Kirk Petersen

My motorcycle battery was dead and it is parked on the street, far from any power outlet, so I bought a BMW battery charger (hooks right up to the auxiliary port on my bike – so nice) and a 150 watt power inverter for my car. After hooking those up and waiting half an hour, the battery had just enough of a charge to start the bike (and my car battery was still fine). So I rode around for an hour to charge the battery more.

Every year I do this – after letting my bike sit for 2-3 months, I have to put some work into it and think it might be best to just sell the bike… until I get that first ride of the spring. It was very fun.

When I picked up the battery charger at Ride West, I looked at all the new bikes. I’d love to try them out but I think my bike is exactly what I need. My bike (the 2004 R1100S) was the last of that style. The new R1200S has shifted toward the sport side of the sport-touring category. The R1200ST fills in the sport-touring category but is hideous from the front. Guess it takes over for the R1150RS in the ugliness category.

I’d love to have a GS with hard cases, but only if I had a second bike to ride around for fun. Oh, and I signed up to win a K1200R at Ride West. I really like the new K bikes, so I’d keep it if I won it, but I could never actually purchase a bike with 160+ horsepower.