Transalp vs. R100GS

And we thought spring was almost coming... Boy could we ever be more wrong. Totally not knowing what februari would have in store for us. Friday it started snowing. Forcing Sander to stay at work to avoid traffic jams.
Saturday about 6.30 in the morning we left home. Ice particles were gently floating in the air, reflecting the light of the lampposts. On the radio we heard the lowest temperature in Holland for 27 years was measured pretty close to where we live. Minus 22.8 degrees centigrade. What happened to global warming?
Can't wait to ride our motorbikes and spew some polluting fumes into the atmosphere, just to help mother nature heat up a little. But frankly, riding a motorbike in these conditions would be a bit boneheaded. Besides we still need to finish the full service we started last week.
Over at Pharaobike, Ton and Marianne did some last modifications on her motorbike. And Sander did a full service on his one. According to Sander there are four reasons why an R100GS is better than a Transalp:
1. Engine - Did you ever try to check, let alone adjust the valve clearance of a V-twin engine crammed tightly in a motorcycle frame? This is so much easier on the good old boxer engine. Besides the radiators of the Honda are always in the way, something you won't experience on an airhead. Also removing all four spark plugs on the Alp is a bit cumbersome and must be the reason why usually only the two accessable ones are replaced.
2. Drive Shaft - Not only is a chain greasy and likely to mess up your motorbike and hands, adjusting it is also a painstaking process. And when you got it wrong, it has the potential to break. Chears for the good old drive shaft.
3. Tubeless tires - With a proper tire plugging tool, fixing a tubeless tire is so much easier. So not looking forward to have to fix a flat on the Alp in the blistering Saharan sun.
4. Lack of plastic fairing - Plastic fairing only has the tendency to break and it doesn't even look nice. Won't regret binning it after the first tumble with the Alp.

Just let's hope the Alp will compensate for these shortcomings with it's reliability (gearbox), drivability and fuel economics. Otherwise Sander will really regret selling the Beemer in the first place.