Cinderella's Slipper is Really a BMW R1200GSA

Yes, I ordered a 2016 BMW R1200GSA LC Lowered Suspension, Lower Seat and was thrilled to hear it was in the shop and ready for me to pick up!  OMG, when I sat on this bike two weeks ago I was amazed at how well it fit me, just like Cinderella's Slipper.  It was meant to be!  I was going to OWN that bike.  So after a bit of back and forth and checking with other dealers, I called Troy (the Sales Manager) at Harrison Eurosports in Sandy, UT and said order that bike for me, NOW!  I want it NOW!!!  From the time I pulled the trigger until I got the call it was in the shop was only a matter of maybe 5 days!  So, now, we had to figure out how best to get up there, take delivery of the bike and bring it home.

It was a bit complicated, but we finally decided to both drive up together in my car to Sandy, UT on Friday afternoon and find me a hotel and then Eric would drive the car back to Ivins and return in the morning on his Super Tenere, meeting me at Harrison Eurosports.  It was a LONG slog up I-15 (about 300 miles) and we arrived in Sandy about 6:30 pm only to find no room at the inn.  No room at any inn, not Motel 6, not the Best Western, not the Hyatt.  No room.  Oh, wait that skanky looking Super 8 might have a room?  Yes, they had one left.  A "suite" with a jacuzzi tub, king bed, sleeper sofa and all the glitz and glory one might expect for a King "Suite".  How much?  Uh, $150.  What?  You're kidding aren't you?  We are Wyndham Gold Card Holders, can you give us a deal?  No. AAA discount? No. Okay.  Bye.

We went to the Comfort Inn or whatever it was called just down the road but the guy in front of us got the very last room.  Crap!  Back to the skanky Super 8.  Because it was his last room, he said he'd give us a deal.  Oh boy, $148 instead of $150.  Thanks, buddy.  However, it was the only room to be had in that area.  So, Eric got me all settled in the nasty room and took off for home.  I sent an email to Troy at Harrison Eurosports asking if someone could pick me up in the morning and bring me to the dealership.  Yes!  Yeah, yippee.  Thank you!

I ordered Pizza Hut delivery for dinner (yuck) and then tried to sleep.  I don't know if it was the over-powering smell of fruity something on the ripped and shredded bed linens or if I was simply too excited to sleep but it made for a long, restless night.

I was up early, had some brekkie in the motel lobby (which is the nicest room in the place) and then waited for my pick-up ride which did show up promptly at 11:00 am, our agreed upon time.  Arriving at the dealership, there was my honey!  Yippee, he had only gotten there maybe 5 minutes before I did.  Things were now going very well and the nightmare Super 8 long forgotten!

Troy spent a LOT of time with us going over all the features of the bike.  Explaining all the bells and whistles (of which there are a LOT).  Truly, we spent quite a few hours going over everything, some things more than once.  He was extremely thorough and Eric and I both felt we had a good tutorial.

Here I am, on the showroom floor, getting a feel for the fit.  And yes, it was amazing!  The low seat made all the difference for comfort for me.  The stock seat still had me tip-toeing the bike.  The low seat gave me a good solid ball of both feet on the ground.  And, it was soooooo easy to pick up with the gas tank completely full.  No problem at all.  Yes, I was amazed.  The glass slipper was almost custom fit to me!

Yeah, sorry if you're offended (not really).  After all, when on an Adventure bike, one must give the ADV Salute :-)  What I like about this picture, is it shows me with feet on the ground, off the side stand with a full tank of gas.  It is sooooooo easy to balance and lift off the stand.  Man, I'm loving that!

 Troy, the best sales guy ever.  No pushy stuff, just the facts.  He really gave a great tutorial and helped me go through everything (some things two or three times!).  He also gave me a lot of hints and tricks that will make this bike even better for me.  Thanks Troy Barnes!

Okay, just about ready to go out the door.  Four (4) miles on the odo!

My wonderful hubby Eric took it out for a 30 mile Motoman Break-In.  Yeah, I know, he got to ride it first.  No problem, I knew he knew what he was doing and would bring it back in perfect condition.  Of course he did!  We had originally scheduled an oil change after the Motoman Break-In but the service department showed us the oil and questioned why we wanted to change it.  After some discussion and Eric's assessment of the situation, we decided to not change the oil and will wait until the 600 mile service.

