Georgia Mountains Feb 25th

CorTech Sport Tail Bag

I picked up a CorTech Sport tailbag for the brick. Although I have a big Givi 55 monokey bag, frankly it often feels like I'm riding a station wagon when the bag is loaded on it. So I thought a textile tail bag would do the trick. I needed something that would be able to carry my laptop since I often commute on my bike. I did a little research and found that the Cortech had expandable sides that can be zipped out for a laptop.
The bag is really well made, easily accommodates a laptop , gloves, rain pants and even a small lunch bag or a few books. It attaches with bungee shock cords that have hooks on the ends. So I can easily use it on my K bike or my RT. The bag also comes with a simple shoulder strap that I keep in the side pocket and it also had a rain cover.  When I get to work I just take off the bag, slap on the shoulder strap and I carry everything with me. If I'm making a quick trip to the store I also unclip it and take the bag along. Very handy.

I think I paid around $70. It's not cheap but pretty good quality for the money. I'd recommend it.

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...