Dunlop D404's

The K100RS was feeling a little neglected since I had ridden my RT the entire week. The temperatures had dropped into the high 20's in the early morning and frankly I decided I wanted the full fairing and heated grips of the R1150RT. So when the following Saturday rolled around and morning temps were in the balmy 40's I decided to roll out the RS and take it for a spin.  As a creature of habit, I pulled out my Joe's Racing Garage tire pressure gage and checked the front and rear tires. The front was fine but the rear was showing only 25 psi. I filled the tire up to 40 PSI and checked it again. 40 PSI. I waited a few minutes and checked it again. It still showed 40 PSI.
If I had a leak it was a slow one. So I inspected the tire and found a small nail in the tread. It was pretty well embedded and did not seem to be a major threat. No hissing sounds or anything. Regardless, the tread was close enough to the wear bars that it was time to pony up for a new rear. I called around and the only tire I could find in my size was a Dunlop D404.  I wanted to get a Bridgestone Battleax BT45 but nobody had one in stock. I have a pretty new Battleax on the front and also run them on my RT.
I took my bike to Ken's Motorcycle Tires in Woodstock, GA. Nice little shop, very friendly owner and the tire was swapped out in minutes.  It was a short 20 mile ride back home and the new tire seemed to handle a lot better than the crappy old Michelin Macadam that had been on it. The Macadam had been on there for over 8000 miles so the life was good, but the handling in the twisties was pretty average. We'll see if the Dunlop outperforms it when I get back to the mountains again.
After returning from the tire shop I decided I needed to pickup a vacuum bleeder for my brakes. The brakes seem to be getting a little spongy so I'll change the fluid and if that doesn't help then I'll see if my master cylinder needs a rebuild. To be continued...

Wing and Brick Logo

Here's a logo that I pulled together for a BMW K-Bike Site.  They were looking for combinations of a German Winged Eagle and Brick Engine.  I think it came out OK.

Cold Weather Riding

Fired up the K at a frosty 31 degrees. After a little rough idling it quickly warmed up and shrugged off the cold. During the peak summer months the heat coming off the engine feels like a blow dryer pointed at mid-calf. But when the temperature drops it sure is nice to feel the heat.
I took it for a relatively short ride and couldn't find a thing to complain about. Maybe I will be posting on how it handles in snow in a few month. Yuk.

Possible Explanation?

The photo in my prior post was taken shortly after a 1 mile ride on a cold day. The oil sight glass window looked like there was white smoke and some fluid or particulate in the oil. I wondered if I had some coolant leaking into the oil or worse. Oddly enough, when I looked at the bike the next morning it seemed fine. The striations in the fluid were gone. I went for a 200 mile ride and when I parked the bike it looked just like normal.

My theory at this point is that there may have been some crankcase smoke that was trapped inside by the breather tube. As this smoke started to condense it looked more like a foreign material. Best guess I can come up with. The smokiness above the oil level disappeard quickly whereas some of the particulate of the smoke may have precipated into the oil. Good news is that everything is looking fine at this point.

Best of all it is November and I've had good sunshiny days every weekend and have been able to ride without even needing heated apparel. Meanwhile people in Michigan and throughout Canada are tucking their bikes in for the winter.

Milky fluid in oil sight glass

Rode the bike to work this morning at a frosty 31 degrees and everything seemed to run great once the bike warmed up.  Parked in the parking deck and mid-day temps rose to about 55 degrees. After my commute home from work (maybe 48 degrees) I checked my oil sight glass and saw this milky fluid sloshing around in my oil.   Nothing else seemed odd but this has me concerned that maybe I'm getting some coolant in the oil or something.  We'll check it in the moring before I head out for my Saturday expedition. Arghhh...

To Hel-en and Back

It was a cool 33 degrees in the mountains this morning when I started planning my ride. I decided to go a little further east this trip and check out the little town of Helen, GA. I'd heard that Helen was set up as a sort of "Bavarian Alpine Village" in the North Georgia Mountains. I thought maybe the Beemer would like to experience a return to the fatherland.

Fortunately I had picked up a thermal neck protector at Cycle Gear and decided to put that baby on under my helmet to help stay warm. 40 degree air shooting down my neck is not a good thing. It worked great.