So, now it's time for us to leave.  It was around 4:00 pm.  Yes, it was a long time at the dealership but worth every minute.  They took spectacular care of us.  We loaded my stuff into the panniers and top case and headed out.  We took a frontage road rather than hit the freeway right off the start.  I needed a few miles to get the feel of this new machine.

It is throttle by wire which is new to me.  All my previous bikes have been cable actuated or direct cable to throttle (although fuel injected).  Man oh man!!!!!  What a difference!!!  Just a little throttle delivered a LOT of power.  So, I needed those five miles of frontage road to get the feel of the throttle.  Also, we made several stops and I quickly learned that putting my feet down and feeling solid on the pavement was not an issue!  Easy, peasy :-)

Since we were so late getting out of the dealership, we scrapped our prior plan of mountain riding that afternoon and instead just headed south on I-15 to Nephi, UT where we found our favorite Best Western was sold out!  Geez, Utah was busy this weekend.  We ended up at a National 9 in Nephi which was fine but not as nice as the Best Westie.  Oh well, at least we had a room, on the second floor.....(yeah, my sweetheart lugged my bags upstairs for me - yes I'm spoiled - oh no - I'm a Delicate Fucking Flower - and don't you forget it!).

Tucked in for the night, a quick shared steak dinner at the restaurant next door, some television and a good long sleep, in that order!

 Yeah, sorry, I just can't take enough pictures of this wonderful machine!

 Okay, so here's one of Eric's Super Tenere.  Still going strong at 100,000 miles!

 My sweet machine from the upstairs view!

 The next morning we partook of the brekkie offerings which consisted pretty much of Raisin Bran and Yogurt.  We packed up the bikes and headed off toward Salina, UT on UT Highway 28.  From there, we took a short sprint on I-70 to the exit for UT Highway 89.  Pretty much what we did two weeks ago when I first set eyes on this beauty.

We took a quick break at Circleville, UT.  There is an absolutely fantastic Veteran's Memorial there.  If you happen to be riding on UT Highway 89 through Circleville, take a moment to stop.  It is well worth your time.

 It is a quiet place, grassy with big trees and a fantastic memorial in the middle.

 Just walking up to the memorial....

 Off to the side was this piece of granite with a sad story to tell.  I had no idea this had happened.  Utah is full of history where they either slaughtered or befriended the native folks.  Unfortunately, this location was a slaughter :-(

 Here are some photos of the Veteran's Memorial.  It was a very touching, emotional place.  We spent a bit of time here.

 This poem brought tears to my eyes and an appreciation to all those who served and continue to serve our country to keep us free.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 And then, of course, more photos of me and my new baby!

Now, back to the ride and route.  At Panquitch, UT, we took a different route from two weeks ago.
First, we stopped for some lunch and filled up our gas tanks in Panquitch before heading off on Utah Highway 143 which took us past Panquitch Lake and was full of twisty turns.  Oh, I was so impressed with the new bike.  Cornering was a piece of cake compared to my F650GS twin.  Power was a simply twist of the wrist.  I didn't have to carefully plan a pass or even shift down if I didn't want to.  Just roll the wrist and the bike leaped with power!  How cool is that?

At the junction of UT 143, we turned left and rode along Cedar Breaks.  (And being over 10,000 feet made no appreciable difference in the smooth power delivery!)  Oh my, breathtaking scenery.  We made a stop to enjoy the view at Chessmen Ridge, Elevation 10,460!!!

It's like a mini Grand Canyon!  Stunning!

 The wind was a blowing up there!

We took turns posing :-)

View from the other direction.  This is a very small National Monument and incredibly delightful to ride through.

From there, we hit Utah Highway 14 into Cedar City and then back on the slab of I-15 toward home.  It was warm in the mountains but once we got down lower it got downright HOT.  The highest temp reading I saw was 108.  Gack!!!!

Before we got home I needed a stop.  A stop with an ice cold, big bottle of water!  I don't have a hydration system on the new bike and I needed water in a bad way.  So, we stopped, I drank, Eric drank and then we motored on home!

