I'm back! Son of Bob "Chaplain" John, new R1200RT!

Hello! I'm Kevin John, and I am the son of a former member here, Bob "Chaplain" John. I joined the forum a while ago, and I would lurk here from time to time while riding my 2001 F650GS Dakar and 2015 KTM Superduke 1290R. Well, I have traded both of those bikes in, and on Wednesday I will be the proud owner of a 2017 R1200RT .

I've included a picture of my bike below, and then my dad on his 1997 R1100RTL (assuming I know how to post pictures correctly, haha). I'll add more pictures to the thread when I pick it up on Wednesday, but I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm going to start training for long distance riding, and some day I hope to replicate my dad's Iron Butt 50cc ride. We'll see how it goes!

I already purchased an Aeroflow headlight cover, and I'm shopping for more farkles (crash bars and lights are on the list). Any suggestions are welcome! I'm glad to be part of the group here, and I'm based out of Lehi, Utah, so if you ever want to meet up for a ride, let me know!

Glad to have you here. Looking forward to more posts as you get the bike ready and start having some adventures!

Welcome back! Very nice but I'm curious, the sporty two-tone RT didn't do anything for you?

Pat

Welcome to the forums, lots of friendly, helpful people here.

And a few grumpy people.....

Welcome home.

Super duke is a hard act to follow, but the new RT shouldn't disappoint with good handling and enough giddiup to keep your interest. One piece to consider in how to wire up those farkles. Some folks go for the fused distribution block which is the most cost effective approach. Others have chosen the Clearwater Canopener and their dedicated accessory lighting which integrates well into the bikes electronic system. I went with the Hex EzCAN dongle as it integrates into the bikes system like the Clearwater canopener, while being very flexible on what gets attached to the four branch circuits. You choose what you want to attach and pricing is not as steep as the cleerwater system.

Like most accessorizing, cubic dollars help!

Welcome home.

Super duke is a hard act to follow, but the new RT shouldn't disappoint with good handling and enough giddiup to keep your interest. One piece to consider in how to wire up those farkles. Some folks go for the fused distribution block which is the most cost effective approach. Others have chosen the Clearwater Canopener and their dedicated accessory lighting which integrates well into the bikes electronic system. I went with the Hex EzCAN dongle as it integrates into the bikes system like the Clearwater canopener, while being very flexible on what gets attached to the four branch circuits. You choose what you want to attach and pricing is not as steep as the cleerwater system.

Like most accessorizing, cubic dollars help!

Welcome Back, Kevin! Looking forward to getting to know you! Please keep us posted on your progress.

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm typing this on my phone, so the response will be short for tonight, but I'm headed to the dealer to pick up the bike tomorrow, and I'll post more pics!

And yes, the Superduke was a wonderful bike, but the time for a touring bike has come. I don't expect Superduke power from the RT, but I have heard nothing brutal praises for it's handling.

As to the red sport model, it looked fun, but the white one just called to me

As to the red sport model, it looked fun, but the white one just called to me

Yup, when the bike speaks to you, it's a done deal!

Pat

Very nice bike indeed.

To the mods: Does google photos not allow hot linking of images on their site???

Well, I picked up the bike yesterday! On the ride home I needed to get used to the clutch (coming from the Superduke, I found I had to give it more throttle to get going than I was used to), but the bike handled wonderfully. Also, thanks to my white helmet, I noticed that many people got out of my way, and some slowed down, haha. I guess I should get used to that! Here are some pictures (which I really need to learn how to hot link!).

Seems you need to login to Google to see the second set of pics.

Pat

Oh that's annoying. Let me figure out a different hosting method, and I'll just hot link them here. Rookie mistake.

Posting pictures here is kind of a Rite Of Passage After a couple successful picture posts, it's like riding a bike - You'll still crash and burn a few more times.

Actually, the newer software update has helped with the linking of profile images, which had been more clunky that just posting pictures.

Let me figure out a different hosting method.

I, and a lot of others used Photobucket for many years until they went from zero dollars to $300 plus a year! Don't mind them making up for lost time but that's just ridiculous.

Pat