So I suffered through the awful ride from Sandy Springs on Highway 400 until the end of 400 where it intersects Highway 60 to Dahlonega.  I kept going straight thru Cleveland and then up to Helen. So as I'm rolling into Helen I start to see some really cheesy tudor style buildings on the outskirts. I think I even saw a Wendy's fast food restaurant with a Tudor exterior. Wow -I hope it gets better than this. People were telling me things like "It's so beautiful -as if someone dropped an old German city from the Alps right into Georgia!"  Of course, these folks are the same ones who think that going to Disney's Epcot is a cheap way to experience all of the cultures of the world while getting a Florida suntan.  Trust me -it's not the same thing.

I rolled into downtown Helen and frankly thought "Ok, it's quaint, it's Octoberfest and maybe the 3 blocks of downtown do look like a Hollywood stage for the Sound of Music or something." Lots of people walking around the streets and enjoying themselves. I just rode on through town and headed North to Hiawassee. Since I don't drink and ride I wasn't going to stop and have a German beer or walk around some souvenir shops.

The ride from Helen to Hiawassee was actually the best part of the entire ride.  Some spectacular scenery, a few nice curvy, climbing sections of road and thetraffic was not too bad. Peak Fall color is behind us but it is still nice. The skies were clear blue and despite the lower temperatures in the mountains it felt comfortable. And this is the time of the year when the heat blowing off the K Engine is a blessing!

Click the link below to see the Google maps of the route

To HEL-en and Back Route

Stopped in Hiawassee, GA for lunch and then had a smooth and uneventful ride thru Blairsville, past Morganton and then through Ellijay on the way back top Atlanta.  The total trip was about 225 miles, and the roads are generally straight with some curvy sections.  This would be a good choice for someone riding a big cruiser or Wing.  I would not consider this a very challenging ride -just some easy scenic miles.

Greetings From The Georgia State Patrol

So I've been riding motorcycles for over 35 years and in that entire time I do not recall being stopped by police a single time. So today, the Georgia State patrol stopped me not once, not twice, but three times in the North Georgia Mountains on the same day. All for being on a motorcycle and riding safely I guess.

I was on the road at 8:30AM and it was barely 45 degrees outside so the roads were pretty empty. I had just filled up at a gas station and came around a sweeping turn when I looked ahead and all of the cars were being slowed down while a line of maybe 10  GSP Troopers looked in every car and asked the drivers for their ID. My first thought was that there was an escaped convict or one of those Amber Alerts or something. So I flipped up the visor on my helmet and as I rode up the line one of the troopers told me to pull to the side and show my license. No problem. I turned off the bike, flashed my license to him and he says something like "Just need to see your cee-yam".   I said "Huh? You want my license and what else?" fishing for my insurance card, registration and I even pulled out my BMW MOA membership card. He says "You got your cee-yam, you good to go".  So I said "My what? I'm sorry. What do you need?"  Then he points to my motorcycle endorsement, the letters CM printed on my license. Got it...CM. Buh-bye.

So I rode another 15 or 20 miles and was planning to head north on Highway 60 to Morganton when I ran into yet another GSP road block. This time they asked me to pull over (on an inclined road nonetheless) near an intersection and asked me to show them my insurance card. I explained that it was my lucky day since I had just presented my credentials to another pack of troopers.  After flashing my insurance card I was off in another direction than I had planned since the troopers were basically blocking my planned route and I did not think it was a good idea to tell them all to get the heck out of my way.

At this point I headed east and took highway 19 up to Blairsville and then Murphy, NC.  I stopped in Murphy, had a quick lunch and then rode back to Blairsville alongside another rider on a BMW GS 1100. At Blairsville I headed west to Morganton, caught Highway 60 South and then ended up behind a bunch of pokey Harley riders and some trucks for most of the way. As I neared the elementary school in Suches, I met yet another GSP patrol. This time they asked all the bikers to pull off into the elementary school parking lot so they could check to see if we were wearing DOT approved helmets.  I removed my Shoei and let the trooper inspect it. It was kinda funny when the H-D riders that were moving so slowly had trouble finding the DOT sticker on their helmets. I think one of them even swapped out their carnival brain bucket for a real DOT helmet while the trooper was inspecting someone else.

After my third stop of the day I decided to ride back and stopped at Rider's Hill and had a chili dog at the Six Gap Cafe in the dealership. I looked at the Aprilias and Moto Guzzi's on the showroom floor and tried on a few jackets but didn't buy anything. I did end up talking to some guy and I asked him if he ran into any of the road blocks. All the sudden he seems shocked and asked where they were located since he was actually just heading up in to the mountains. I explained that they were all over and that I had been stopped three separate times.

