After some urging from a friend, here is the story of me and Lola.
On May 5, 2007 I adopted Lola into my family as my only child. I immediately replaced the seat with a solo seat and removed the passenger pegs at her request so she could show her loyalty to just me! I added a rack on the fender, switched out the mirrors for tear drops, added a windscreen and an alarm to keep her safe. I fitted her with quick release Kawasaki bags that run the same line as her fender and the shocks. Here she is on one of our first trips up to my cabin in Northern Saskatchewan.
I eventually found a nice aftermarket exhaust that I liked and for a decent price! So in 2009, she got a beautiful new set of pipes. I also put a little Triumph tank bag on her for my phone and lip balm...which is about all that fits in that pocket! Here we are on our way to Mission BC in 2010 where we stopped just on the other side of Jasper National Park for a photo opportunity!
In 2011 I didn’t change too much. I purchased smaller signal lights for both the front and back and a relocator kit for the front to move my signals to my forks. For those of you thinking about this, note that this bike in particular is wired for single filament bulbs. The lights I purchased that I was advised were compliant, had dual filament bulbs. Thankfully I have a couple savvy guys in my BOG Standards group and they were able to rewire the front so that my lights worked properly. Anyone who rode with me in Nelson in 2011 would have noticed I did not once use my signal lights as we just put them on and figured we would get the issue sorted out when we got back. Here we are on our way back from Nelson at a stop in Radium, BC.
That brings us to 2012 where after 5 full seasons and 56,000km, Lola got a facelift in the form of new paint, new mirrors and a union jack battery cover. The decision was an easy one because as far back as I can remember, even when I day dreamed about owning my own bike, silver was what she should be. I’m telling you, she is exactly how she needs to be right now. I never imagined the silver would make her pop as well as it has and the blue pin-striping was a nice small touch. The original phantom black is still there in the form of a stripe down the center. I wanted a part of the original paint still visible. The little tear drops actually do work despite what anyone thinks. It took a lot of adjustments to get them just right but they do work. The battery cover was just one tiny last touch along with my BOG Standards decal on the side cover. Here she is fresh out of getting painted!
Here we are on a bridge on the Icefields Parkway heading in to Jasper from the Athabasca Falls.
Not sure what is in store next for Lola...but if we decide to change anything else up, I'll be sure to let you all know.
Thanks for checking her out!
