Newcomer in Reading, Berkshire UK.

[Rocky rider]

Greetings one and all,

I have just bought a 2003 Rockster in Citrus with only 11000 miles and would like to introduce myself to the Forum.

I live in Reading and have been retired for some 7years now. I enjoy my motorbikes and have been riding for 54 years since my 16th. birthday. Had a few years away from bikes in the 60s when I learned to fly and got my PPL. Marriage in the early 1970s. and a new mortgage meant flying had to cease so I was back on a bike and have not been without one since. I now have the time to enjoy it more but as I have aged I try to stay dry so my riding is very much weather related. Sorry, why get wet when there are two cars in the drive?

I decided on a Rockster because I just fell in love with its appearance (takes all sorts) and I like bikes that are a bit different and rare. The Rockster replaces a beautiful R1200C Cruiser which I had for 9 months but just could not get to grips with the high bars and as I am not a mechanic I could not face the grief of changing them.

My other bike is a very rare 1989 Honda PC800 Pacific Coast with just 11000 miles covered in 25 years. I love these bikes and have owned seven of them over that last 20 years. As long as I can still ride a bike I will have this PC800 as it is probably the best example in the UK.

So far I am delighted with the Rockster and find it far more comfortable than the Cruiser. It is in mint condition and has heated grips and BMW luggage fitted. With every MOT since 2006 present and full BMW service history, it has obviously been loved and well cared for.

Standard seat was far too high for me so I had to get the lower seat option ( last one in BMW UK stock and not cheap) but it has made the ride much safer and more comfortable for me being a 'shorty'.
Now adding a screen for some protection - just ordered a Ztechnic as apparently it is designed specifically for the Rockster and I did not want a generic one size type of screen. Also plan to replace the pillion seat with the metal cover which I have just found on eBay.

The bike I really wanted was the white Edition 80 as I love white bikes and that model does look fantastic. I am told that only a handful came into the UK, so rather than wait for one to appear I have gone for the green/black. Would still buy an Edition 80 if I find one so if anyone has one to sell or hears of one for sale, please let me know.

Hope to meet up with some of you Rockster pilots soon. Anyone in the Reading area fancy a breakfast ride out just let me know. Got to be a dry day though!

[riceburner]

Greetings one and all,

I have just bought a 2003 Rockster in Citrus with only 11000 miles and would like to introduce myself to the Forum.

I live in Reading and have been retired for some 7years now. I enjoy my motorbikes and have been riding for 54 years since my 16th. birthday. Had a few years away from bikes in the 60s when I learned to fly and got my PPL. Marriage in the early 1970s. and a new mortgage meant flying had to cease so I was back on a bike and have not been without one since. I now have the time to enjoy it more but as I have aged I try to stay dry so my riding is very much weather related. Sorry, why get wet when there are two cars in the drive?

I decided on a Rockster because I just fell in love with its appearance (takes all sorts) and I like bikes that are a bit different and rare. The Rockster replaces a beautiful R1200C Cruiser which I had for 9 months but just could not get to grips with the high bars and as I am not a mechanic I could not face the grief of changing them.

My other bike is a very rare 1989 Honda PC800 Pacific Coast with just 11000 miles covered in 25 years. I love these bikes and have owned seven of them over that last 20 years. As long as I can still ride a bike I will have this PC800 as it is probably the best example in the UK.

So far I am delighted with the Rockster and find it far more comfortable than the Cruiser. It is in mint condition and has heated grips and BMW luggage fitted. With every MOT since 2006 present and full BMW service history, it has obviously been loved and well cared for.

Standard seat was far too high for me so I had to get the lower seat option ( last one in BMW UK stock and not cheap) but it has made the ride much safer and more comfortable for me being a 'shorty'.
Now adding a screen for some protection - just ordered a Ztechnic as apparently it is designed specifically for the Rockster and I did not want a generic one size type of screen. Also plan to replace the pillion seat with the metal cover which I have just found on eBay.

The bike I really wanted was the white Edition 80 as I love white bikes and that model does look fantastic. I am told that only a handful came into the UK, so rather than wait for one to appear I have gone for the green/black. Would still buy an Edition 80 if I find one so if anyone has one to sell or hears of one for sale, please let me know.

Hope to meet up with some of you Rockster pilots soon. Anyone in the Reading area fancy a breakfast ride out just let me know. Got to be a dry day though!

Howdo!

I'm based in Guildford, so not that far from you. Congrats on the purchase!

First thing - have you checked that the electrical wires around the headstock are still cable-tied to the headstock area? If so - CUT THOSE CABLE-TIES! They're too restrictive and can lead to cut wires (happened to me on my bike even though I cut the cables at 1200 miles when I bought it).