So I had been thinking, why in the heck are State Troopers wasting taxpayer money running these roadblocks and guess what?  The guy I am talking to tells me that he is not wearing a DOT helmet, and that his son is riding his brand new motorcycle and he doesn't have an endorsement. The guy asks me what will happen if they get caught. I said "I'd imagine anything from being fined, having the bike impounded, being forced to take a basic riders course...who knows..but they're not pinning medals on people".

I rode back south to Atlanta, fully decked out in ATGATT and watched the various riders heading north. It was now about 65 degrees out and sunny,  the fair weather bikers were out for their late afternoon ride and many were in for a big surprise !

85 K100RS Mirror Replacement Photos

Replaced the Right Hand mirror on my 85 K100RS and these pictures show how the job is done.

First, this is what my mirror assembly looks like. It has a parting line around the edge. The turn signal indicator is held in place by a single screw.

 I removed the turn signal lens and then was able to part the two halves by popping the parting line.

Then I put the new mirror in from the opposite side and installed the c-clip onto the groove in the replacement mirror ball as seen in the photo below.

Then I just snapped the two halves of the mirror assembly back together, screwed the turn signal indicator back into the housing and put the mirror back onto the 3 posts on the fairing. Simple as that

Flying Brick and Eagle

Here's my latest sloppy attempt at a BrickFlyer logo

Wolf Pen Gap Road

Took a different route today and tried out the little section of road between Suches and Blairsville. I think it is Rte 180, but locally it's known as Wolf Pen Gap Road.  It was actually a little more challenging than the route to Morganton. A couple complete hairpin turns and lots of twisties.

I snapped this picture with my iPhone before I actually turned onto the Wolf Pen Gap Road. Its one of the few lookout spots where you can stop and see the other mountains and rolling hills. We're talking less than 4000 feet elevation here, so folks out West would call these foothills, but it's the best we've got !



North Georgia Mountains -Suches , GA



Barbarian at the Brandenburg Gate

I took a vacation day today and before heading out for a long ride I started messing around with Photoshop to create an image for this blog. I wanted something that would combine iconic German symbols with the bike. As I was looking at the statue mounted above the Brandenburg Gate it hit me. I could replace one of the horses with my K100RS. I wanted the K-Bike to look like it was hitched to the chariot, and at the same time ready to pull in another direction. Anyway, I'm an amatuer at Photoshop but I thought I'd post it anyway since it is kind of funny, and possibly a bit irreverent to some.

Get A Grip On Those Puppies

While the K100RS has lots of great qualities, its not perfect. Like most bikes, there is a section of the power band where the bike will tend to vibrate or buzz a bit. For perspective, I used to ride a single cylinder bike, commonly called a thumper and those bikes are like sitting on a paint shaker. The BMW is nothing at all like that. It's more like the sensation you get from holding a pair of electric hair clippers for a while. At a certain rev range, maybe 4100 to 4200 rpms, this little buzzing sensation starts. Most of the time the bike is smooth as silk.

The buzzing is not a big issue but I figured I'd try something I used with my old thumper. I bought a pair of "grip puppies" from California Sport Touring. Grip puppies are simply closed cell foam sleeves that slip over your existing grips and provide additional vibration absorption. They also make your grips larger, which works well for guys like me with larger hands.

It was a struggle to get them over the existing grips.This was probably because the BMW grips are not perfectly flat and smooth and so the grip puppies did not slide right over. I soaked the grip puppies in a mild soapy car wash solution and also put soapy water over the grips. After 20 minutes I finally worked them over the old grips.

Immediately I liked the new grips much better.  The extra diameter felt right, the cushioning was much better and it did seem to deaden the buzzing. I'll see how it all works out once I go for a longer ride next weekend. So far so good.

Six Gap Revisited

Temperatures dropped this weekend and so I decided to take another jaunt up to the mountains to see if the fall colors had started to change. Ok, I really just wanted another 200 mile round trip on some great twisty roads. This time I decided to make a bigger loop.
Heading out from Atlanta to Dahlonega is pretty boring. Highway 400 is your typical commuter slab through the suburbs and up to the outlet malls so there's nothing interesting to report there. Once you turn off onto 19/60 to Dahlonega the roads become a bit more interesting. A few curves here and there, some changes in elevation, but nothing like the mountain passes ahead.

