Good for you and LRB. It is amazing that these bikes can sit out an entire year, and then fire right up. Mine was like that too. I just put some Seafoam in the tank back in November 2013, and kept the battery on a battery tender all the time. About 15 seconds of craning and it was running.
I am thinking on calling mine "Timex" because it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
Enjoy riding LRB out to the National. You have more guts than me to go that far on the R65. For that distance, I would take my newer and larger bike.
Enjoy the National. I won't make it, after last year's trip to Santa Fe I want to do something a little shorter this year.
k_enn
Didn't I meet you at Redmond? I don't know where you live. Or I'm confused about who you are; got the home-made R65GS?
My R65 is my long distance motorcycle, not that I generally go anywhere.
You must have me confused with someone else. As I am in New Jersey, I did not attend Redmond because of the distance and time that would have been involved. Also, my R65 is just a standard, unmodified 1982 edition in blue.
Back in the 1980s, the R65 was considered a pretty formidable touring bike, but now it seems small, light, and underpowered for a trip across the country. Also, because of age, reliability and parts availabilty (much of the bike is still original, including all electrics other than the coil and ignition wires), I am reluctant to do long distance touring on it anymore. For me, anything west of Pennsylvania, north or east of lower Vermont, or south of Maryland is now for the K1300S.
k_enn