With a fistful of insurance money for my stolen XT600 and a clean and tidy CB1300 I did a straight exchange at the Cardiff BMW dealer for a second hand low milage silver R1150 GSA… remember all this before “Long Way Round” was a thing. There is no need to introduce the GSA to you, everyone knows what BMW’s ground-breaking adventure bike is and how it has changed the two-wheeled world. My 2002 GSA was more of an evolution rather then than a revolution (that happened in 2004 with the R1200GS), the R1150GS is a belt-and-braces kind of bike that is pleasingly analogue (no CAN-bus here) and all the better for it. Rugged and reliable… mine has done just under 200,000 miles and is in the workshop, under a cover, loved and cherished but longer my daily ride. So many happy, exciting and fantastically happy memories from years and years of trips on this bike. She has been super gelable apart from the ABS servo needing to be replaced at around 75,000, too many tyres to count, 3 clutches, many many sets of rear pads (if you know you know). I love her. I had another – black and yellow super low milage but sold that to a guy in Portugal – she is also still going strong.