u/Ancient_Sandwich_703

I’m looking at two bikes.

I live near Christchurch in New Zealand, where both Ducati and BMW can be serviced.

Buying new, average 16,000 kms a year and ride all year round. I don’t plan on ever going truly off road, but we have a lot of roads that are maintained gravel only yet are part of the highway network so travelling those from time to time is inevitable.

Either going for GS1300 Adventure or Multistrada V4S Rally.

They’re quite different bikes although they share a key item for me, which is the 30 litre tank.

Initially, I discounted the Ducati as I didn’t really want to be mucking about with chain maintenance. I hate chain maintenance - life is too short! 🤣

Then a friend told me about Ta-c chains, which would make living with a chain drive bearable.

Has anyone here moved (either way) and if so, do you have any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks.

My local dealer (more on that later) has a new 2023 MY Tourismo Veloce Lusso sitting on their floor.

Every time I go to the dealer, I feel it calling to me. I have sat on it and it’s fractionally taller than I’d like but only a smidge.

The riding position feels perfect, with the bars being spot on height and reach wise.

I checked with MVA and they confirmed it would have a 4 year warranty.

The dealer isn’t going to sell MVA once stock goes but they say they will continue to offer service and repair facilities.

The bike probably wouldn’t be perfect for NZ rural roads that can include gravel sections and so on. The lack of dealer network (only one in the entire South Island)

But Lord it makes me want to buy it.

Heart says yes. Head says run away.

Which is correct?!

I have a YT account. Never used it much. Did use it for a while to host a video embedded in a website for a business I’ve now wound up.

I’d like to create a new channel for content for a new business. Different name for the channel but my account managing it.

I thought this would be pretty easy to do in the modern world - kind of “click add channel - name channel - save”!

Apparently not. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do this very simple thing. I googled it of course but none of the solutions I found seemed to refer to what I was seeing in the settings.

Please save me from my own stupidity.

I see a lot of posts praising the Wing for use on interstates etc.

I live in New Zealand and we have exactly zero interstates and almost zero motorways ( none of which are intercity).

The vast majority of our roads are one lane in each direction, sometimes with dual lane sections for passing. They’re not the best made roads by any means and the surfaces can be uneven, potholed etc

Every time I look at a GW Tour I have an itch! If it was a car, it’s exactly the sort of thing that I’d like: adequately powerful, comfortable and reliable. I get a similar itch looking at a BMW K1600 GTL.

New Zealand isn’t large enough to worry about vast distances on multi lane highways that don’t exist. Going from one end to the other would be slow going (max speed limit is 100 kmh) so I see the GW or K1600 more as comfortable seats from which to enjoy the scenery.

For several years we had a Can Am Spyder RT Limited, which might be described as a three wheeled Wing in many respects. We had great fun on that.

I also just enjoy going for a ride; I’m semi retired so I’ve plenty of time to just go out and bimble around for an hour or two a few times a week. Sometimes I do shopping but my bike doesn’t have much carrying space so there’s a limit.

Is a GW any good for this sort of thing or is it just for massive highway miles?

I’m heading up to visit my wife in August who is working away from home at the moment.

There’s a proper BMW Motorrad dealer in Wellington so I’m planning on spending some time there looking at what they have on the floor, sitting on it and generally geeking out.

Thanks to both my research and helpful folks hereabouts, I’m planning to order a GS Adventure for delivery in June next year.

With a relatively short inside leg, unless practical experience proves otherwise, I expect to be ordering AVHC Comfort, possibly combined with a low seat.

My inside leg is 29.5. I want to be able to comfortably flat foot the bike, most especially when laden with luggage and/or Doris on the back.

The models here in NZ differ slightly from other markets.

Basically, we get the red version, the Trophy version, Triple Black and Option 719 Karakoram.

Then you can add Comfort/Touring/Innovation packs, ASA or AGP, then the usual equipment list.

The system irritatingly limits what can be added to what. For example, it won’t let you add the Option 719 parts to any other model, if you select The Karakoram you can’t add the fancy petrol tank and so on.

I am down to Triple Black with Gold wheels or Option 719. Both with AVHC Comfort and ASA.

