Now that I have no daylight to do stuff in the yard after work, it was time to claim my spot in the asylum! Back in June I was able to track down a nice R80ST owned by a good group of PA guys. I wonder what the seller thought when he realized he was selling the bike to a 30 year old outside of Washington DC who had just passed his BRC. Truth be told I had been holding out for an ST which confused ... well pretty much everyone I knew. Fortunately for me and the bike I never really 'adapted' to the DC area despite living down here for the last 12 years. I work on my two other cars and do as much as I can around the house since you can't afford motorcycles when you pay other people to do that sh*t. Adding an airhead to the family came with relative ease. I've been a member of the yahoo R80ST mailing list for awhile now and have a lot of respect for the ADV Rider community. Reading through ADV threads convinced me to go from lurker to lunatic. As for the bike it is a 1983 in used but good solid condition. Prior owners did all the right things like removing the secondary air system, upgrading the shock, corbin seat, brown sidestand, and red ignition coils. The only things that I've done are to replace the bean can with an alpha unit (hall sensor failed in my driveway), and to add forward hyper whites and rear hyper brites. (Increasing visibility was high on my list here in suburbia). After I got the bike, I spent every Saturday and Sunday getting up at 6 a.m. to get good ride time before all the idjuts infest the road. I don't remember doing anything that scared the hell out of me, but that may be selective memory talking. Over the summer I gradually inserted myself into traffic, and traffic management/positioning is still something to work on. Future mods include fitting a pelican IM2400 case and IM2450 case w/ Happy Trails universal mounts to spare my stock (and expensive to replace!) side bags heavy abuse. Over the winter I'll probably be popping up in threads asking about good MD/VA/PA campsites and rides to keep myself sane waiting for spring. All I can say is what a bike and what fantastic start to a lifetime of riding! So here comes the big question: where do I buy an ADV rider sticker for my bags! Cheers!
Welcome. I'm on the road a lot lately. When I'm lucky and the caged majority are fortunate if my lights work at all and the signals don't blink randomly and I can stay in only one lane and SLOW down. Loud obnoxious Airhead in traffic. They are all my positions. Well maybe it's not that bad but that's the idea. Remember they don't see you. You are invisible.
Bike looks great and it sounds like you've got your head screwed on right when it comes to traffic. Welcome.
Great purchase! You'll find a lot of info on here to help you maintain and improve your bike... like adding gas when you run out!
You are allowed to smile if there are pretty women or kids in the picture. But try to not over do it.
Great looking bike. Post a few more pics. BTW, I hope you soon find that yard work should never take precedent over working on or riding motorcycles. NEVER!
Thanks for the link to the stickers/patches! I'll pick up a few after I do my first camping trip with the bike. For now I can't picture changing much more with the ST. Many STs have gotten the G/S treatment (which have created some monster bikes!!), but I like the ST for what it is. The short list of mods I've done or plan to do (forward lights, back off lights, pelican panniers, and maybe some LED idiot lights) were chosen because they are totally reversible within 10 minutes. I even wired up my extra lights to the aux plug under the seat so I didn't have to cut into the original wiring harnesses. As my signature indicates I'm starting to keep my eyes open for a XR650L. That sort of bike seems more suitable to farkle, abuse, and comprehensively ruin!!
That's a sweet bike. You might want to look in to the local BMW club. http://www.bmwbmw.org/ PM me if you want to go for a ride some time. Maybe we can get Disston to come out. Shane
Hey, I'm available for rides sometimes. I swear I am. But lately I've been trying to get my car back from the cops and so I'll be busy for a few weeks. I got the car back today now I have to get it thru inspection. Can't figure these guys out, something about Taxi Cabs have to actually pass inspection.