BTW - that pillion seat plate is plastic - just didn't want you to be disappointed when it turned up. (I still have 2 spares!)

[Andrew s]

Welcome to the forum, any photos?

[Rocky rider]

Thanks for your input Riceburner, I will check out that wiring to see how tight it is. Good advice though, thanks. The pillion replacement is just something that I like the look of, plastic or metal does not matter but thanks for pointing it out. The BMW price was well in excess of £100 so I am glad I got one off eBay for £50!!

As regards the pics Andrew s, I will upload some as soon as I have worked out how to do it. Might need some advice with this.

Cheers.

[Matt]

Hello, I am not too far from you in Egham and up for a meet.

[Rocky rider]

Hi Matt, sounds like a plan.

I will PM you later.

[riceburner]

Anyone up for RockTheBox* round 2?



I'm busy this weekend but it'd be fun to see if we can get a good number of Rocksters together again.



* Rocksters at Boxhill

[Rocky rider]

What date?? 15th??

Can't make that one as it is Fathers Day and I am being taken out.

[riceburner]

What date?? 15th??

Can't make that one as it is Fathers Day and I am being taken out.

As I said - this weekend is no good for me either! 21 or 22 might be a good one.

Any more?

[herrstedt]

Hi Rocky Rider

Im from Denmark ( motorcycles are very expensive here )

I am a lucky new owner of the 80 anniversary with only 5700 km on the clock. Sold my Triumph Scrambler to get it.

Hope to keep it a long time.

[img][img]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5519/14212097279_0bb8263b8b_m.jpg[/img]IMG_0085.jpg by HrStedt, on Flickr[/img]

[Rocky rider]

That is a fabulous looking bike and just what I was looking for in the UK.

If you get fed up with it you have a buyer here!!

Enjoy it and ride safe.

[herrstedt]

Thanks Rocky rider. Would have bought in citrus or orange as well - great colors , but of course the 80 is special and I was lucky . Been looking for a r1200r for a while, but they are to expensive, and to be honest I think I will have more fun with this one at half the price.

By the way - are You able to view the photo I have placed ?. Im not seeing it myself.

[Rocky rider]

I am certainly getting more fun from my Rockster than the R1200C.

Just added a Ztechnic screen today and it seems to have improved the comfort level quite a bit. Very easy to fit as well.

I can see your picture herrstedt, the link worked for me.

I am trying to work out how to upload a picture.

[riceburner]

Hi Rocky Rider

Im from Denmark ( motorcycles are very expensive here )

I am a lucky new owner of the 80 anniversary with only 5700 km on the clock. Sold my Triumph Scrambler to get it.

Hope to keep it a long time.

IMG_0085.jpg by HrStedt, on Flickr

Fixed the image for you.

[herrstedt]

Thanks Riceburner

Don't know what I'm doing wrong

[sykospain]

I'm another newcomer based in Spain but holidaying this summer in Saddleworth, Gtr. Manchester, in my 'other' home and enjoying the unseasonably sunny and warm weather here.

A month ago I bought a 2004 non-ABS Rockster from a Welshman - sight-unseen from an eBay page in Spain apart from the guy's excellent crisp 4-minute YouTube video of the bike - and luckily it's turned out to be the VERY BEST Beemer I've ever owned:- 15 of 'em consecutively over a period 30 years, including several 4-valve boxers culminating in a yellow R1100S ABS which I took to Spain when we moved there 14 years ago, and foolishly shortly afterward traded in for an insultingly low but typically-Spanish-dealer price for a charming 2006 twinspark F650 belt-drive Scarver, which I love.

"Never should've sold that bike" is on often-heard biker comment, but now with the 10-yr old Rockster I have absolutely all the qualities of the modern R bikes without the tight knee-bend plus weight-on-wrists riding position of the S model and with the modified up-n-back bar mod on the Rockster, a much more comfy Roadster driving position. Having fallen inlove with the new Nine-T when BMW Motorrad made their annual trip to the coastal resort next to my town with dozens of examples of the new-range bikes, i realise that the Rockster is effectively the precursor of the stunning Nine-T

This Rockster came with several useful mods - no cat-box but an aftermarket Y-pipe underneath ( Have you ever weighed that cat-box ? At least 10 Kg ! ) together with a front Fenda-Extender and a rear hugger, all the optional luggage including a rare 'Famsa' branded tankbag which makes a nice change from the ubiquitous Baglug / Bagster kit, plus most impressively of all, an unusual German-made half-fairing replacing the Rockster's OEM dingle assembly with a Suzuki-type twin-headlamp moulding which according to a previous owner of the Rockster whom I contacted in Peterboro', "transformed the bike's handling". Plus an expensive "Corbin" heated dual-seat which I found a touch hard on the old arse, and wouldn't have needed in s.e. Spain anyway, so from that excellent source of Beemer bike spares, the German eBay pages, I got a pristine pair of OEM mid-height seats, slightly lower than the Corbin, plus the plastic pillion seat-replacement cover in the right colour, all for around 150 euro inc shipping to UK.

