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So I took the 850 on a 700-mile two-day ride along Hwy 20 in Washington, the Cascade Highway, and down through the central part of the state along Hwy 21, past Coulee Dam and into Ellensburg before flying over the Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 and heading home.
Three buddies from work went with me – one rode a Ducati ST3 sport tourer, another guy rode a V-strom 650 and the third was riding one of those new BMW 1200s touring models with all the bells and whistles.
BMW turned back after less than 100 miles because of the smoke from forest fires near Winthrop and Twisp on Hwy 20. So for most of the ride, it was just three of us.
Now, I know from this forum that my bike isn’t even CLOSE to being as pretty as a lot of the bikes others own. Here it is at the Molson ghost town.
But for some reason, on this road trip, I got a lot of comments on the bike.
In Marblemount on the Cascade Hwy an older gent saw the GS and began chatting – 70 years old and owns a 1983 GS 1100E – and several other bikes. He loved all the bikes. Well, he did cringe any time a Harley rode past. His wife was there, pleading with him to quit chatting because they'd already been driving awhile. But he hung out with us for a good 20 minutes. Said he'd done PR photography for Suzuki back in the day and had some great stories to share.
We continued our ride to a campground in Oroville near the border with Canada. The next morning, we’re packing up. The park’s mostly asleep. A guy with a dog stops by. Sees the GS. Turns out his dad had owned a GS750, 1982 I think, fitted out to pull a trailer. And he still had the trailer. He was having trouble with the bike and had never heard of the GS Resources. I jotted down the site name and a couple of my favorite sites for parts and we talked GS bikes.
Late in our ride, we were back on Highway 20 after an ugly attempt at a road covered in loose gravel - and were on a great stretch between Tonasket and Republic when a yellow Ducati and a green BMW sport tourer went flying past us. We ran into them in Republic at a little market and, of course, we began talking bikes. The guy on the Ducati ST3, a gentlemen of senior years, was chatting with my Ducati-riding friend. I was messing with a broken tachometer cable which broke about 400 miles into our trip.
Anyway, I started to walk inside for a bite to eat and he stops me – I can’t recall if he owned a GS or had owned one. But we ended up talking GS bikes. Again.
Outside of Coulee Dam a young guy walks right past the V-strom and the Ducati. He wants to ask me about my bike. Turns out he had just picked up a mid-70s BMW and was wondering what sort of work went into maintaining an older bike. Especially to the point where you can put some real miles on it like I was doing.
In Ellensburg, we stopped at a gas station and began talking with two guys who had taken a week riding from Vancouver B.C. down to Eugene, Ore., and were making their way slowly back home. One was riding a Triumph sport touring bike, an 1100, I think, and the other had a Suzuki sportbike. It wasn’t a GSX or a Hayabusa, but I don’t know my sportbikes all that well so I can’t recall what it was. But it looked fast as hell.
Again, I figured they just wanted to talk to my buddy with the Ducati. And they did, but when I tried to step away, the guy with the Triumph stopped me. He wanted to talk about the GS!
My friend finally said – “Everywhere we stop, people want to talk to you about your bike! Look, just take a picture of it, autograph it, and just start handing those out.”
But my favorite reaction of all came early Saturday morning when we were gassing up in Oroville after breakfast. My bike was loaded with gear sitting on its center stand.
A guy comes walking out of the station with a little boy about 10. The kid looks at my bike, points, and says to his dad,
“Wow. I’ve never seen a bike that looks like that before!”
Priceless.
Three buddies from work went with me – one rode a Ducati ST3 sport tourer, another guy rode a V-strom 650 and the third was riding one of those new BMW 1200s touring models with all the bells and whistles.
BMW turned back after less than 100 miles because of the smoke from forest fires near Winthrop and Twisp on Hwy 20. So for most of the ride, it was just three of us.
Now, I know from this forum that my bike isn’t even CLOSE to being as pretty as a lot of the bikes others own. Here it is at the Molson ghost town.
But for some reason, on this road trip, I got a lot of comments on the bike.
In Marblemount on the Cascade Hwy an older gent saw the GS and began chatting – 70 years old and owns a 1983 GS 1100E – and several other bikes. He loved all the bikes. Well, he did cringe any time a Harley rode past. His wife was there, pleading with him to quit chatting because they'd already been driving awhile. But he hung out with us for a good 20 minutes. Said he'd done PR photography for Suzuki back in the day and had some great stories to share.
We continued our ride to a campground in Oroville near the border with Canada. The next morning, we’re packing up. The park’s mostly asleep. A guy with a dog stops by. Sees the GS. Turns out his dad had owned a GS750, 1982 I think, fitted out to pull a trailer. And he still had the trailer. He was having trouble with the bike and had never heard of the GS Resources. I jotted down the site name and a couple of my favorite sites for parts and we talked GS bikes.
Late in our ride, we were back on Highway 20 after an ugly attempt at a road covered in loose gravel - and were on a great stretch between Tonasket and Republic when a yellow Ducati and a green BMW sport tourer went flying past us. We ran into them in Republic at a little market and, of course, we began talking bikes. The guy on the Ducati ST3, a gentlemen of senior years, was chatting with my Ducati-riding friend. I was messing with a broken tachometer cable which broke about 400 miles into our trip.
Anyway, I started to walk inside for a bite to eat and he stops me – I can’t recall if he owned a GS or had owned one. But we ended up talking GS bikes. Again.
Outside of Coulee Dam a young guy walks right past the V-strom and the Ducati. He wants to ask me about my bike. Turns out he had just picked up a mid-70s BMW and was wondering what sort of work went into maintaining an older bike. Especially to the point where you can put some real miles on it like I was doing.
In Ellensburg, we stopped at a gas station and began talking with two guys who had taken a week riding from Vancouver B.C. down to Eugene, Ore., and were making their way slowly back home. One was riding a Triumph sport touring bike, an 1100, I think, and the other had a Suzuki sportbike. It wasn’t a GSX or a Hayabusa, but I don’t know my sportbikes all that well so I can’t recall what it was. But it looked fast as hell.
Again, I figured they just wanted to talk to my buddy with the Ducati. And they did, but when I tried to step away, the guy with the Triumph stopped me. He wanted to talk about the GS!
My friend finally said – “Everywhere we stop, people want to talk to you about your bike! Look, just take a picture of it, autograph it, and just start handing those out.”
But my favorite reaction of all came early Saturday morning when we were gassing up in Oroville after breakfast. My bike was loaded with gear sitting on its center stand.
A guy comes walking out of the station with a little boy about 10. The kid looks at my bike, points, and says to his dad,
“Wow. I’ve never seen a bike that looks like that before!”
Priceless.
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