What have I/we done?

 Let's start off with a confession. 

I have too many motorbikes. You can only ride on at a time and, often, poor weather or the demands of my life get in the way of riding. However, I have never let these stop me and my current collection comprises my old CBR 600, the little Enfield Trials bike, the Moto Guzzi and my BMW R nineT. I am very fond of each and every one of them, but, if I continue this confession, I don't ride them that often.

When I do ride it is a delight and I keep promising myself that I will get out on my bikes more frequently. In April last year I joined TP and a couple of his mates for a mini motorcycle tour of Wales and had a lovely time ... despite the rain! They are keen to do more touring and, strangely, seem quite happy to have me tag along. My little Guzzi is a reasonable tourer, but I have really fancied something a little more capable since being bitten by the touring bug.

I love the grunt of the R nineT, but it is no tourer. Fitting luggage on it would be a challenge and the very thin seat rapidly becomes a pain in the arse. It has a beautiful boxer engine, so I started to look at what else BMW has in its model range. My eye's beheld the R1250R and that was it.

It has a similar, but more powerful engine than the R nineT. It is a roadster that looks good, handles well and it is capable of being fitted with luggage. It also has a relatively low seat height, which is a must for my hobbit like dimension. It really would be ideal for me.

I tried one for size at the Motorcycle Live show last November and even attempted to arrange a test ride, but, after being let down by the Warwick BMW Motorrad dealership I gave up and perused the on-line advertisements.

I found a nice looking machine up in Cheshire and bookmarked the ad. Unfortunately it sold over the Christmas holiday period and I was back to on-line shopping wishing. 

Yesterday I found a beautiful looking machine with an almost perfect specification* at BMW Motorrad in Cheltenham. It was the right colour. It was a pre-registered machine with only five miles on the odometer. It was expensive, but massively discounted compared to a new, unregistered machine and it was only thirty miles down the road.

30% suggested that we should go and see it tomorrow ... What has she done?

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* It only lacks side cases ... and I'm certain I can pick those up for less than BMW's stratospheric accessory pricing!