Until I see the dealer, I can’t get accurate pricing as BMW chooses to hide that for some reason. A new 719 with standard AVHC and standard quickshifter manual box is NZ$54,500 though as they have one on the floor.

Is there any benefit to choosing TB over 719 or vice versa? Or does it literally come down to what you like the look of most?

This is one of those questions when you think you probably know the answer but there’s a small voice telling you to consult strangers on the internet…just in case.

In about 10 months I’ll be ordering a new BMW.

I live in New Zealand, on the South Island (the Mainland as it is known locally!). We have unique roads here in NZ. There’s no intercity motorway network at all and only a few small stretches of motorways that aren’t usually given a limit any higher than anywhere else, which is 100 kmh.

We also have 44,000 kilometres of maintained gravel roads (many of which are on the Mainland) that are legally part of the road system rather than just tracks.

I think a GSA is the ideal bike. Fuel stations can be far apart in rural NZ, the surface roads are often wavy, ridged, potholes, badly patched etc etc.

There’s one area that Doris isn’t keen on and that is the passenger accommodation. She doesn’t come out much but I spoiled her by riding a Can Am Spyder RTL for a while whilst recovering from a medical issue. It’s like an RT but with 3 wheels really.

She’s sat on a new RT 1300 and a K1600 GTL in the dealer and pronounced their passenger accommodation to be preferable to the back of a GSA.

If this was Europe or the USA, I might agree with her because they have endless miles of great roads that those bikes will eat for days on end.

However I’m far from convinced that they would enjoy a diet of NZ roads but I don’t want a grumpy Doris on the back telling me that the other bikes would have been better….!

So, interested in thoughts.

(Note that the gravel roads aren’t rough forestry tracks, they’re graded and repaired. Nevertheless, they get washboard sections, wheel ruts etc etc in between grading. )

I’m compiling a shortlist of bikes for my next ride.

One that caught my eye was the Tracer 9 GT+.

However. I live on the South Island of New Zealand. Our roads aren’t much like the smoothly paved European motorways at all. In fact, we barely possess any motorways and the handful of kilometres of road that are designated as motorways aren’t really any such thing - the speed limit is just the same as any other national speed limit road, 100kmh. That’s 62mph.

Most roads here are one lane on each direction, curvy, bumpy, often sprinkled with kitty litter and other debris etc etc.

In addition we have 40,000km of unsealed roads that are part of the highways network. They are gravel and usually get a grader driven over them once a year.

You can easily get from town to town etc without going on them but sometimes they’re either unavoidable or you just feel like it.

They aren’t challenging off road routes: there the same as roads but without a hard pavement surface.

How realistic would it be to run a Tracer 9 GT+ with something like Continental TKC 70 tyres?

Would it ruin the bike, be dangerous etc?

I’d probably also consider the Super Tenere but they’ve either stopped producing it or they no longer bring it here.

My iPhone is on borrowed time.

The last four or six weeks, I am getting forced to sign in to this, verify that, sign in again, answer these questions etc etc on an almost daily basis.

It knows what I look like. It can scan my face and does so many times a day. It’s really driving me potty.

The security questions are the worst because they were set so long ago that I simply cannot recall the correct verbatim answer. For example, one is ‘Where were you on 1 Jan 2000”.

I was at my parents house. But. Was the answer ‘at my parents house’ , was it ‘the town they live in’, was it ‘the name of their house’?! All of which are possible correct answers to the question.

I swear I’ll be buying a Samsung phone if this goes on too much longer.

I’m probably going to buy some form of GS in the next 18 months.

In English but live in New Zealand permanently now.

When I lived in the UK, I met quite a few riders who had ordered their bikes, collected them in Germany, done a tour around Europe and come home on the ferry.

I’m wondering whether I might do something similar ie go to Germany, collect bike, tour Europe, visit parents and friends in UK then arrange the shipping of the bike back to New Zealand.

We of course are slightly marooned in terms of riding overseas via a short ferry journey, so I thought it might be a way to kill two birds with one stone.

Has anyone done anything similar? It’s it still possible to collect in Germany? Does warranty work overseas for what would be a German bike?

I’m going to be buying my first unrestricted bike next year.

For context, I took up riding at the age of 57. I realised it was now or never and since I’m very aware that life is short, I decided to get on with it whilst I still could.

