my 01 concours rolled out of my driveway for the last time the other day. it carried me for 135k miles to the 4 corners, canada, mexico, and lots of places in between. I gave it to my oldest friend who needed a bike after his was totaled and needed a ride to get to work.
I wasnt riding it anymore, theres a KLR650 and a 1250FA in the garage that does dirty and sporty better respectively. while both allow long range one up touring pretty comfortably so it was just sitting there being neglected.
Very strange thing, seeing the empty space in the garage. I've owned that bike since it was new. its never been away from my care since then, either with me out traveling or safely locked in my garage for the past 12 years.
lots of memories made on it. one of the best the best ones seeing the look on my friends face when I handed him the title,
with 135k worth of memories under the wheels I don't figure it owes me another ride, and it was good to do something nice for a friend who needed it will take care of it and enjoy it. its just an old dirty blue concours that I put a lot of me into, it kept me sane working on the road, I do construction projects all over and would give the keys to the company truck and a gas card to one of the guys and say meet me in seattle in 4 days and I would ride the bike. if the weather was crappy (ICE on road) I would just roll it into the back of the truck and away we go. so it got a lot of miles seeing the US going from one project to the other. it crisscrossed the country several times. as many miles as are on it and given the mileage difference between it and my truck I think It pretty much paid for itself over the years, thats what I tell my wife anyway . there are so many farkles on that bike its takes up more than one page to print it all out, its sort of embarrasing when you look at it as a whole. my mercenary construction worker soul says you should have sold it, the better part of me says you are very fortunate to be able to give it away, Im glad I listened to the good part, seeing he and his wife on it happy and planning a trip is worth more than the little I could have sold a 135k bike for by far. Im very blessed and am happy to be able to do something for my friend. Today I told him it wasnt truly his yet, he hadnt bled on it while working on it, he replied that yes it was he cut his hand replacing the fuel filter, so its really his now, Im happy for him and hope he gets as much enjoyment from it as I did.
