come and gone since I got the VFR.
Of course the aprilia is also a keeper, so I guess a duck will have to be number 3. First I need to finish pouring buckets of money into the house.

Every time I consider divorcing mine she slaps me across the head and reminds me she's the best motorcycle I'm ever going to have. When you land one that's truly out of your league you do what you need to do to hang on to her.

I can relate to that.  I keep dreaming about something different that will handle my ageing body better and provide more comfort on our excuse for roads in most of this great wide land down here, all whilst I am at home not riding just being negative (it's an old farts disease!).

And then, and then, I go off on a long ride of 4 or 5 days, getting rarer, and presto I know I don't need anything other than my 5th Gen.  I guess that is love?  I prefer the looks of the 5th over the more modern variants too.

P.S. During the Ulysses Club AGM event I rode a VFR1200, not impressed, Jan.  No faulting the power but I found it top heavy and the shaft drive equipment was discernible following the road contours and that from one who rode only shafties until I owned a VFR 750.  The 2,500 km ride home was very satisfying on my 'old' girl.