What a fantastic weekend.  Even the long slog to Sandy, UT was filled with anticipation.  So, here are my thoughts on the R1200GSA Lowered Suspension and Low Seat.  First, it's a BIG bike.  No doubt about it, it's a big machine, a beastie bike :-)  I LOVE that it is shaft drive.  No more chain drama for me.  Don't even mention or think about the issues BMW has had with their shaft drives, okay?  It won't happen to me.

The power is awesome and the delivery is smooth and quick once you figure it out.  I love that when you put on the power, it answers with standing up a bit and moving forward fast!  When you put on the brakes, it sits right down.  No nose diving.  It stands up to power on and sits down for power off.  Wow!!!!

The balance is perfect!  I had absolutely no problem picking it up off the side stand with a full tank (7.9 gallons) of gas.  Although I can't completely flat foot, I had plenty of foot down on both sides to be totally comfortable.  I never felt I was going to tip over when I picked up the bike.  I didn't have to lean over to get the side stand up or down (way different from my F650GS Twin).

Cornering - yes, yes, yes!  This bike grips the corners like there is no tomorrow.  Weighting the outside peg, diving into the curve, I never felt intimidated at all.  It went where I pointed it.  A few times I slowed down for some curves but in retrospect, I didn't have to.  I'm just not totally familiar with the bike yet.  The mountain twisties were a dream, smooth, grippy and fast.  I can't wait to get a few more miles and smiles to get more comfortable with the weight, speed and responsiveness of this beastie.  What a machine!

This bike is feature rich!  I'd go into detail, but heck, you can just go read the specs.  Suffice it to say it has everything they can throw at it.  I got it all, every feature imaginable!  I'll sort through all the features eventually.  There are so many.  So many modes, so many computer functions and the flexibility to change displays on the bike computer screens and navigation screen!  Oh my, oh my!  I'll eventually sort out what I want to see on the displays and what modes I feel best riding.  But for now, well, I'll be experimenting a LOT!  What an incredible machine.

So what would I change?  Yes, a few things.  First, bar risers.  I want the bars a bit higher and closer to me.  My left shoulder (which is damaged) got a bit weary.  I think risers will fix this problem and I won't be leaning on my wrists so much.

Second, highway pegs.  It's nice to be able to stretch your legs out after a couple hundred miles.  Yes, I need some highway pegs.

Third, a big foot on the side stand.  Gravel, dirt and soft surfaces demand a bigger foot so you don't sink into the ground.

Fourth, well, a hydration system.  I got hot and thirsty so I need a water delivery system.  I'll figure something out.  No problem.  Just some time and experimentation.

Overall, I'm freakin' thrilled with this bike.  It is everything I wanted when I bought the F650GS Twin and wasn't available for me at the time.  BMW made a very wise move to give us the lowered suspension and lower seat option.  This opens up the market to a ton more peeps who want this bike.  I'm so impressed that me, a Delicate Fuckin' Flower, can ride this with ease.

I'll be putting on some miles this riding season and will keep you posted on my thoughts about this bike.  Until then, hugs to all and thanks for following my blog.

Cheers,
Cletha

Oh, Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

Yup, it's my birthday.  Quite a few of my recent birthdays have been total disasters for a variety of reasons over which I had no control.  Okay, suck it up and move on.  No problem.  Birthdays aren't that big of a deal anymore.  Frankly, I don't like the years adding up :-)  Regardless, they come around once a year whether we want them or not.

So, I woke up this morning and didn't even give it a second thought.  Until.....I went to make my morning coffee and found a note next to the espresso machine.  There was a Rolo candy on the note and the note told me to look in the pantry where I found another note and Rolo candy.  That note told me to look in another place in the house where, yes, you got it, I found another note and Rolo candy.  This went on for 11 total notes and Rolo candies.  Culminating in a present and Birthday Card!!!!

Do I have the best ever hubby or what?  He gets up at 4:30am to get ready for work while I snore away and he made time to take me on a scavenger hunt with yummy treats for a birthday surprise.  Yup, he's definitely a keeper!

I spent my day running errands and working on a contract job.  I didn't open the present.....I love the suspense and I wanted to wait until my honey came home before I opened it.  I did shake it a bit, hahahaha.  It was very light and didn't rattle.  It was wrapped in Christmas paper with a silver bow, lol.

