Long story time.....
My concours hasn't really been ridden for about a year. In 2021, I attempted to do a brake job - replace pads and bleed the system, and fubared that up. I procrastinated investigating it, but I couldn't get pressure to build in the system. Well, at least I got a master cylinder rebuild out of it right? Anyhow, it sat until Feb 2022 where I conceded and took it to a shop. They called me a week or so later and said, hey dummy... you put in the pads upside down. Now, I cant really understand how that would affect the building of pressure, but alas they had it working again. So, I picked her up and rode her home and all was well in the world. About 2 weeks later, I had to go up to northern Indiana for a quick job. Thought, well I'll take the bike...that will be fun! It was, right up until I got nearly T boned by some moron who refused to give me right of way while preparing to turn left. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, and stomped on the brakes. Bike went down. I have the tipover bars installed, and they certainly served their purpose. It was a 5-10 mph spill, but we walked away relatively unscathed.
I got the bike back up, and got to my job. Outside of a bent tipover bar mounting tab, I couldnt see much else wrong. I found a shard of blue plastic in the road that I grabbed, but I couldn't seem to locate any actual damage. I got it home just fine, and no other issue...so I hopped on Murphs and got a hardware kit for the tipover bars. Well, once I received that I pulled off the left mid fairing, and sure enough when the tipover bar bent, it cracked the fairing and took a chunk out with it. Well crap. I took it to maaco and they wanted 1300 bucks and no guarantee of satisfaction. So, I gave in to defeat and just said OK I'll do something with it myself. I'm awful at paint and body work. Do NOT have the patience or artistry for it. Well, life happened and I sat on it for some months. A few weeks ago I sold my Time Out camper to a guy who happens to own a body shop. I explained my problem, showed him the piece, and he was confident he could get it back to proper without having to spend 1300 bucks. So off he went with my fairing, and I laid in anticipation. Now, I had a 2002 concours that I bought years ago as a "backup" rig. Something i could have friends ride if they wanted to come along, and didn't have a bike at the moment. I think I spent a grand on it, plus whatever to get the carb rebuilt. it was a decent bike all said and done - however the left mid fairing had been repainted at some point and I could tell. I really didn't want that to be the case here.
Well I got the fairing back and it looked great! I was excited, but at the same time I know the clear coat stuff has to have time to properly cure. So I left the fairing setting on my trash cans, giving it time to fully dry and harden. Well we had a campout scheduled, and I decided it was going to be on the concours. So, last Wednesday night I scrambled together to get the new hardware kit installed on the left side, and the fairing remounted. We had success! In fact, by some sort of stroke of luck, I didn't even ding up the fairing when screwing in the tip over bars. That's a miracle right there. Anyhow, she was buttoned back up at 8 pm wednesday, had a nice hand wash by 9, and I took a test ride at about 930.
Test ride went fine, no issues. Got her filled up with gas and brought the trailer home in preparation for departure. Ya know, a bike that sat around for a year, then going on a 1000 mile trip right out the gate.....what could go wrong?
Well we had a few hiccups on said trip, but nothing major. First was that I didn't loctite the bolts on the tipover bars. I assumed with a short trip, it would be fine. I got 400 miles into the trip and arrived at my destination, and when we got up to ride the next morning at the fuel stop I noticed something wasnt right. I lost the top bolt of my tipover bar. Well as luck would have it, it just dropped into the fairing below. I asked for 5 minutes from our ride host to re-secure as I grabbed my toolbag. Well unfortunately, tragedy struck this time and the tip over bar and rolled back onto the fairing and took out a chunk of paint. Disappointing, but not a huge deal. Now it matches the rest of the bike lol. Later that afternoon I stopped at a hardware store, grabbed some loctite and corrected the issue permanently. The other hiccup is that on my way back home along US24 in ohio, my brand spankin new Garmin GPS popped out of the mount and onto the highway! I conceded to having just lost 300 bucks, but then thought to myself, I KNOW exactly where it is, so I busted a U turn, and went back. Found it exactly where I thought I would, and retrieved it from the middle of the road. Screen was in tact, works fine...just a few bumps and bruises from the fall. Sheesh.
Then the remainder of the ride home it rained crazy.
Allll of this to say that I love the [original] concours, and I always will. I looked at a C14 when I got my FJR, but I felt it was kind of showey and cost too much. The FJR is a good value, and isn't over burdened with tech or other things that will break. The C10 is just a workhorse. A Clydesdale if you will. It pulled me and my camping supplies without complaint and without failure. It's got a place in my heart.
The camping trip was a blast! This was just outside of Cleveland, and I had no idea that this area of Ohio had nice rolling hills, and lush terrain. We actually camped out on our hosts property, but it was super nice having everyone in one place, having bathrooms and showers available - he really did a great job. And his wife cooked. A LOT.
Anyhow, glad to have the concours back in full running order, and I'm hoping that spill I had will be the first and only on the concours.
