Introductions and background - Part 1
So, let me introduce myself...
I’m the owner of the sleeping beauty that Mike is slowly bringing back to life. Let me tell you something about her as she does indeed have her own story to tell.
I bought her in Toronto, Canada in the spring of 1997. At the time, I could only find 2 PD’s for sale in all of Eastern Canada, one was a brand new black “classic” that, thanks to a cock up with the import paperwork in Vancouver, had sat uncrated in the back of a Toronto motorcycle dealer for a year or so. They were asking silly money (almost double of the new style GS that was available by then). Then there was the other one, resting up in an independent BMW place an hour north of Toronto. I liked the idea of a second hand bike with a bit of history and “character scratches” not to mention the fact that the price was a little more realistic. She was 5 years old by then and had been owned by some other guy who had some really “interesting” ideas about the modifications that BMW had neglected to put on.
First off, he’d installed twin car air horns on the bush bars. Wired in with domestic twin and earth cable and cable tied to death. It’s a testament to his workmanship that after almost 60,000 miles, the horns are still there and still frighten the life out of any unspsupecting car driver.
Next, he decided the stock centre stand was too tall, so he took it off, hacksawed a good inch out of the middle and then welded it back together, on the wonk of course. Such was his engineering skills that you could sneeze within a half mile of the bike and it would fall over. The first thing I changed when I bought the bike was that stand.
Finally, I think he was worried about his luggage catching fire so he installed a 6 inch extension on the exhaust silencer. Aesthetically, I actually quite liked it and it made it different to every other GSPD in the world. My brother-in-law liked it less however and took a chisel to it, finally removing it much later on. (More on that later).
So all of that, and I’ve not even got started with her. Before I get chance to give you the next chapter of her life, here’s a shot of her in her prime, driving through the dirt tracks of Ontario going the long way round to Ottawa on an incredible autumn day...
I’ll tell you some more of the story when I get a bit more time later...
Dave