With the demise of my old R80RT, I decided to go for a bike that would likely need less attention - the problem with the old Airheads is that nowadays they often come without history, and that probably killed the R80.

A trip to the BMW dealer with 'RT' or 'GS' in mind - both upright-sitting touring machines - showed that all I could afford was an R1100RT. A test ride later I bought it.

What a change - ABS, heated grips plus hot air flow over the handgrips, electric screen, adjustable seat height, alarm with remote control, and whatnot. Still, I have the feeling I'm a bit detached from the road on this machine - I probably have to learn to love it. It's so thoroughly well-behaved, it could almost be a car....

Anyway, I'll keep you posted here of how I fare and how long I'll put up with the OEM exhaust system :-). For the time being my pimp-my-oildhead wishlist seems to be:

• Techlusion fuel injection recalibration kit;
• Staintune exhaust pipe, probably without the collector box b/c I'm more interested in sound than performance at the moment :-). </ul>