Click the pic above for a larger image.

First, I should describe the riding conditions. It was cooler and very windy in the mountains. Figure maybe 60 degrees and the occasional 20-35 mph gust coming out of nowhere. I wore my mesh jacket the weekend before and wisely picked a non-mesh kevlar textile jacket with a liner for this ride. I did wear my mesh pants however since I knew I could rely on my calf-heating blow-dryer of an engine to keep my legs warm.

Upon arriving in Dahlonega I took Highway 60 north to Morganton.  This road has more twisties and is somewhat more challenging than Highway 19/129 to Blairsville.  I decided to take the latter on my return. The downside to 60 is that the road is covered in "tar snakes" through several sections, not real snakes of course,  but this molasses-like gunk that the DOT uses to fill cracks in the road. Since the weather was cool the tar snakes were not all that troubling. But it does take away from the experience since you don't want to encounter a patch of gunk while leaning into a tight turn.

En route to Morganton I ended up riding behind some pokey cars, and if this happens there is little you  can do since passing areas are minimal. I just decided to lay off the throttle and take in the scenery.  When the opportunity to pass safely presented itself I opened it up only to be welcomed with a big gust of wind blowing across the open area. Whoa. 

Another little adventure along the way was when I turned a tight corner only to find that there were two cars and a pair of motorcycles stopped just around a blind turn. Since I always try to ride within my sight lines I was not going very fast at the time. I looked ahead and some kid on a sport bike had somehow ended up with his front wheel in a deep rut on the right side of the road, and his tail was uphill. So it looked like he was originally headed downhill, crossed the centerline and ended up bouncing his front tired into a deep rut on the opposite side of the road. It looked like he was in good shape, just mostly a bruised ego,  and the other two bikers were starting to offer help so I rode on. Didn't make sense to add any more congestion to a blind turn. But I have to note that I have seen an accident every time I have ridden these roads, and it is always a young guy on a sport bike. I guess I'm lucky that when I first started riding, the bikes pumped out about 25 HP and had crappy brakes so I was never inclined to try to push the limits. Today's younger riders are hopping on 100-185HP beasts with ABS brakes and they feel invincible. Bad combination.

Anyway, I made it to Morganton and topped off my tank with 2.5 gals after 100 miles of total riding. Right on the money with my typical 40 mpg under mixed riding conditions. I often see as much as 44 mpg highway and maybe as low as 36 city. I decided to head over to Blairsville for lunch and grabbed a bite at Burger King. Eventually I will have to find a local BBQ joint or something more interesting.

The ride back from Blairsville on 19/129 was OK. There were cars the whole way, lots of wind and the leaves have just barely started to change. So I imagine the ride will be more interesting in the weeks ahead.

Overall, it's great riding and so nice to have the K100RS performing smoothly. After all the time I spent restoring it to running condition it is good to see what it is capable of.

Six Gap North Georgia Mountains

After receiving my Morgan Carbtune Pro I sync'd my throttle bodies and decided to take a short ride to see if the performance would improved. Holy cow!  I really didnt expect much of a difference but I ended up seeing much smoother power delivery and gained about 10% in fuel economy.

I was so impressed with the overall performance of the bike that I decided to take a longer ride up to the North Georgia mountains.  It's about 85 miles from Sandy Springs, Ga to Blairsville, GA and the ride really gets interesting once you get north fo Dahlonega, GA.  Highway 60 north of Dahlonega is a perfect ride for early fall weather. Lots of twisties and some short open runs make it a real blast. The only downside of the ride was that there was a bicycling race the same day and so there were a lot of downhill sections where one had to be careful of runaway bicyclists  swinging a bit wide on the sharp turns.

The area is known as Six Gap, referencing a figure-8 set of roads that loop through six mountain gaps. I only rode part of the six gap but totally enjoyed it. I will come back another time and ride the entire circuit.

I stopped at a small lake by the foothills before beginning the ride up the mountains. This just gives you a sense of the natural setting in that part of Georgia.

Here's Looking at You

I rode my bike over to the dealer and picked up the new mirror.  Apparently BMW changed the design since the original exploded parts diagram in the RealOEM site. Quite simply, the new design is no longer a mirror with a simple press-fit ball and socket connection. The new mirror design is held in place with a spring wire C-clip that locks the mirror. Or perhaps the old one was missing the clip which would explain its early demise. I think this approach is better.