Finally, around 4:45pm or so, Eric got home.  Yippee, I can open my present now!  I took a long, long time to open it.  Just one piece of tape at a time with conversation in between each piece of tape.  Yes, I drug out the suspense for as long as I possibly could.  What might it be?

Well, here it is!  WONDER WOMAN!!!!!!

Huh? An action figure?  That's not much of a present......  Oh, but you are so wrong!  The note inside the box with Wonder Woman was this:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  New Mojo for the new bike :-), I love you!! Eric.

Wow, wow, wow!!!!!!!  I can't wait to place Wonder Woman in an appropriate place on........THE NEW BIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes Sir/Ma'am, a NEW BIKE.   A new bike, a new bike, a new bike!!!!!!!!!!

Yippee Skippy! A NEW FRICKIN' BIKE!

Tomorrow, we head up north where I'll spend the night and Eric will return home.  Saturday, I'll go to Harrison Eurosports to take delivery of a BRAND, SPANKIN' NEW R1200GSA!!!!!  Eric will ride back up on his Tenere and meet me.  Then the plan is to take a lovely Utah mountain ride home.

OH MY HECK!!!!!!  A New Bike (I said that once or twice already, didn't I?)  I'm Sooooooooo excited (bet you couldn't really tell)!  One of my errands this morning was to go to the bank and get the Cashier's Check.  I told the teller it was my birthday and he asked if I was doing anything special.  I just pointed to the Cashier's Check and said you betcha I am!

Man, I've been giggling all day long.  My birthday started with massive love from my husband and the feeling flowed throughout the entire day.  I'm still grinning from ear to ear.  I got tons of love and Birthday wishes from many, many, many of my Facebook peeps and a few phone calls from loved ones all over the country.

I'm counting my blessings.  I'm a happy girl.  I'M GETTING A NEW BIKE!!!!!!

Love to all and thanks for following my adventure.  Stay tuned, I'll be blogging about the NEW BIKE after the weekend.

Hugs and cheers,

Cletha

Ducati - A New Love Affair?

Several weeks ago I applied for a position on the Ducati Globetrotter 90 team.  Ducati intends to introduce the new Multistrada 1200 Enduro by taking it around the world and stopping at various venues.  They are picking an initial 14 people who will go to Italy and attend "Boot Camp" and the final seven riders will be selected to take the Enduro around the world.  Ducati Globetrotter 90

You can only imagine my surprise when I was notified that I made the first cut!  Wow!!!!!  They were looking for people who ride and blog.  I guess I met both criteria ;-)  On the down side, if selected as one of the final 14, you had to make your own way to Florence, Italy to attend the boot camp.  So, that would be a BIG expense for anyone traveling outside of Europe.  Oh well, after discussing it, Eric and I agreed that IF I was lucky enough to make the cut, we'd find the money somewhere to get me to Italy.

Whoa, some exciting things to think about.  The new Multistrada 1200 Enduro is a BIG, MEAN MACHINE.  Multistrada Enduro  Pondering the costs and excitement I thought it might be prudent to actually go meet this machine in person and take a test ride.  A quick Google search indicated the closest dealer to us was up in Sandy, UT, about 300 miles to the north at Harrison Eurosports.  A few emails back and forth to the dealer and we were set to test ride on Saturday, June 4th.

Late Friday afternoon, Eric and I left home and headed north.  It was a paltry 106 degrees when we left and it really didn't cool down a whole lot as we rode north.  Fortunately, we had planned on staying the night at the Best Western in Nephi, UT which is only about 200 miles from home and about 60 miles or so from the dealer.

I stayed at the Nephi, UT Best Western on my return from Bonner's Ferry and noted in my blog that they have done significant upgrading.  We had a delightful King room with fridge and microwave that was clean, tidy and just right!

 The view across the parking lot was a field of just mowed hay and it smelled delightful!

At one entrance was a gigantic tree that just called out to be climbed!

We had a good night's sleep, enjoyed the motel brekkie that included sausage, waffles, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy among other usual fare.  We weren't in any hurry and finally made our way out to the bikes mid-morning.

