BluepoofBikes Motorcycle Adventures

Off to the doctor

The Beemer went off to Ted Porter's Beemer Shop this morning.  

I hate seeing the bike in the truck.  Boo.  But, with work and hockey the way they are lately -- not to mention three other motorcycles that need some sort of attention -- I just didn't have the time or inclination to dig apart the bike.

I'd heard good things about Ted Porter's from the internet (plus my ADVrider.com/F650.com friend Miriam stopped there on her cross-country trip a couple of years ago), so we made the 40-mile trek down to Scotts Valley to drop off the Beemer.

The shop guy agreed that the stalactites were "pretty nasty" and also that this wasn't condensation.  

His guess was the head gasket, especially after seeing this:

The mechanic is supposed to give me a call within the week, so I'll get the official diagnosis then.

In the meantime, Colleen came over today and we disassembled her KLR forks to clean them out, plus replaced the fork oil.  I also replaced the fuel petcock on Peter's DRZ, so I did get some mechanic work in to make me feel a little less lazy for bringing the Beemer into a shop.

My motorcycle looks like Carlsbad Caverns.

W. T. F.

The Beemer's been running fine for once, which always makes me nervous.

And for good reason! So today, the temperature light went on. "That's odd," thought I, since it was 40F out at the time. I rode the rest of the way to work.

On the way home, no idiot light on the whole commute...until I pulled into my driveway. And when I parked, the bike smelled sorta funny.

I figured I'd check the coolant level just to make sure I didn't have a pinhole leak somewhere or something.

And then, when I took the oil cap off to remove the lefthand fairing, I found THIS:

I admit to shrieking like a little schoolgirl. What in the hell is that? So against my better judgment, I looked at the hole where you pour the oil. ACK!

Carlsbad Caverns:



My motorcycle:

There are LAYERS of STALACTITES in my oil tank.

At this point I was yelling in my garage sounding like Ralphie's dad in A Christmas Story, FARKINGMUMBLE STUPID BEEMER GOTTA BE KIDDING ME FRICKING ZARKLE CRAPPIN

Here's what the oil sight glass looks like:

Now, to me, this looks like money. Expensive, time consuming, money.

My first thought is a blown head gasket, but the oil inside the tank isn't creamy looking. The bike does smell sweet though (er, not in a happy way) and, well, there's all that crap.

I'm simultaneously pissed off and grossed out....and now I'm off to plug the XT onto the battery tender since apparently I'll be riding that for the foreseeable future.

New forks for the Beemer

Here's the write-up for replacing forks on a F650GS.

Why'd I do it?  From the write-up:

"As of this writing (November 2008), there have been multiple reports of catastrophic fork failures on the 2001-2002 model F650GS. BMW refuses to officially acknowledge the problem; however, for the 2003 model, the fork lowers were significantly reinforced. There have been no reports of failures from 2003 onwards.

Whether these '01-'02 forks should be subject to a BMW recall is a topic well outside of the scope of this writeup. However, I chose to preemptively replace my fork lowers with the '03+ model. Please note that the part number has not changed, but if you order a fork now, chances are that you'll get the new style."

For the curious, here are some comparison shots between the 2001-2001 fork lowers and the 2003+ models. It's very obvious where BMW has added substantial material around the axle mount.

The dirty ones are my '01 forks. ;)

Right side:

 

Left side:

F650GS: Replacing the headlight bulb

In its eternal quest to make me replace every one of its parts, the Beemer killed its low beam the other night.

Thus, you get a write-up.

 

First bike surgery with the Harbor Frieght lift

My moving present to myself was a nice Harbor Freight motorcycle lift.  I'd heard good things about them on the Chain Gang website and, since I spin a wrench now and again, I decided to go for it.

Peter and I finally got it into position last night (it had previously been used as a crap table for the garage while we're getting everything moved in) and put the DRZ up onto it.  Yep, it's only taken me 2 months since we returned, but I'm finally going to do the cross-country trip repairs on the poor little Suzuki.

As you can see above, the lift works perfectly for the DRZ when the latter is up on the little dirtbike stand that I got at Cycle Gear (the XT will also use the stand; the Beemer has a centerstand).  I use two tie-downs to stabilize the bike onto the lift's two U-bolts. 

The front wheel is also stabilized by a vice-like chock -- I wouldn't rely on the chock to hold the bike's weight (i.e. minus the tie-downs) but it does keep the wheel from turning.

If I were going to do anything that would really require torque (removing the front sprocket nut comes to mind), I'd get two more U-bolts and tie down the bike in four places.  The lift has holes for four U-bolts, but only two came in the package.

Removing the DRZ's rear wheel was really easy with the little trap door in the lift.  In the photo above, the lift is all the way down, but when I was working on the bike I had it up farther and the rear wheel just dropped nicely through the trapdoor (it gave Peter a scare, though, when a spacer fell and noisily jangled its way down through the metal lift...I think he thought the bike crashed over onto me).

Raising and lowering the lift is super-easy with foot pedals.  The foot pedals can also come off of the lift when you're not using them so that hypothetically uncoordinated people don't hypothetically jam their shins into them whenever said people are walking around the garage.  Hypothetically. 

My lift also has a hydraulic lift attachment, but I haven't used that yet.

One of the best parts about the lift is that it's also easy (read: possible) to move the bike around mid-maintenance.  I got partway done with the DRZ last night, lowered the lift and, with Peter's help, paralled-parked the lift back in a corner of the garage so that it's out of the way of getting the Beemer in and out.  *happy*

All in all, I'm thrilled to death with this lift.  You'll be seeing more photos of it in the future!

New windscreen for the black XT!

I love the TurboCity windscreen on the white XT so much that I got one for the black XT, too.

Between that and the Happy Trail sideracks that I put on last week, the XT is ready for a fall full of touring and camping.  

It's funny...I've always felt an affinity towards the white XT.  I think it was because I did the SF-Seattle ride on it; you know, got it all tour-worthy and packed up and stuff.  I never really felt the same way towards the black XT...until I put the racks and windscreen on it.

The (black) XT is going on a Sierras ride in early September, camping and everything.  Hopefully I can get another ride in on it before then.

A couple of new write-ups

I was busy spinning wrenches on the Beemer on Sunday:

Installing a fuse block

Installing PIAA lights

I hate mounting tires.

I'm now in hour 4 of mounting new tires to my XT225. I finally got the old tire off the rear and the new tire on and all back together and overinflated to set the bead and now the !@#$% tube is pinched or something and it won't re-deflate. I want to die.

If beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy, mounting new tires is proof that something else hates us and wishes we would just go away already.

Gave up for the day and am now drinking beer and heating up a frozen pizza. Carbohydrates make everything better.

Installing Moto-Sport Pannier Racks

Clicky clicky for my new write-up for installing Moto-Sport Pannier racks

Write-up for patching a tube tire

Click here for the write-up!