At any rate, the new mirror is great and it is easy to move and hold in any position I like. It also made it clear that now the left side mirror vibrates too much and therefore provides a jittery view of the cars behind me.  So I may have to replace that mirror, even though the glass is intact.

This must be BMW's strategy to keep me constantly reaching for my wallet. :-)

After replacing the mirror I went for a nice 150 mile ride through the footills of North Georgia near Dahlonega.  Perfect day for a ride and with my new mirror I could keep all the slo-pokey V-twin HD bikes in the rear view.

Mirror mirror on the floor

The K100RS was designed with a breakaway mirror mount. There is a plate with three short posts arranged in a triangle. The mirror and turn signal assembly has three matching female clips that snap onto the posts. So the idea is that if the mirror hits the ground or a wall it will break free from the fairing versus tearing a huge hole in it. The clips just pop off the post.
Ok. But it can also mean that if one of the clips gets loosened then the mirror is only supported by two clips and wind can flow under the mirror and pop the entire assembly loose.
I was riding along when this happened to me. Suddenly the mirror just cocked to the left and was hanging there by the two remaining posts. I pulled over and tried to snap it back on with only short term luck. If I hit a bump or anything the same clip would pop loose again. Rats.

I made it home and took the entire assembly off to examine it closer. As I did this the mirror glass popped out of the assembly, hit the floor and shattered. 42 bucks for a replacement.

Later I learned that you should tie off the mirror assembly with a wire or bungee cord inside the housing. That way if it comes loose you don't lose the mirror on the road. It just hangs there. Oh well.

9/11/11

Yesterday I recognized the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by doing two things to thumb my nose at those who hoped to create fear. I went to a pro football game at Soldier field and then flew back to Atlanta. The stadium was packed and so was the plane.

This pic was from the sidelines pre- game.

Updated Pic

Here's a picture of the bike as it looks today.

Neural Connections

Hoping that this was a real break in the mystery, I took the bike out for another ride. Once again, it started off great but in short order the bike cut off again and I had to pull to the side of the road. Now I'm confident that my solder connections were very good so at least I prevented a future stranding incident where the bike would not start up. But I did not fix the problem I was chasing. It wasn't the ignition switch.

Something seemed amiss in the ignition circuit. Now that I knew I had reliable power thru the ignition switch I had to keep working my way thru the firing circuit.  I had replaced the hall sensor and built a test circuit to confirm that the sensors were working. I had aligned the sensor properly when I installed it, and tested the timing with my homemade ignition testing unit. Seemed like the problem might be downstream in the Electronic Ignition Unit. And that could get expensive.

So I returned to the basics.  I had cleaned all the contacts with contact cleaner from one end of the bike to the other when I first bought the bike. I decided to check the electronic brain of the bike and work my way thru the numerous connections from there. I recalled what a pain it was to remove the large connector the first time and as I pulled on the cable it came off rather freely. Not a good sign. So I cleaned all the contacts again and as I looked at the base of the unit I also noticed that the little rubber foot mounts were not aligned in the proper slots. The rubber mounts protect the electronics from excess vibration. One of them was actually out of the track and no longer providing dampening.

I realigned the brain unit, putting the rubber feet in the track and then I very carefully aligned the cable. I made sure the cable snapped into place and that the cable locking mechanism on the right side was fully set. It was now very difficult to tug on the cable and there was no way it was going to come loose accidentally.

At this point I'm still using the process of elimination to work my way thru the entire ignition signal path. It's hard to be optimistic when I've gotten my hopes up before.  But this is another good find and a good example of the importance of checking every little detail on a new motorcycle purchase. Particularly an old K-bike. Although the bikes are legendary for their reliability, when an intermittent electrical problem pops up you need to be patient and methodical. Or start writing checks to a dealer.

Grounded

So I have installed the new Hall Effect Sensor, set the timing and think I'm golden. No such luck, you think? Correct.  After my first ride to test out the timing settings I came back home and parked the bike. Later that day I decided to go out for a quick shopping trip and as I stopped for a light it sounded like the engine was dying again. Crap! But the revs picked up again and as a precaution I pulled over to the right side of the road and made a turn off a busy road onto a back street. Good call. As I turned the corner the engine just plain quit. Instead of the slow bogging down , this time it was a quick death. Hmm....The side street was mostly a downhill so I popped the clutch and it sorta started again for a brief period, accelerated and then again it failed.  After rolling further downhill it was completely dead. I had lights etc, but it would not restart. So I dismounted, waited and eventually it came back to life. Bizarre and disappointing.

