The Bikes

When I look at our posting, it reads more like a tourist story than a bike trip. This is the bike story to justify using Horizons to post. We had a trip in the spring and posted to Google blogger and it was awkward. htpp;//2seniorsonabike.blogspot.com

Two years ago we decided to do some touring in Europe and tried to ship our bikes. We had two BMW f650s. It was expensive and a hassle so we scrapped the idea. I decided to try and buy bikes in Europe and after some study, I thought that buying US registered bikes in Europe would work best for me.
Gary bought his 2006 Suzuki VStrom 650 in California and toured the US, then shipped it to Europe, toured around for a while then parked it in his parents garage in the South of England. I bought it and picked it up in the spring. It had about 18000 mikes. I changed the oil, put a few mods on it an proceeded to do a two up tour for a 3000 mile tour in Spain, France, Switzerland and Germany. I was so impressed with that bike. We had it loaded like a rented mule and it hauled us around a few off road places, some interesting mow nation roads and some excessive speeds on the motorways. Our BMW 650s could not have served us like that.

Beverly likes to drive her own bike so we needed another. Tom in Florida shipped his bike to Europe several years ago and did some touring. He sold me the bike which was stored in Barcelona. I flew to Barcelona two days before Beverly flew to Frankfurt, picked up the bike and drove the 750 mikes to Heidelberg where the other bike was stored. This bike had 24000 miles. I got it started, lubed the chain and drove like a bat out of hell to get there on time to meet Beverly's plane. I rode the bike hard but i think if it could talk it would have said that Tom rode it harder. Another good bike experience. I will lower Beverly's bike some more and do a few more comfort modifications.




Mike and Beverly
roaming around Europe