Well, here I am, sitting in the garden with the laptop on my knees, enjoying a relaxed evening, probably the last one in the next three weeks when I will be aboard the plane back to Europe. Tomorrow I will be riding to Paris where I will drop off the BMW before I will fly to Toronto on Wednesday. The weather will be good, but I still will have to clean the bike before I present it at the customs and warehouse: no muck allowed.
I have packed everything and the bike is waiting in the garage to be mounted. I will put an extra bag on top of the auxiliary tank that I will have to carry to the rally hotel; it contains some extra luggage like clothes that I will need before and after the rally.
By looking at the pictures I realize that this is the most serious motorbike I have ever taken to an Iron Butt Rally. The XBR 500 and the ST1100 were iconic bikes that gave me a lot of attention, but they were not really “competitive”. This bike and its predecessor have demonstrated that the K1600GT is a very serious motorbike for long-distance rallying. It consider it a “Flying Fortress” as it covers many miles so effortlessly and makes you always feel in control, even under bad weather conditions. A machine. Comfy, but with a lot of character, if needed. And the farkles attached to it make long distances a lot shorter. In the end, I have decided against two modifications: highway pegs and a radar detector. The pegs are difficult to mount and not really needed as I have now lowered foot pegs. Most American riders have radar detectors that are legal in the US; during my trips in America I had never been stopped so why now. And maybe I’ll get away with a warning 🥳. Fixing an electronic device last minute without proper testing is simply asking for stress and problems, so it’s a ‘no’.
So what are the modifications of the ‘Flying Fortress’?
- Russell Day-Long seat for a pain-free bottom
- Clearwater Erica LED auxiliary lights turning night into day with 15000 lumen
- Auxiliary tank with about 11 liters of extra fuel, the smaller version to be under the lower American fuel limit
- Wunderlich Crash bars
- Wunderlich grip protectors
- Samsung Galaxy Active 3, rugged and watertight, permits real-time navigation and online internet
- Garmin Zumo XT GPS
- BMW Navigator V GPS
- Wunderlich lowered foot pegs
- SW Motech tank bag
- Quad Lock mobile phone holder with inductive charging
- Optimale USB Charger with 3A output
- SPOT GPS tracker
That’s it. Pretty modest, actually. At least in comparison with other American riders. But you know, they say ‘less is more’ 😚.
Paris, je viens!
Hutzlmandl On Tour 
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