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 !