My New Old BMW 1996′ R1100GS

Surgery is over, my body is on the road to recovery, and it’s time to buy my next motorcycle.

After much searching, I found the bike for me, a vintage oil-cooled BMW GS. Located near Erie, PA I would have to plan a road trip to pick up the bike. I was able to talk my brother-in-law into coming along with me. The planning was underway and I had my Ford Explorer connected to a 14′ enclosed trailer I typically use for hauling little bikes and scooters to Saint Augustine, Florida.

Let’s Get On The Road

Early Friday morning, January 8th, 2021 I picked Fred up from his house at about 7:00 am and we began our road trip up north into Pennslyvania from Maryland. Cold, damp, and boring was the drive. We did however talk about all the bike trips we want to go on next year.

The seller wasn’t able to meet us until Saturday morning so after we checked into a hotel that looked out over lake Erie. After that, we headed to the closest Irish pub we could find for food and drinks. There’s always an Irish pub, and we hunt them down like we’re tracking a wild animal.

Had a few drinks, a bowl of Irish Onion soup made with Guniess, and an order of fish & chips. Quit a tasty dinner. We sat near the fireplace but I didn’t snap a picture of that. Anyway, after dinner, we toured the area and went out on the cape on the lake.

Let’s Go See The Bike

Saturday morning January 9th, we check out and head towards the bike. It was about an hour away and I was beginning to get excited. I stared at the pics on my phone long enough and was ready to see the bike in person.

We made it, and after I finished drooling all over the bike I realized that I wasn’t feeling up to a test ride. I still hadn’t ridden since surgery in November and had a limited range of motion in my neck. It will increase soon. Anyway, I’m glad to have Fred along with me and he did the test ride. All was well on the test ride.

By the way, the previous owner had recently moved back from Colorado, this was his mountain exploration steed. Was definitely used and trail ridden and that’s perfect because I’m going to do the same with it.

Once he came back and we looked over the bike and the extra parts that we included I made the deal and we exchanged money, signed papers, and loaded up for the ride home. I was a happy boy and had some work ahead of me as I expected to repaint the fuel tank, fenders, and some other parts. The tank is poly and the paintwork was bubbling up. Looks absolutely terrible however it’s easy to fix, paint it!

Loaded Up, Let’s Go Home

On the way home, getting hungry we had to stop for lunch. Guess what we found? You’re right! It was a brewery.

Cute town in the middle of what I like to call nowhere and we sniff out the best places to visit. The Brew Bank Brewing Company. That little town it was in is Ridgway, Pennslyvania.

Like all stories, the trip was about to end. I dropped Fred off at home and that is where I headed next. One more hour to go and I’m home.

It was a long 2 days, I unloaded the bike and the following week it was disassembled and the cleaning and paintwork process began. Special thanks to my friend Pete for the paintwork. This next picture is the 90% finished project.

Time to ride, next was the first in a series of what I like to call shakedown rides. Testing for handling, performance, reliability, and lose bolts, haha. In my case it was a sticky front caliper that I found, it needed to be cleaned and rebuilt. Pretty simple and now the bike is ready for its first adventure.

Where shall we go first?

Final Thoughts

Being in COVID / pandemic times, motorcycling has become increasingly popular and the prices of used bikes have gone up. There are shortages of new bikes at dealers and while I’m happy to see motorcycling on the rise I’m not a fan of paying inflated prices.

I’m very happy with my purchase, I paid $2900 USD for the bike with several boxes of parts, extra seats, and BMW model-specific tools. After sorting I was able to sell off what I wouldn’t need and now I’d say after painting that my total cost is approximately $3300.00. That’s a price that makes me happy.

This is a lot of bike for that price. It would be hard to beat it.