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I've been home since Friday night. I've unpacked and cleaned the BMW GS 1250.

When I returned from riding my Vincent to the Arctic circle in 2008 I was able to list all the repairs I had done along the way and what needed to be done now that I was home. I could say with reasonable confidence that the Vincent had returned 55 miles per gallon and had used half a litre of oil and a can of chain spray. Back then I traveled with my friend Graham who had a new BMW 800. We both set off trips to zero at the start and when we checked in northern Sweden they where 1 mile different from eachother so of course I said Graham's must be wrong.

Riding the BMW a longer distance from UK to Malta to Latvia to Sweden then back to UK is a different story. It has a bigger engine and I went a bit faster than I did on the Vincent. The BMW returned 60.1mpg. it used no oil and nothing at all needed adjusting. I had set the trip to zero before I started and it says I've traveled 5170 miles and was riding for 113 hours. I counted 15 countries visited.

My next trip may well be back on an old motorcycle. Riding my Velocette Venom to Malta. Either in autumn or next spring.

I'll attach pictures from the Vincent trip and one of the Velo which is ready to go and one of the BMW in Malta.Read more