I meant to write this post while on my family vacation off the coast of Maine for the last 10 days. It was great to gather with family and let little cousins hang out with little cousins, fish off the dock, kayak around neighboring islands, but alas, it was a moto-less trip. On occasional forays into town from the island including two trips back and forth to the Portland airport, I saw lots of Harleys and cruiser-type bikes on the roads back there, but very few dualsport bikes save for an occasional big GS set up for road touring. It made me appreciate the terrain and open spaces we have in the west, particularly between Utah and the Pacific Coast. Great for the small to midsize dualsport bikes favored by our posse. But it also made me wonder what’s between here and the Eastern Coast.

Now I snap out of my digression, as this post was supposed to be about some recent farkles added to the new F800 GS. What’s a farkle? I’m not sure, it’s a word passed on by Hood River F800 GS-er Tom Lehman, but I’ll take a stab at my own definition: all the little expensive shit for your motorcycle that you spend hours researching on the internet, that you spend hours in your garage installing, but which is all necessary to make your bike uniquely your bike. And I’m not talking about buying every little piece of overpriced gear out of the BMW accessory catalog before you roll your bike away from whence it came. A lot of blokes do that, but it’s sort of generic. I’m talking about stuff you wish you had on that last weekend ride that would have served a purpose, even if the only purpose was to make the bike look more badass in your photos. Them is farkles. The first farkle to write about is a nifty little kickstand footprint sold by Touratech. I will refrain from commenting on the overpricedness of most Touratech stuff because if you are reading this you know. Thing is, they make good shit, they test it, and you have two choices in the case of many farkles for your F800 GS: either buy it from Touratech or go without it.

This kickstand footprint is a necessary farkle and if you choose to go without, you will know why you need it the first time you get off your bike in a grassy meadow and the bike falls over in Slo-Mo while the kickstand settles into the loamy earth. Installation is pretty easy, but I wish they would use hardware with slightly larger fasteners so it’s not like a finger puzzle to put together, and the bolts would not be as prone to stripping out. The allen key heads on the bottom are tiny, like 3mm. Who carries a 3mm on the road anyway? Silly.

Touratech Sidestand Extension, BMW F800 GS

A wet June kept many plans at bay for a proper summer moto trip, but our crew finally got one together in mid-July, starting from Park City, Utah, and venturing up into Wyoming and Idaho. I’m always a little scrambled when we do these trips, trying to get the gear ready for the agreed upon roll-out time. Darth always seems to have his stuff ready to go. This time was no different. With a rather new BMW F800 GS under me which was fresh off its 600 mile break-in service (had it done the morning of departure), my plan was to strap all my gear on the back of the bike in a dry bag. Get home from work, throw the gear in the bag, and strap it on the back. Which normally works fine, but isn’t nearly as convenient as packing all your stuff the night before in boxes. On our first dirt road out of Coalville, Utah, at the top of Chalk Creek Canyon, one of the straps let loose, and I had to stop and redo the whole thing. Would have been easier to take my time and do it right the first time, and would have been a lot easier to throw all my gear the night before into side-mounted boxes. Oh well. The debate will continue over costs vs. convenience, adding weight to the bike vs. keeping it as light and nimble as possible. You get clarity on these issues after a weekend away from civilization. I’ll probably get some boxes. Check out some of the photos below. More can be found on our Flickr page, as well as Darth’s Shutterfly. We welcomed two new members to the crew on this trip, and nearly had a third who was ready to go Thursday night before departure, but canceled early Friday morning. Maybe the photos below will give you guys a taste of why you need to make it on the next one!