Bar Backs Baby

This is probably the best 37 dollars money can buy, these bar backs go on without any modifications to the cables and for my tong torso/short arms help a bunch, almost make it like a GS, nah, whos kidding who.

New Battery

I just purchased a WestCo Battery from BeemerBoneYard on sale for $89.95.  This battery is highly recommended right behind the Odyssey PC680, which costs around $130.

This battery slides in without any fuss, and uses standard chargers, so I'm good to go.

I decided to put a label on the side facing the tupperware, in case I forget when I replaced it, I wish the previous owner had done this when the previous battery was replaced.  I did not know the age of the BMW Exide battery that was in the bike, but I was getting many ABS faults, which is a tell tale sign of a weak battery.

I proceeded to remove the snorkel air intake tube, disconnected old battery, and slide out and put new one in, took about 10 mins, easy as pie.

Here is the finished product, all buttoned up and labeled, the battery strap was a bit loose, since the new battery is not as tall, I put a sponge in there to fill the area.

Carb Sync

I received my used "TwinMax" in the mail yesterday.  The BMW mechanic sold me a TecMate CarbMate electronic carb synchronizer which is the same as the MotionPro Twinmax.  I warmed up the bike for a 10 mile ride, then came back to sync idle.  Cylmers says it should be between 1050-1150 rpm's.  Mine was running a bit high, probably 1100-1200.

I zero-ed out the tool at the lowest setting, then hooked it up to the vacuum ports on the throttle bodies.  I then turned the sensitivity up to 2.  I turned the BIG BRASS CREWS in all the way then backed each out to 1 1/4 turns.  I proceeded to set the idle at 1050 and sync the idle at the highest sensitivity setting on the CarbMate which is 0,5 of Mercury resolution, slowly turned the right screw until a Happy Face green LED showed solid bright light.

After idle I slowly turned the throttle and the green light never wandered at higher rpm's so I left the throttle cables alone, and took a test drive.  I noticed the vibration in the mirrors was less and the idle felt less rough.

I like this tool, look forward to trying it out on the Airhead.

New Rear Brake Pads

Changed the rear brake pads, 51K, rear outside pad measured less than 1mm thick.  Purchase new Carbone Lorraine pads for the rear.

Transmission and Final Drive Fluid Change

51,734 Miles, 19 months after 48K service

Changed Transmission Oil
Two new crush washers
Red Line 75w90 Synthetic Gear Oil, 1000cc

Lubro-Moly MoS2 Anti-Friction for Gears, 2.5 tsp

Changed Final Drive Oil
Two new crush washers
Spectro Hypoid Gear Lubricant 80w90, 250cc
Lubro-Moly MoS2 Anti-Friction for Gears, 2.5 tsp

Surging FIXED !!!!

After reading this on the BMW Sport Touring website about surging I thought I would give it a try.

http://www.bmwrt.com/faq/surge.htm

"Tomb9 utilizes a different procedure: "I've spent some time diagnosing my surging, and I have a slightly different take than the zero-zero adjustment. As mentioned in other posts, the surging is a result of the overly lean mixture on US bikes. The zero-zero procedure attempts to adjust the TPS to richen the mixture, but misses the point. The fuel injection uses the TPS to indicate throttle opening, so it can be adjusted to increase the amount of fuel without increasing the amount of air. The results are a richer mixture. The procedure is simple. Pull your left fairing cover. Get out your trusty DVM and attach the minus side to the battery negative terminal. Attach the plus side to a pin and stuff the pin into the end wire of the TPS connector (red/white). Turn on the ignition, but don't start the bike. The DVM will now read between .300 and .400 volts. The optimum setting is .395. Loosen the screws that hold the TPS in place, and rotate the TPS until you get 0.395 volts. Tighten the screws and crank on the throttle a few times. Reset the screws if required to get the correct voltage."


I took a reading of the TPS and it was set to .358, so I hooked up the Digital Volt Meter by shoving the positive lead into the red/white wire area and plug negative on a unpainted bolt, and set the TPS with the two screws to .395/.394.  


