New GS

The idea was to buy a used GS to ride and see if this was going to be something I would enjoy before I spent a ton of money on a new bike. Thus the 2004 1150 GS. After riding 12,000 miles I knew it was going to be something I was going to continue to do, so I had to have a plan to upgrade my ride. Riding 10 to 20 thousand miles a year puts a big restriction on the bike I can buy. A BMW can easily go over 100,000 miles but there is a significant amount of maintenance cost involved above 70 thousand miles as well as considering the resale value.

Even though I have decided to ride there are those who buy new bikes and only put a few thousand miles on them then decide they do not like riding and end up selling their bikes. Buying a used low milage GS is a huge savings over buying a new bike. I will be replacing my bike every three years or so If I ride 15 thousand miles a year. Selling a bike when it still has a long usable life will allow me to still get a good price. My market will be to buy a bike with 10 to 30 thousand miles on it and sell it when it gets close to 70 thousand miles.

The 1150 was having a few surging issues that I was working on, there is nothing like having mechanical issues to dampen your spirits when you are on a long trip. Having an intermittent issue becomes a guessing game as you just throw cash at the problem and hope for the best. After my September ride to Oregon I put the 1150 up for sale. The difference in price between a used bike with 50 thousand or 65 thousand miles is not much. I pretty much sold the 1150 for the same price I paid for her and was only out my maintenance cost.

I have found that there is a good rule of thumb for GS prices here in Utah, $2000 plus the year of the bike. A 2004 GS should sell for 6k, a 2007 sells for around 9k and a 2010 would be around 12k. The day I sold the 1150 I found a 2007 for 7k which is a great price. In addition to getting a good bike I have a friend that had wrecked his identical GS that said I could swap any parts that I needed. I swapped out a new set of tires, a throtle lock, bar risers, adventure pegs, and a touring seat. All in all I got a bike for 2 thousand under book and swapped out around 2 thousand in accessories. Cash out of pocket after selling the 2004 1150 was around $1200. Not bad!