I was not far from home and managed to make it back to the house without it failing again. This intermittent failure thing is annoying, but this time I really had not ridden the bike a long way and it did not seem to be hot. So maybe I am chasing another failure mode?

Anyway, I made some more inquiries online and the next suggestion was to look at the ignition switch. I had not thought about that since the bike always seemed to start up perfectly from a cold start. I looked up the instructions for how to remove the switch and clean the contacts. While cleaning the contacts, I happened to accidentally tug one of the wires and it broke off.  (Duh-I should have inspected all of the wires first since a frayed wire could explain a lot).  Apparently, that ground wire had been frayed down to a couple strands pulling all the juice. Didnt take much to break it off, and so even if it wasnt the problem-it was going to be a problem soon.

So I resoldered the wires and cleaned up all the contacts. At this point I cant say I am confident that the situation is behind me, but I can say that at least one future headache has been avoided. While I had the gas tank off I also checked every connection and ground wire I could find. In particular I focused on the main ground wire attached to the frame and made sure it was good and tight.

I'll take it for a ride next weekend and see if this helped. Fingers crossed.

It's all a Matter of Timing

I had used a sharpie to mark the old HES assembly and the housing before I removed it. However, I should have probably scribed a line to mark the edge of the housing or something since half of the reference mark was on the old assembly. Duh. So now I have a nice mark on the housing, but no precise marking on the new assembly. I hoped I might be able to eyeball it but it didn't work.

So I had to do a little trial and error. I moved the ring a few mm clockwise and counterclockwise until it seemed to provide a smooth idle and reliable high rpm performance. I did not have the fancy BMW test probe or any of the other tools recommended in the manual. But fortunately I tweaked and tweaked until I hit a sweet spot pretty close to my sharpie mark. Just a few mm on either side of the sharpie mark and the bike was awful, stalling and missing. Then, wow...the sweet smooth turbine sound of the k-bike returns.

I'm going to see if there are instructions for how to build the timing test probe. It can't be all that tough and I'm guessing BMW charges an arm and a leg for one. But for now it seems to be running fine and I may decide to go out an try a longer ride tomorrow after my wife and I have out Sunday morning round of golf.

KIds in the Hall Effect

Intermittent problems are the most annoying of all. When a bike won't start, or always pulls to the left or something you have this repeatable event that helps in the diagnosis. When the problem is intermittent you have to be thinking-will this be the ride where I get left stranded?

I had noticed that the problem seemed to occur only on hot days in stop & go traffic. Since the cooling fan and coolant temperature sensor had both been replaced, I was confident the engine wasn't overheating and that the ignition control unit was getting an accurate signal. So I'm really looking for something that gets flaky at higher temperatures. That tends to be electronic goodies. Maybe my ignition control unit is going bad.

I did some reading on the ignition control system and posted a question on a forum. The problem description led some of the more experienced wrenches online to the hall effect sensor. This is basically a timing switch that sends out a signal when a metallic element enters its path.  Apparently they crap out at high temperatures after a while, acting up like mine did , when they are in their death throes.

The diagnostic test for a intermittent failure of a hall effect sensor (HES) is to let the bike cool down, start it and see if it idles normal. Then you point a blow dryer at the T-shaped section in the front of the engine that houses the HES. If the HES cuts out when the blow dryer gets it up near 150-160 degrees F, then you have your culprit.  In my case, it went from the smooth idle to the chugging death spiral in minutes. I couldn't even get it to restart. After I let it cool 20 minutes it started right up again. We're onto something here!

Then I went to the Euro Motoelectrics site to see how much a new one cost. HOLY CRAP! They want $400 for a new one?  That would eat up my 20% budget pretty fast.  I scoured the forums for some options and found that I could get a working replacement on Ebay for $100, or I could get replacement sensors for about $40. So I decided to do both. I would have a direct replacement assembly that is plug and play, and I would have the components to rebuild my old one as a spare.

The new HES unit arrived in a few days and it was pretty easy to replace. Pop off the gas tank, remove the electrical connector, snip a couple zip ties and then remove some bolts from the T-shaped HES cover. I carefully marked the location of the base plate notches relative to the notch in the HES housing so I could get close to the original timing.