Took a test ride, and boom, surging all gone, nice to finally get that monkey off the back, as a summary, I replaced the spark plugs a while ago with Autolites, did not help, but not a bad replacement from Wally World anyway, TPS setting .395, FIXED !!!, I will monitor fuel consumption, as the throttle is now running a bit more rich, spark plug condition will be checked at next maintenance also to verify not running too hot.

Inspected Battery

Every since I got the bike, I have noticed periodic ABS faults, I have rigged up a jumper wire to help clear the fault, but since I was doing some maintenance, I decided to pull the battery.

I measured the voltage to be 12.8 volts which is right on after being fully charged,.

I did see on the back of the battery a use by 11/2009 sticker.


Maintenance Free sealed Battery


I need to find out if that means it is time to renew.

Brake Fluid Flush

51,647 miles

Today, cold in the garage, but time to do the annual brake fluid flush.  The fluid looks a little dark on the front master cylinder.

I bought a Mighty Vac, so bleeding the brakes is much easier now.

Rear
I first did the rear brake, then proceeded to do the front left brake.  The right brake has a grub screw on it, so bleeding this requires a new part I do not have yet.

The outer rear brake pad on the front side measured below 1.5mm of pad left, it is time to get new pads for the rear.

After looking through the forums, people swear that EBC FA18HH brake pads made in the USA are better than the OEM BMW pads.  They are easy to find online, BeemerBoneYard also sells brake pads.

From 2000 BMW R1100RS

Front
I did not pull of the calipers and pads on this yet, I will do this next weekend when my hands do not freeze up, it sure is cold these days, looking forward to warmer weather.

Got a Cee Bailey's +8.5 inch Windshield over the Holiday. This shield is large, but makes the ride more comfortable. Found this on Beemer BoneYard, the holes were drilled a bit larger than OEM shield, so a quick ride over the ACE hardware to get some metric screws, washers, and neoprene backs to hook this puppy on.

Website reference

http://www.ceebaileys.com/bmw/bmws1100rs.htm

A run for the border

Today, Ron, Doug and I met up in Decatur for a leisure ride to the Oklahoma border. We wound our way north from Decatur up through some small Texas towns. It was a sunny hot day around 91 degrees, and over 50% humidity, so we stopped to hydrate along the way.

These guys are great to ride with and did not mind having an oilhead along for the ride. It was cool to see an older airhead, a GS, and a oilhead along for the ride in the Texas heat.

The destination is never as important as the ride, but this is a cool shot of the Texas/Oklahoma border/Red River

New Gear arrived

Got my Shark Helmet and my new Summer vented Fieldsheer jacket in the mail today, both fit great, red, white hopefully is not too crazy, but it stands out.

Shark Week

I broke down and ordered a full face helmet today.

After seeing my brothers Shark Helmet and reading more online

http://www.shark-helmetsus.com/
http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/motorcycle-helmet/shark-rsi/

and watching the youtube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JewCdbjczXQ

I decided to give one a try. I ordered a RED Shark RSI Hologram helmet, size large. I measured my head to be 58 cm, which they say is a medium, I went with a large first. I got this helmet at a steal for $149.00 plus shipping. This helmet is a mere three pounds and built to German safety standards, ECE 22. These things are listed at retail @ $389.00

Spark Plugs Renewed

Miles 50,852

Today after reading more about surging and plugs

http://www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/oilheads/non_oem_spark_plug_options.shtml

http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1002&highlight=autolite+3923+gap

I decided to try out the Autolite 3923 spark plugs gapped @ .032, they are available at Wally World for $3.00, but need to be gapped to BMW spec, so I figured what the heck. I saved the Bosch plugs that were in there just in case.

I used the onboard toolkit with the spark plug adapter, the spark plug puller tool was not in the kit, but I carefully used my fingers to pull the plug caps off each side. Another item missing from my toolkit is the drift that fits with the spark plug puller tool.

Missing spark plug cap puller, and drift for sparkplug puller tool.

I installed the Autolites, screwed them in, then 1/2 turn to seat them. 1/4 turn from now on.

We will see on the next test drive if there is any improvement.

Condition of the spark plugs in the bike looked ok.

Oil Change, Filter and Sight Glass

Changed the engine oil, filter, crush washer, and sight glass today. I had the sight glass for a while, but waited for the oil change to do this procedure.