 We simply hopped back on I-15 North and motored along.  We made one quick break and enjoyed the picture perfect day!

 It was warm, but nowhere near the previous day.  We had filled our hydration jugs with ice that morning so we were set to go!

Traffic was fairly light since it was a Saturday morning.  We arrived at our designated exit around 11:00 am and quickly pulled into Harrison Eurosports parking lot.  OH MY HECK!!!!  Eye candy everywhere!  They have the Trifecta, Ducati, Triumph and BMW.  And....they had lots of each brand!

Well, heck, I somehow lost a bunch of pictures showing all the bikes.  Or maybe....I was just focused on Ducati?

 Yup, here it is, the Multistrada 1200 Enduro!  Oooohhhhh, pretty, shiny!  BIG!!!

We completed all the appropriate paperwork to take test rides.  They set up the Enduro with a low seat for me and they set up another Standard Multistrada so we could test ride together.  We were ready to roll.

Except.....My feet were a LONG way from the ground!  I mean, a Loooonnnngggg way, even with the low seat and the bike in Urban mode (which is the lowest to the ground mode).  I couldn't even tiptoe.  And, it was heavy :-(  There was no way to lower it any further other than putting in a different spring and that wasn't going to happen.

 Of course, once I get in motion, I could most certainly ride the bike.  However, takeoffs and landings were definitely going to be a big issue for me!

So, my Ducati bubble was burst :-(  Boohoo! There was no way I was going to try and take that monster out of the parking lot.  All I could envision was dropping it and having to pay lots of $$$ for the damage.  Darn it!  Oh well.  On the other hand, Eric was most eager to take that beast out on a test ride!  He had the regular seat installed on the Enduro, made several parking lot figure eights before heading out of the parking lot on a test ride.  Here is his review.

After some Ducati emails and other poking of the internet, I became curious just where the nearest
Ducati dealer was to me.  I knew nothing existed in St George, UT, so went to the Ducati North 
America web site,http://www.ducatiusa.com/index.do , to do a dealer search.   Come to find out that
the nearest dealer was Harrison Eurosports, approximately 300 miles away in Sandy, UT.  
That's a slog North on I-15, for those unfamiliar with Utah cities.

It was Sunday, so I perused their web site, http://www.harrisoneurosports.com/ , and noted that they 
showed a 2016 Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro in stock and had a request area for demo rides. 
I filled that out and went about learning some things about the Enduro.

Some minor tid bits:

While is shares many parts with the other 4 Multistrada models, it's the only one to have a 17" Rear
 and 19" front wheel, (as opposed to 17"/17"), and the only one to have a dual sided swing arm.  
Hmm, interesting so far.  Very feature rich with the usual bevy of programable dash, multi modes for
ABS, traction control, wheelie control as well as having throttle by wire with different modes. 
Seat height is a staggering 34.25" seat height.  Not quite in the KTM stratosphere, but not for the short 
inseam riders out there.  Still, they did offer a low seat...

On Monday I received an email from Tyler Mott of Harrison Eurosports and after some back and forth 
we arranged a demo ride for Cletha and myself on Sat, June 4th, ensuring that they did have a low 
seat and it would be available for Cletha to use on her demo ride.  The week went by quickly and after
 work on Friday we rode up to Nephi for a free night at the Best Western.

The following morning we road the remaining ~70 miles to Harrison Motorsports and easily found
their location, discovering a very nicely laid out trifecta of showrooms including Triumph, Ducati and
BMW, each with an appropriate selection of gear and accessories well aimed at each marque.

A bit of paperwork and they had two Ducatis ready for us to demo, the Enduro and a regular
Multistrada so we could go out together, which was a very nice consideration.

Cletha test sat the Enduro, only to find to her disappointment that it was simply too tall for her to be
 comfortable with, even with the low seat.  I had them swap the standard seat back onto the bike and 
did a demo ride solo.

My first action was to get a feel for the bike.  Ergonomically it was very similar to my Yamaha Super 
Tenere, but the Multistrada Enduro has better ergos, more easily transitioning from seated to standing 
and easily allowing me to shift while standing.  Seat height was not an issue for my 225 lbs, 5', 11" 
frame with a 30" inseam.  I'm sure my extra strength helped as I still was only getting the balls of my 
feet down.

