72,000 miles. No big deal.

My 2003 BMW K1200GT recorded its 72,000th mile this afternoon as I rode in to Jonesboro to cash in an empty coffee bag for a cup of Starbucks coffee.

I’m a little embarrassed that it’s so few miles for 11 riding seasons. By the time my 1991 K100RS was this old, it had more than 159,000 miles on the odometer.

That said, my semi-obsessive record keeping tells me I’ve run about 1,800 gallons of gas – mostly 89 octane – through the GT at a cost of about $4,900 with an average fuel economy of 42 mpg.

It’s carried me to the Colorado Rocky Mountains several times and the Pacific Northwest and the California coast a couple of times.

The 1004 K75S that I bought for Maria in the fall of 2000 with 2,417 miles on the clock, now has accumulated another 14,394 miles – some of them Maria’s but mostly mine. It has consumed 328 gallons of gas since we got it, for a fuel economy of 42.4 mpg.

That’s enough stats for now. Time to ride.