The Bet – Overland Motorcycling Pt 4

This is part 4 of our continuing series on our big offroad motorcycling wager. 
You can read part one here.

In the immortal words of the great philosophers of our time – shit just got real. Half way into our year long overland motorcycling competition and the kid gloves have come off. Where my opponent Gary and I originally planned weekend excursions, practiced, and even wrenched on our machines together, now there is frosty silence and secrecy. I can’t say that thoughts of sabotage have crossed either of our minds, but I can’t not say it either.

What brought us to this point of fierce competition was the mutual decision that our current bikes, while great for learning off-road and overland motorcycling, were insufficient for both The Bet and our shared commitment to tackle long distance trips after our little wager is settled. What Gerber Baby and I had was an enduro and dirk bike respectively. What we needed was full-bore adventure bikes.

This lust and need brought us both to each buying a clean example of the BMW 650GS Sertao for the rest of The Bet. The GS series of BMW adventure bikes is world renowned for their ability to go anywhere and conquer all continents – and their ubiquity means we can still likely get them serviced in the middle of wild Africa or India when we tackle those trips (next year!). The 650 is the best possible blend of high horsepower and on-road speed with (relatively) lightweight and off-road maneuverability. And the Sertao edition is when BMW offered a more off-road centric version of the 650GS. Lastly, we decided to get matching bikes because 1) it’s super cute to be twinners, 2) repairs and emergencies become easier to handle, and 3) identical bikes level the playing field and return The Bet to a contest of skill above all else. In other words, I anticipate whining from Gary (at all times) and I’m going to refuse him any possible ammunition that I can.

So just like the beginning of this whole stupid adventure, Gerb and I picked up our new bikes within a few days of each other – and immediately started planning modifications and additions. And because we are now in The Realness of hard competition, we are no longer sharing research and ideas about panniers, lighting systems, and riding gear choices. There is frosty silence as we change spark plugs or shop online for gear. This silence will continue until the obnoxious screams of celebration from one of us takes over in mid-August.

Click here for Part 5 and our trial run for LA-to-Vegas that is a total disaster...