The Dakar is home

Well, I did end up going in the direction of an adventure/enduro style motorcycle. I was between that and a sportbike and I think I made the right decision. I love the speed and handling of a sportbike but I don’t need a speeding ticket any time soon! Plus I ran into a fantastic deal and I wouldn’t have been happy with any sportbike I bought for the price I paid for this.

My new (to me) 2003 BMW F650GS Dakar is in the garage. ABS, heated grips, panniers, top case, Staintune exhaust, stock and short seat. It even has the original toolkit and manuals! This beauty came from VA/DC area and looks to have been well taken care of and maintained. I suspect there’s a service coming up that won’t be cheap but that’s ok. I suppose that’s the price you pay for BMW workmanship and dependability.

I took the top case and panniers off for the moment (wow, they are heavy!) and washed it up to get the Pennsylvania road salt off. I need to rearrange the garage and get it on a battery tender once I have some more fuel stabilizer in there. Hopefully it won’t be too long until I take it for the first ride of many.

This should be an ideal cycle for my 100 mile roundtrip commute and the (very) occasional off-road foray. I’m very curious about the gas mileage, its acceleration and its comfort level cruising between 55 and 75 mph. Everything I’ve read says I should be golden.

Once I’ve logged some miles I’ll be sure to post up my opinion.