Which impractical purchase should I make?

[Christophe Noel]

I'm suffering from a severe case of new moto-itis. Unfortunately, I've come to limit my choices to two bikes, both of them impractical and non-overlandy. My last few bikes have been very logical choices. For some reason I seem to be leaning the other way. I've already ruled out a KTM 950 and a BMW 650GS. This is going to be a frequent daily rider around town, a few short escapes to ride my local twistys, and other short duration diversions. If I do anything extended it will be on mountain bike or with my wife in our little Jeep.

Option A: BMW R1100S


Option B: Moto Guzzi Griso 1100


The BMW I have in my sites is in ridiculously clean condition with only 8,000 miles.


What's your most impractical bike in your garage? How did you justify it, or did you even try?

 

[AeroNautiCal]

Life is too short to try to justify the owning of a bike that you want!

Buy the Beemer.

Be happy!

 

[Christophe Noel]

What a completely unexpected day. I decided on the Beemer. My wife and I met with the owner of the motorcycle and his lovely wife. ********-chat ensued and it turns out the seller went to high school with my mom in Kansas. My grandfather was his doctor as a kid. Anyway, I got an insanely immaculate Beemer out of the meeting and we made some fun new friends.

Must have been in the cards to get the Beemer, and holy crap is it amazing. To say it is perfect is a gross understatement. I can't believe it ever saw the open road, it's that clean.

 

[Stumpalump]

Anything that makes you smile and feel alive is not impractical. Impractical is the life the average joe lives.
Edit: you were announcing the new member of your familily while I was typing. Congratulations!

 

[Hill Bill E.]

Anything that makes you smile and feel alive is not impractical. Impractical is the life the average Joe lives.

Well said!

Congrats on the new scoot!

 

[sandalscout]

Nice, the local dealership had a Boxercup Replika for sale for a good long while, really opened my eyes on BMW street bikes.

 

[AeroNautiCal]

Excellent!

Hope you both have many great years, miles and memories on it.

 

[goodtimes]

Nice!

 

[Frank]

Very nice! Congrats!

 

[Christophe Noel]

She's a real stunner, this one. The seller's wife said her husband would freak out if he thought he'd get caught in a rain storm. He cleaned the tools and the panel under the tools. I'm pretty particular and a proper neat freak, but this thing is unreal clean.



Here's the advertised flaw on this bike. There's a little bluing on the headers, and it's not uniform on both headers. That...is the flaw he brought to my attention. Not even any dirt in the bolt heads.

 

[Frank]

Its always awesome to find stuff like that.

When its that clean, usually its either a) they are hiding something or b) they really are neat freaks.

I think you have choice B.

 

[trailsurfer]

Congrats! Ride that bike up to Durango and we can go ride all of the twisties around the 4 corners.

 

[Christophe Noel]

Trailsurfer, that sounds like a great idea! I was torn between a GS and this bike. I think I will get a dirt appropriate mode eventually, but probably something smaller. I got a new road bike last week and a new moto this week. Lucky me.

 

[Christophe Noel]

First ride report:

This thing is amazing. So precise. So refined. Not much more to say. Well done Bavarian Motor Works. Well done.

By the way, I have a confession. After almost 22 years of riding motorcycles, I went to roll this bike off the center stand today, and my gloves slipped off the tail rails of the bike. I frick'in almost set the bike down in the drive way. It was in slooooow motion, and I don't even know if the head guards actually even touched the concrete, but I somehow saved it. What. An. Idiot.

 

[Stumpalump]

It's not "if" you drop it but "when". Glad to hear you saved it!