Hi all.
This will be a story/resto/I have questions thread for my K5 Vee.
My wife and I came in to a small amount of money back in '05 and we decided to buy a new car for her and a new/used bike for me. The V Strom was what I was lusting after at the time and I happened upon an incredible deal. A guy posted an ad on ADVrider for this bike. It was a K5 which he bought at the end of '04. He put about 5000 miles on it. He then decided that since his kid was going to college he would sell all his bikes and consolidate down to one BMW. He sold his other bikes and this one was still for sale for 4500 bucks. When I called him he said "I just traded it in this morning!".
He told me to call Lone Star BMW and see what they say. So I did. And they honored his price! I couldn't believe it! Since they had it less than a day they hadn't detailed it and put it out for sale. So they gave it to me for 4500 plus TTL. I gave them 500 bucks to hold it for me and I showed up the next day and rode it home. Austin is about 100 miles from my house.
Here she is on the first day home, and you can see why 4500 was SUCH a great deal! HT rack and Targhees, Givi bar, Motech bash plate and center stand, and a Givi windsheild. About 2 grand worth of farkles!
I rode her to the Texas Hill Country a few times, took her to South By Southwest, did some offroading, and generally just had a great time.
Hill Country
Taking a break
Exploring
During this time I discovered a few things. The SW Motech center stand is not worth the steel its made from. It shook itself apart so many times and lost hardware it became a thing to check everytime I stopped for fuel. It also bent. Just lifting the bike like it's supposed to. The foot lever bent so far it would hit the ground before the actual stand pad hit. It had to go, so it went.
Also the Motech skid plate is not a serious piece. It's for looks only. The rear mount can not handle any sort of contact with the ground. I lost it too.
The Givi bars had the broken bit in the middle. Fixable, but meh. I didn't really like them that much anyway.
So what's a Strom to do?
PAT WALSH BABY!
This solves everything. The crash bars are as hard as Superman's elbow. The bash plate would've kept the Titanic afloat. These things are the business. Who needs a center stand? I can jack this thing up with a floor jack straight under the pan. No worries. I have swingarm spools and rest those on two jackstands. Solid as a rock.
Thats pretty much how I left it. I did do a chopped windscreen for summer and tuned it with a loaner Yosh box. I just put a bunch of miles on. The Strom was pretty much my sole transportation for this period of life.
More to come.......
This will be a story/resto/I have questions thread for my K5 Vee.
My wife and I came in to a small amount of money back in '05 and we decided to buy a new car for her and a new/used bike for me. The V Strom was what I was lusting after at the time and I happened upon an incredible deal. A guy posted an ad on ADVrider for this bike. It was a K5 which he bought at the end of '04. He put about 5000 miles on it. He then decided that since his kid was going to college he would sell all his bikes and consolidate down to one BMW. He sold his other bikes and this one was still for sale for 4500 bucks. When I called him he said "I just traded it in this morning!".
He told me to call Lone Star BMW and see what they say. So I did. And they honored his price! I couldn't believe it! Since they had it less than a day they hadn't detailed it and put it out for sale. So they gave it to me for 4500 plus TTL. I gave them 500 bucks to hold it for me and I showed up the next day and rode it home. Austin is about 100 miles from my house.
Here she is on the first day home, and you can see why 4500 was SUCH a great deal! HT rack and Targhees, Givi bar, Motech bash plate and center stand, and a Givi windsheild. About 2 grand worth of farkles!
I rode her to the Texas Hill Country a few times, took her to South By Southwest, did some offroading, and generally just had a great time.
Hill Country
Taking a break
Exploring
During this time I discovered a few things. The SW Motech center stand is not worth the steel its made from. It shook itself apart so many times and lost hardware it became a thing to check everytime I stopped for fuel. It also bent. Just lifting the bike like it's supposed to. The foot lever bent so far it would hit the ground before the actual stand pad hit. It had to go, so it went.
Also the Motech skid plate is not a serious piece. It's for looks only. The rear mount can not handle any sort of contact with the ground. I lost it too.
The Givi bars had the broken bit in the middle. Fixable, but meh. I didn't really like them that much anyway.
So what's a Strom to do?
PAT WALSH BABY!
This solves everything. The crash bars are as hard as Superman's elbow. The bash plate would've kept the Titanic afloat. These things are the business. Who needs a center stand? I can jack this thing up with a floor jack straight under the pan. No worries. I have swingarm spools and rest those on two jackstands. Solid as a rock.
Thats pretty much how I left it. I did do a chopped windscreen for summer and tuned it with a loaner Yosh box. I just put a bunch of miles on. The Strom was pretty much my sole transportation for this period of life.
More to come.......