I started off with some slow, idle speed circles and figure eights in the parking lot just to check out
turning radius and see how the bike would handle chugging along.  The turning radius is very good 
and after some practice to get used to the slightly different geometry, I was comfortable with what the
 bike was going to do at low speeds.  I followed Tyler's excellent advise and exited the rear of the 
dealership parking lot to an empty frontage road that ran along the rear of many office buildings.  
This gave me some room to play with the throttle and also some opportunity to depart the frontage road
for large parking lots with speed bumps and a few areas of unpaved terrain where I could see what the 
various mode settings would result in under safe and prudent conditions for riding a brand new $24k
bike that wasn't mine.

After playing with Sport, Urban, Enduro and the other modes I discovered that each had interesting 
things to offer and that I rather liked the Enduro and Urban modes best, though Sport did bring out the
 inner hooligan a bit.  I then spent some time doing some more serious parking lot drills, working on 
doing U-turns inside two parking spaces at idle speed.  This took me several tries before I mastered the 
unique characteristics of the Ducati engine idle and gearing, but I found that once comfortable with 
how the bike fell into turns with the Scorpion Trail knobbies it was easy to keep between the lines and 
give it just a bit of throttle when needed to pull the bike upright as I exited the U.

Throttle response is truly outstanding.  The idle is surprisingly smooth and stable for a V-twin and 
Ducati's efforts here show.  I still did find a low rpm stumble that seemed to display itself at steady 
lower rpms and light throttle, but nothing I couldn't accept as character, rather than flaw.  Getting on
 the throttle woke up the exhaust note dramatically but the bike never seemed unduly loud,
 (I do wear 32 dB ear plugs when riding).  

The suspension sucked up everything I tossed at it and was a joy to ride standing on the pegs or seated. 
In Enduro mode, it just ate up everything like a magic carpet ride.  Even in Urban, speed bumps and
 uneven pavement were nothing to slow down for if you chose not to.  It didn't seem like anything
 could upset the suspension, even in a lean.

Braking is what you would expect from an Italian motorcycle with radial calipers and a strong sport 
bike lineage.  In other words, excellent, strong, easy to modulate all the way to ABS engagement.

The on ramp acceleration is quite fun.  As you would expect from 160 Hp and 100 ft/lbs of torque. 
 Romping thru the gears brings you quickly up to a 75 mph cruising speed at 4500 rpms.  That's just 
300 rpms higher than my Super Tenere at the same speed in top gear with both bikes.  It didn't feel
 buzzy at all and the oem CC was simple to engage and rock steady.  A tap on the + moved the speed
 up 1 mph, a tap on the - and you went down 1 mph.  Easy to engage and disengage with controls
 right where you can reach them.  

The switchgear is precise.  The turn signal switch requires only a light movement to engage, almost
 w/o travel compared to the Yamaha switchgear.  Different, but with it's own feel.  The keyless feature
 was interesting and could prove helpful if you lost a key while traveling, as it is possible to start the
 bike by entering a custom PIN even w/o the key present.  All of the instrumentation was clear and easy
 to read.

To conclude, this is an exceptional bike.  Ducati has listened to the market and brought a bike out with 
features that we want.  Some things ignored by nearly every other bike manufacturer in this segment, 
like a frame mounted sump guard, are present on the Enduro and not an accessory.  Foregoing style 
for function, the double sided swing arm makes the Enduro stand out among the Multistrada line as 
THE bike that means business for off pavement action.  This does not mean that the other 
Multistradas don't have purpose, a look at the Pikes Peak model quickly tells you where that 
bike's focus is too.

The only things that I found holding me back from riding away from Harrison Eurosports on a
 Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro last Saturday were the chain drive and the the $10,000 premium
 over some of the other choices in the market.  
-- 

Eric Vaillancourt
Ivins, UT

So, obviously, Eric had a fantastic time on the Multistrada 1200 Enduro.  He raved about it the entire day and all the way home!  However, it simply wasn't going to work for me, period.  So, while Eric was out and about testing the Enduro, I had plenty of time to go shopping.  Oh my!!!  Again, it was Harrison Eurosports and they had Ducati, Triumph and BMW.  