Currently I’m riding Triumph Tiger 660. Its height was a little challenging as a first bike but a year on and I’m confident on it.

I had intended to get either an Africa Twin Adventure Sport or some version of the GS. If the AT had shaft drive, the GS probably wouldn’t get on the list.

Then I was in the dealer waiting for a service and they had a Stelvio on the floor. I liked it and climbed on. It’s a little tall for me (I’m 5ft 11” but my inside leg is between 29” and 30”).

Then I saw a V85 and sat on that. Better.

Then I saw a review of the V85 Travel in that gorgeous bronze/red colour.

It might be my ideal bike. I’ve no interest in scraping knees on the road and the speed limit in New Zealand is only 100kmh anyway.

I want something with all day comfort, low down pull and - importantly - the ability to ride mixed surfaces.

Here in NZ we have a lot of country roads that are part of the highway network but are only gravel surfaces. Even or hard surface roads outside urban areas tend to be uneven, bumpy and have holes in. L

A pure road bike built for the European motorways network or American interstates wouldn’t suit our environment very well.

The ability to confidently negotiate the stretches of gravel when exploring NZ would be very useful.

The V85 Travel has me quite smitten. My wife will object, claiming it will be a highly strung Italian thoroughbred requiring endless coddling and dealer visits.

I don’t think the MG of today, with Piaggio behind it, is like that.

What do you think? There are main dealers for most bike brands within 30Km of home so that’s not a concern per se, although the Japanese bikes probably have a wider dealer network when travelling.

I’ve got an issue when I respond to emails. I can no longer read the text on the thread below where I’m writing the reply because I get black text on black.

I went to Dr Google for an answer and it said go to the Viewing section of iOS Mail and change to light mode.

There is no viewing section in 26.5 Mail.

Does anyone know where it is now?!

Way back in about 2004, I bought an iPod to take on a 7 month trip with my then girlfriend/now wife. We had no Apple stuff but iTunes worked on Windows for loading music etc.

We used her Hotmail address as the user name. I didn’t have an email account then.

Since then, we became an Apple household and have two personal Apple IDs set up as Family Sharing.

Periodically - and extremely irritatingly - iOS starts insisting on verification for no apparent reason.

This is causing issues because the Hotmail address originally used is well and truly defunct and cannot be accessed. Yet verification appears to require the system to send an email to the address.

It’s becoming some sort of doom loop that we can’t escape from.

Can anyone offer a way forward?

There’s tons of App Store stuff from the last 22 years so I don’t want to just bin it.

I have used Braun electric foil razors since I was about 18 (I’m 58). My father used them so that was just where I went too.

No problems with them aside from them being a bit noisy first thing in the morning 7 days a week!

Last year I started getting contact dermatitis and eventually discovered that Braun had stopped plating the nickel in the foils and it was the nickel causing an allergic reaction.

Switched to Phillips i9000 with the Bluetooth and so on. Took a couple of weeks to get used to using it every morning but once past that, great. Also no dermatitis! And much less noisy.

However, it’s not all beer and skittles: I find the ‘motor blocked’ message pops up with depressing regularity. I don’t honestly think that the cleaning system is very good at all.

I never had the issue once - or anything similar - with Braun in all the years I used that. My last one was the Series 9 Pro with the cleaning system. Clean as a whistle every time. Never blocked.

The i9000 shaves well - although it has so many modes for shaving it seems a bit pointless, especially since they do not really explain which mode suits what kind of beard, shaving frequency etc. each mode is for.

It feels a little like the i9000 was almost ready for release but not quite ready when they released it.

Interested inin other’s experiences.

We are quite fond of Chicken Cordon Bleu.

However, once easily found in supermarket freezers etc it’s completely vanished without trace here in NZ.

Does anyone know what happened?

I’m still trying to commit to some Persol - either the folding 714 or the 649. Probably.

I like the Havana colour frames and the colours that are relatively similar to it.

They often seem to have blue or blue gradient lenses in. I’ve never owned blue sunglasses and it seems to me to be a strange colour: I can’t imagine it greatly improving colour or contrast.

I’ll certainly wear whatever ones I buy when driving etc so I’m wondering if there’s any non-fashion related reason to buy blue lenses or whether they’re best avoided for actual use rather than fashion use.

Thoughts?