See attached pix if i can work out how to do it....

The day after I collected the bike, i sold my previous much-loved Beemer, a low-mileage late-model K75RT which I'd taken to Spain and converted to 'naked' because of the weather, then brought back [ lovely gentle rides via the Spain-UK ferry ] to an elderly Yorkshire sheep farmer. What a nice guy - I accompanied him as he rode it nervously all tyhe way to his home; he never got it out of 3rd.

Because I'm wary of the inherent shaft-drive problems on any Mono- or Para-lever Beemer due to the factory's design-fault of opting for a dry rather than a self-lubricating shaft, I had an ex-Beemer-agency mechanic in Yorkshire look over the machine and fortunately he gave it a clean bill of health, only installing the improved left-cylinder cam chain tensioner unit to cure the typical "death-rattle" sound for the first second or two when the bike is started. Saves any chance of the plastic chain-guide being broken by the flapping chain before it hydraulics, thus preventing it mashing up inside the crank assembly. There are several U-Toob videos extolling the virtues of that sixty-quid mod.

All-in-all then a happy bike-swap and hopefully now several swift safe rides on the Rockster to look forward to, including a trip with it via the Santander ferry back to my home in Andalucía.

Now, how to add those pix....

Nope - adding pix seems unusually user-unfriendly as with many forum sites. Why not a simple browser-button or drag'n'drop ???

ALAN

[Rocky rider]

Nice to hear that you are so pleased with the Rockster. I have only had mine for about 6 weeks and I am very pleased with it too.

Enjoy it and have many safe and enjoyable miles on it.

I share your frustration with uploading pics to this forum. Why is it so difficult?????

Ride safe,

Brian.

[sykospain]

Thanks Brian for responding so swiftly to my initial post. Perhaps Doug or another of the moderators of this forum would kindly point us the way as to how to add photos to posts. Even my modest e-mail application has an offer whenever I add a picture to a message - on the lines of "The picture that you want to attach is enormous; far too big for an e-mail. So would you like me to reduce it by data-compression to an acceptable size for the Internet ?"
Rocket science ? Apparently....
Incidentally I've just chatted on the phone with an owner of a new-model R1200RT, the top-of-the range variant with the active suspension electronic controls, & I'm appalled to hear from him that 10,000 of those bikes world-wide have been recalled by Berlin - whereby an official van turns up at your place of residence to actually cart away your machine. Even worse is the fact that as yet they anticipate no suitable supplier source being acceptable and/or available for whatever replacement component will prevent the sudden and potentially catastrophic locking-up of the rear drive - until SEPTEMBER !
My pal tells me that US customers with this particular variant of the R1200 have been offered 12 hundred bucks in compensation whilst their bike is off the road "..on no account should you ride your bike..." was the official BMW warning; whilst in the UK, tight-fisted Bracknell is offering merely a £500 voucher for BMW accessories or clothing. For stuff that most riders of a brand-new bike won't need ? ! ? I should co-co...
What a PR disaster for BMW.
That kind of thing combined with the continuous fall in the quality of BMW stuff and its assembly and finish, as the greedy conglomerate tries to compete with ever-more-high-quality bikes from Asia, means that older Beemers will soon be the only examples of when Spandau built bikes to a quality-standard, not to a price-point.
Frau Quandt and her pals should really get real and return to traditional BMW standards and practices - let's face it, with the prices they charge for everything they make, they surely can afford to ! Fewer baronial palaces - lower bike prices.
Happy Rockstering - remember, we're members of a VERY select and ever-diminishing band of Beemer owners.
ALAN

[Rocky rider]

Rock on!! (to coin a phrase).

[Hawkeye]

Check this out. Its here in NZ on Trademe. I do realise it would cost too much to get it to you. They want over $1200.00 NZ$ for it. This is the write up about it.

Immaculate R1150 R Rockster 80th Anniversary.ABS. New Zealand new.These bikes are collectable. this is number 1092 of 2003
Has Neptune pipe fitted but comes with original pipes that are perfect.Also comes with BMW panniers and 2 seats. Also has Wunderlich 3 way adjustable handlebar mounts.
Has new set of tires
A fantastic example!

Hope you find one closer.