An honest admission here folks, I've lusted after that dang BMW R1200GS Adventure ever since I bought my little F650GS in 2011.  I want that bike!  The sales guys were more than willing to help me find a set up that would work for me.  As a matter of fact, they went out of their way to help me out!  First, I sat on a standard R1200GS with a low seat.  Perfect, fit was awesome but it wasn't the Adventure over which I lusted.

Hey, wait a minute!  The shop had just this minute uncrated an R1200GS Adventure Low Suspension and I could check it out.  Then, they put on the low seat.  Oh, STOP MY BEATING HEART!!!!

It was like putting on a well fitting glove.  I could easily get my feet firmly on the ground and just as easily pick up the bike from the side stand.  Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, (yeah, almost orgasmic here!).  Good thing they didn't have one I could ride away.  The bike I sat on was already sold.

Eric returned from his test ride, all big smiles and happiness.  And, I was thrilled to have found a perfect fit bike.  Where do we go from here?  Well, that is the question, isn't it?  If you read Eric's review above, we probably won't be purchasing a Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro for the stated reasons.  However, I probably WILL be purchasing an R1200GS Adventure LL (Low suspension, Low seat) very soon.

Wow, what a day at Harrison Eurosports!  We left about 1:30 and headed south on I-15 with the intent of riding the Mt. Nebo road.  It was glorious.  The weather was perfect, the road was smooth and hardly any traffic.  We stopped at several pull outs and scenic view spots.  Here are a few pictures of that glorious afternoon ride in central Utah.

A view of Utah Lake from the Mt. Nebo loop road.

 What?  Looks like we went to the Alps :-)  Nope, just some of the beauty in Utah!

 Another scenic stop on the Mt. Nebo loop.

A map to show where we were.

 A little blurb about  Devil's Kitchen, what a fantastic little find in the middle of nowhere!

 A few pics of Devil's Kitchen.

Such beautiful wildflowers!  We had this space all to ourselves - very special!

Another scenic view stop on the way down.

After exiting the Mt. Nebo loop road, we ended up in Nephi, UT, where we spent the night before.  We headed off on UT highway 28 to Salina, UT, our destination for the evening.  We stayed at the Super 8 which is really a nice little property.

The next morning, Sunday, we headed home.  Neither of us wanted to slog down the interstate so we chose UT Highway 89 to UT Highway 14 across Cedar Mountain.  The day was clear and hot until we got to the mountain when the temperatures dropped to a pleasant low 70's.  We stopped on Highway 89 at the Big Rock Candy Mountain Cafe - don't bother - it was mediocre at best.  However, about a 1/2 mile south on the same highway was a decent looking cafe with lots of bikes parked in front.  Probably a better choice.

Our ride home was uneventful and the traffic was sparse.  Well, we did have an event....Eric turned 100,000 on his 2012 Super Tenere!!!!!  Milestone :-)

 We were only about 1/2 mile from Butch Cassidy's boyhood home when the event happened.  So, of course, we had to stop and take pictures!

The closer we got to home, the hotter the temperatures.  I saw 108 degrees before we got home.  It was HOT.  Fortunately we had our LD Comfort garments on under our gear and were smart enough to wet down in Cedar City where we had taken a small break.  That kept us comfortable until we got home.

It was a great weekend and well worth the trip North.  I found out that I really couldn't ride the Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro and it rather shattered my dreams of an awesome Ducati Globetrotter 90 adventure.  However, I also found the bike that fit me so perfect I must buy it!  Yes, you'll eventually see me on a new BMW R1200GS Adventure with the lowered suspension and lowered seat.  I'm looking forward to kitting out a new bike.

Sure, I'll miss the little F650GS, she has been a trooper for me taking me over 100,000 miles of smiles.  But, I'm ready for a new, bigger, stronger, more adventurous bike.  Stay tuned for updates on this!

Although I was short listed, I didn't get selected for the final 14 for the Ducati Globetrotter 90 team.  However, a FB friend, Jess, did get picked.  I wish her the best luck ever.  She is an awesome rider and deserves this honor.  I'll be watching you, Jess!

So, that's it for today folks!  Thanks for following along on my adventures.  Who knows what might happen next :-)

Cheers,
Cletha