So I swapped out the unit, bolted the cover back on and it started right up again. Took it for a ride around the neighborhood and it felt odd. Throttle response was poor and inconsistent and the bike stalled at the top of the hill. I managed to restart it, ride it back home and started scratching my head again. Crap-tastic!

Wired

After the chugging, sputtering sluggish response I endured near the end of my prior ride I was a little concerned about the bike.  It had seemed like the bulletproof K may have something more than a flesh wound.

I pulled the plugs and checked them. Not bad but not great either.  A bit on the rich side for cylinders 3&4. So I thought maybe I was not getting good air flow. I replaced the air filter & fuel filter since I really wanted to make sure all the maintenance was current anyway.

While inspecting the spark plug wires I noticed that the wires were looking a bit ragged so I got a new set of silicone NGK wires and bought new plugs too. I remember someone once advised me to factor in 20% of the price of a new bike to fix all the hidden problems . So I was still well within 20% of the sale price while bringing all of the critical maintenance up to snuff. And I was well below the $1300 the dealer estimated to fix the bike.

While replacing the air filter ( a real knucklebuster of a task) I also noticed that there were a few air hoses that looked cracked.  I replaced them and tighted all of the lines to make sure was minimizing air inleakage.

So when I fired it back up everything seemed great again. Good smooth pulling power, no issues at idle or high speed and the herky jerky throttle response seemed  behind me. I had fresh fuel, with a little splash of Techron added, fresh filters, and all new hoses. What could go wrong now?

I went out for a short ride and all was good. Commuted to the office the following week without any issues and felt I had the problem licked. On Friday, on my ride home from the office I ran into more slow traffic and hot Atlanta weather.  As I started to slow down,  approaching an intersection,  the engine started sputtering again and became real sluggish. As I rolled on more throttle it started to die.  I started pulling off the road. Then it regained some life, and I pulled back into the lane and made it home. Rats. Another issue to resolve.

Fluidity

Before heading back out on the bike I figured I would just replace all the fluids. I drained the transmission and final drive oils and replaced them. Although my odometer  reads around 24,000 miles,  you can't really be sure with an old K-bike unless you have a well documented title and detailed maintenance logs with receipts. Most K-bikes have had their odometer replaced. But based on the color of the fluids and the condition of the engine internals I have seen so far, this bike has at least been well cared-for. And for a K-bike, mileage is less important than the quality of maintenance since the design is so robust.
There were no signs of prior fluid leaks, and at the same time no signs that the engine externals had been mechanically cleaned with brushes, walnut shell blasting or chemical cleansers.

After a 100 mile test ride on the highway it looked like everything was coming together. Smooth acceleration, lots of power and no issues while zipping along around 70-80 mph. Could it be this simple -that all I needed to do was replace the radiator fan and coolant sensor and suddenly I had a nearly new K-bike? All seemed great until I exited the highway, stopped at a light and the engine bogged down. I was barely able to limp thru the intersection and coughed and sputtered to the other side of the road where suddenly the engine regained power and I was able to make it the rest of the way home.

Oh well, more troubleshooting ahead.

Tackling the Cooling System

I didn't catch the fact that the radiator fan had siezed up and -shocker- the previous owner forgot to mention it. I am sure he knew and it explained his desire to take my offer. At any rate, I took off the gas tank, fairing and radiator and swapped out the fan unit. While I had the bike apart I did a calibration check on the thermostat and it worked fine. I cleaned up the fins and then I also replaced the coolant temp sensor. Even though it worked fine I thought it would be prudent to just replace a 26 yr old sensor for 40 bucks while I had it apart. The cost for labor would be 5 times that at a dealer.
I learned a difficult lesson when I refilled the coolant. I overtorqued the drain plug and stripped the soft brass plug. A new plug only cost a couple bucks but I had to wait till I could get to the dealer for the part.

The good news is that I put it all back together and the new fan started spinning like a top once the temp sensor called for it. Very satisfying but my problems were not over yet.

Dealer Diagnosis

After replacing the clutch cable I rode the bike to the dealer for an inspection. Mainly i just wanted to make sure i did not have some huge hidden liability. The dealer estimate for parts and labor was almost $1300. They pointed out that I needed a new radiator fan and a bunch of hoses and clamps. They were nice about it and said that they could understand why i would not want to put that much money into a 26 yr old motorcycle. I told the dealer i would repair it myself and they actually printed off the list of part numbers i needed.

