Greetings from Houston

Hello fellow riders.  I’ve been riding an FZ1 since 2000.  I had the 35th FZ1 built in the world.  It was such a great bike but I was tired of a couple things about it.  First is that no shops would work on it due to its age other than oil changes which wouldn’t have been a problem except for issue #2 which is that it was carbureted and ever since they put 10% ethanol in gas I had to run it at least every couple weeks or risk gumming up the carbs.  When I could no longer find a mechanic locally to be a lifeline for when they clogged it was time to move on.

I retired a year ago and wanted my new bike to be as comfortable, have at least as much hp and torque, be fuel injected and have updated electronics (ABS, traction control and FFS can I please have cruise control that doesn’t rely on friction?!).  The bikes I looked at were the BMW S1000R, BMW S1000XR, BMW R nineT, Ducati Diavel and the Triumph Rocket.  No idea why but my hands go numb if the riding position puts too much weight on my hands.  I was about to pull the trigger on the S1000XR when I noticed the MT-10 in all black.  Holy crap, it’s everything I’ve loved about the FZ1 for 23 years but better!  Fuel injected, all the new electronics and replaced steel frame with the lighter R1 frame while keeping the FZ1 ergos.  It’s perfect.  I’ve only had it a few days but I know I made the right choice.  Oh, and I’m not hurting for money but the fact that it was $9K less than the S1000XR was nice!

just ordered a fender eliminator from Mustard Bikes in Australia.  Only other planned upgrades will be a bigger (but not huge) windscreen.  Hoping to find a smoked one to just get some wind off my torso.  It’s fine as is for my normal rides that are a couple hours.  And I’ll be getting heated grips once I can find some OEM.  After riding with my friend in the UK last fall on a rental with heated grips I was sold.

I'm actually in Fulshear just west of Houston and there are a couple nice rides near me if anyone is nearby.  We plan to move to somewhere near San Marcos in a couple years.  Looking forward to being more central to the nice riding spots in TX.