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Riding large, Ducati run and CBX
Six
Sunday shed wrap
March 22, 2026 – Guy 'Guido'
Allen
One thing we're not short of in the shed at Chateau Guido
is large touring bikes. I'm including the BMW R1150GS
above – even if I mostly use it as a commuter and shopping
cart. Next to it is the Honda
Valkryrie Interstate, a true heavyweight touring
cruiser.
And then there is
the K1200LT above – a pukka heavy tourer with more
gadgetry than either of the two bikes we just mentioned.
Why talk about this? All of them are 1999-2001 models,
essentially the same generation.
Back then, the respective retail prices were: Au$20,000
for the R1150GS, Au$27,000 for the Valkyrie and Au$32,000
for the K1200LT.
This lot has recently got my attention for their
respective workshop and running costs. Both BMWs have
needed rear main seal and clutch replacements, plus rear
drive rebuilds in recent times.
The Honda? I recently replaced the rear shocks with a set
of locally-sourced
Ikons and they're performing well.
Here is the frustrating aspect: both BMWs are brilliant
at what they do. But they reach a time- rather than
mileage-based milestone where you have to make some
expensive repairs. Not so with the Honda and, dare I say,
its 1975-on Gold Wing
predecessors. The engineering and construction were
superior.
BM Motorcycles in Melbourne,
Australia, has been my go-to place to sort the Germans,
with good reason.
One of the other recent projects was to tackle the 1985 Ducati MHR Mille, which
had a couple of little issues. One of them was when you
hit the starter the motor couldn't quite get the engine to
play. We even got wisps of smoke from under a sidecover.
Not good.
It was an excuse to finally pull off the tank, seat and
sidecovers and get to know the machine a little better. In
the end, we did the basics: siphon out and replace the
probably ageing fuel, then clean the sparkplugs. We also
replaced the original and by now deteriorated battery
earth strap, plus the battery itself with something that
had decent grunt.
Of course it then fired up instantly and ran beautifully
when we took it for a quick blast, as it should given it
is a low-mile example.
Our next mission is to replace the weird aftermarket
handlebars and the indicators. The latter are a cheap
replacement, most likely done because the originals fell
apart (as they do). We have since sourced a replica set.
To finish off the week, we had our lovely 1982 Honda
CBX1000C delivered back home after a brief absence, with
the help of Ric D'Alanno (aka
your_moving_guy on Instagram). We can recommend his
services.
See the feature
and video on this bike
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