May 24th, 2009, 50577 miles, 24K major service done July 2008 at 48K miles so this oil was less than 3K miles old, but I had run a chevron techron service through it and a seafoam treatment, so I figured I would change it.

Used 3.5 liters of Spectro Golden 4 (mymcgear.com)
New Bosch Oil Filter (Beemerbone yard)
New Crush washer (Beemerbone yard)
New Oil Sight Glass (A&S Cycles)

Slide Show of Colorado Beemer Trip May 2009

Day 2 Colorado Beemer Trip May 2009

May 17th

Steamboat Springs to Kremmling, CO

Stopped for coffee and a scone at Latte in Kremmling, CO

Visited Hot Sulpher Springs, Co and went for a soak in the Hot Springs
http://www.hotsulphursprings.com

Drove onto Granby, and Winter Park, CO

Stopped in Idaho Springs, CO

Lunch at Tommyknocker Brewery
http://www.tommyknocker.com



Continue on to Central City up to Nederland
Stopped for Gas

Drove onto Peak to Peak Highway over to Estes Park

Stopped in Estes Park to watch fly fisherman and take a break

Headed back to Masonville, and around Horsetooth Reservior back to Fort Collins, Co

Day 1 Colorado Beemer Trip May 2009

May 16th

Fort Collins to Walden to Steamboat Springs

Passed through Masonville, CO

Stopped for Gas and Lunch in Walden
Lunch at River Rock Cafe in Walden, CO
http://www.waldenriverrock.com/

Stayed at Mariposa B&B Steamboat Springs, Bob and Cindy
http://www.steamboatmariposa.com/

Visted Strawberry Hot Springs, Steamboat Colorado
http://www.strawberryhotsprings.com/2005/

Colorado Beemer Trip 2009

Terry and Peter Colorado Beemer trip May 2009


1976 R90/6, "Klaus "
2005 R1200GS, "Roxanne"
430 Miles

That Saturday morning we got up and started to pack the bikes with clothes tools, water and the essentials. We got off by 10:00 a.m and headed to Masonville around the Horsetooth Reservoir.

Masonville had a good motorcycle leather shop but it was closed, and the only other sites to see was the second building in Masonville. We headed off with the intentions of stopping in Walden for lunch. The morning was filled with beautiful twisty roads, we stopped along the route to take some pictures and stretch.


View Larger Map

After taking the back route for a while, we hooked up with I-14 Poudre Caynon Highway which runs through the Poudre Canyon. We took this road all the way to Walden.


View Larger Map

We pulled into Walden around 2:30, and ate lunch at the River Rock Cafe on a recommendation from our hosts at the Mariposa B&B we were headed for that evening.


View Larger Map

Oil Level Indicator Replacement

I ordered a new oil indicator glass, the bike is coming up on 9 years old, the glass is a bit smudged on the inside, and I figure it will prevent the dreaded pop off disaster, only 32 bucks at Max BMW.

This is a picture from a BMWMOA post of replacing the sight glass, looks like you carefully put a wood srew into the plastic around the red dot, and pull it out, friction fit.







From the BMW MOA Forum postings

drill small hole in center of sight glass - don't worry about any little bits getting inside the crankcase. They will just stay inside the sight glass.
insert wood screw into hole
pull on wood screw with pliers till it comes out
wipe down the hole in the engine
push new sight glass into hole.
place wooden block over sight glass and tap into place with mallet.

Do NOT use any sealant or lubricant when putting the new sight glass in.

BTW - putting silicon or whatever on the outside of the sight glass is not gonna do nuthin' except look funny. If the sight glass decides to depart the premises like it did on Chaz's RS, the silicon is not going to help one bit. There is a tremendous amount of pressure inside the crankcase. The design of the rubber on the outside edge of the sight glass keeps the pressure from pushing the sight glass out (or pulling it in).

Cleared ABS

Followed the instructions from the previous post, made a wire, grounded it to one of the footpeg bolts, then inserted into the middle prong of the connector under the seat.

PHOTO here for record

Turned the ignition on, held down the ABS switch for 10 seconds, fault cleared, and has not come back. I have placed the trickle charger on because the heat of Texas has not hit us yet.