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FEBRUARY 2022
Hire Ground Cindy Bennett, Member #4170
M
y recent hire in Tassie of an R1200GS low suspension confirmed for me the benefits of a few solid days riding around on a bike to see if it is the one for you.
THE LAST WORD When we went on our first overseas riding trip to Chile and Argentina in 2015 the hire bikes were F700GS’s and I was so impressed that I came home and immediately traded in my G650GS to a low suspension 700GS (Blue Betty that I ended up riding down Africa).
I had test ridden a low 1200GS a couple of years back when I was in the market for my second 700GS. With the pressure of a supervised ride going a short distance through heavy traffic I dismissed the 1200 as a bike that was just too big and complex for little old me! Fast forward to December 2021 when having a little more confidence in my riding ability and being quite comfortable on a higher bike and now a heavier one (with my 1200 cruiser) I was ready to take the plunge into hiring a 2013 R1200GS for the 3 days we rode around doing A windscreen would have been nice! day trips from Hobart. The flexibility of hiring bikes is something that started in 2014 when I flew to Sydney and rather than hire a car to travel the couple of hours south to visit son Tim in Nowra – I hired a Yamaha 650 V-Star cruiser from Bike Round Oz. The trip down to Nowra was fun on this cruiser and it gave me a chance to ride this style of bike that was new and exciting to me at the time.
A hire Triumph Bonneville in New Zealand seemed like a fine idea until it started getting scary cold and the lack of heated grips and a windscreen saw some suffering which entailed buying ski gloves to wear over the bike gloves! The F700GS in Chile, a love affair begins....