Armed with their parts list i went online and ordered all the bits and pieces. I naively thought online would be cheaper and faster . Actually the online prices were the same as my dealer had estimated. It took 2 weeks to get the parts online and i could have had them next day at the dealer.

The radiator fan was another story. The dealer quoted me almost 400 bucks for the fan and motor assembly. I found a used one for 50 bucks on ebay and i also had the option of a new motor for only $85. I decided to go with the ebay unit. Had the new fan in under a week.

Taking Delivery

I met the previous owner and took the bike for a ride long enough to  run thru all the gears, weave thru some twisty roads and try the brakes, lights and horn. It seemed to accelerate and stop well and the first noticeable issue was that the clutch lever was hard to pull.  I checked underneath the bike and didn't see any leaking and all the fluids seemed to be at the right levels. I realized this was a 26 year old bike, and frankly figured I needed to factor in 20% of the purchase price to fix all the unknown or hidden issues. When I worked out a price that allowed me the leeway I needed I pulled the trigger.

I was able to ride the bike home, park it in my garage and scheduled a visit to my local BMW dealer to have them do a detailed post-purchase inspection. As luck would have it, while I was driving it to the dealer, I pulled in the clutch cable and it snapped. Perhaps if I had looked closer I would have seen that the clutch cable was frayed under the rubber boot. Anyway, the previous owner had pointed out a worn spot in the cable sheath and had also included a spare cable. However, he had purchased a spare throttle cable -not a clutch cable. So instead of making a quick roadside repair of the included cable, I had to get a ride to the dealer, buy the new cable and install it myself. Lesson #1 learned.

Why & How I acquired my 85 K100RS

The why is simple. In 1985 I was in my mid-20's and first saw the K100RS in person in the parking lot of an upscale restaurant. It drew a bigger crowd than the Porsches in the lot. This bike was radically different and uber-cool.

 For years I thought I'd buy a K100RS but there were all those other things to take care of like attending grad school, paying off tuition, buying a house etc. Plus I was living in a cooler climate where the riding season was pretty short. Eventually, I ended up moving to a much warmer part of the country but by then I had reached a point in my careeer where, well, owning a motorcycle might be seen as some sort of mid-life crisis.

Recently I was reliving those old days and how much I had wanted a K-bike  when I was younger. The funny thing is that I could now afford to walk into the BMW dealer and drop cash on any sexy new bike in the dealership, but my preference was to find an old K100.  In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" the author reminds us that when we are working on a motorcycle we're really working on restoring ourselves.  Like so many insights in the book, that line stuck with me. I think I wanted to buy a K100 to restore something that I had lost in myself. Or maybe just to see how much I had changed since 1985. Either way, it became a compelling thought.

From time to time I would check Ebay or Craigslist for a BMW, but the listings never seemed right. It would be either a major project , or a restored bike, or a salvage title. Until one day I came across the right bike and I snagged it for slightly over trade in value. I could see it needed some work, but was driveable.

What follows is the genesis of this blog.

Welcome to BrickFlyer

Welcome. This blog is all about my efforts to resuscitate a 1985 BMW K100RS. From initial acquisition through restoration headaches through (hopefully) the eventual sport touring adventures with the restored bike I plan to document usefull lessons for others who find themself in a simliar situation.

The 1985 is the first model year that the K-Bike was introduced into the states. For years, BMW built their brand around the R-Bike, an opposed twin cyclinder bike that has been commonly referred to as the "boxer" configuration. The "boxer" nickname comes from the way a boxer would punch their gloves together before a fight, both hands coming into the center and then pulling back if that helps you visualize it.

Anyway, the FMY (first model year) 1985 K100 was a radical departure from the tried and true boxer. BMW decided to go from an opposed twin to an inline 4 cylinder and then chose to lay the engine on its side. (I'll avoid the temptation to describe it as "out of the boxer thinking" since that would be really cheezy and predictable.)  The design of the early K-bikes led to the new nickname "Flying Brick" in reference to the shape of the engine laid on its side, combned with the sheer power and acceleration, While litre-bikes in the 100HP range are not big thing today, it 1985 this was a huge leap forward.

When the K100 was released in the USA it garnered a lot of attention and numerous awards. Since its introduction, owners of the bike have reported squeezing over 200,000 miles from the engine, a remarkable comment on the quality of the engineering and the passion of the owners who ride them.

What follows will be something of a diary of my experience with this terrific machine. Enjoy