BluepoofBikes Motorcycle Adventures

Ted Porter Beemer Shop Update #3

The base gasket just arrived in the shop today after being delayed by the Bulgarians for a few days.  

So it's looking like around another week of shop time, assuming everything goes well from here on out.  At least the weather's looking relatively decent for the next week, so the XT commute won't be too cold/windy.

Ted Porter Beemer Shop Update #2

I've been up in Redmond for work this week, so I didn't get a chance to call Ted Porter's until this afternoon. 

"Hi, my name is Carolyn Bierman and I have a a F650GS in there for..."

"Carolyn! Hi! How are you?"

Uhoh. 

This man sounded very happy to hear from me.  It was the same cheerful tone my new dentist had when I called to schedule the seven cavities and two root canals I needed.  It was the cheerful tone of someone whose children I was about to put through college.

"Well, we unearthed the head gasket and, you know what's funny?"

No, I did not know what was funny.

"We could see the head gasket was leaking from the side, but when we took the radiator off, we saw that the base gasket was leaking, too! But from the front, so you couldn't see it without the radiator off!"

Well, that certainly is funny!

"So we'll just pull that off too but of course we had to order a base gasket because almost no one blows those" -- at this point, my coworker, whose office I was squatting in, is looking at me strangely because I'm rocking myself and making soft little noises -- "and we'll just get part on in there too within the next week!"

So.  I have not only blown my HEAD gasket, I have blown my BASE gasket.  How do you even blow a base gasket?

"Haha," Mr Cheerful continued, "your bike must be trying to tell you something! It must be getting back at you!"

I'm now in the full fetal position.  My coworker is about to call 911.

I manage to get off of the phone with an agreement to talk to the mechanic again within the week.

So, I have at least another week of commuting on the XT.  Blargle.  Why must my bike with the heated gear hookup die during the rainiest/windiest/coldest time of the winter?  It must be trying to tell me something.

Update from Ted Porter's

Just a quick update to say that I heard from the mechanic at Ted Porter's Beemer Shop.  The water pump is A-OK, so the next thing to check is the head gasket.  

They went ahead and ordered a new one, which should be at the shop by this coming Wednesday.

In the meantime, they're stripping the bike down to the engine head and said they'd give me a call when they can tell for sure whether it's the head gasket.

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.

Why I changed those front forks out...

Here's Rashmi's story, in SuperBike magazine.  

Click here for an enlarged version.

This, boys and girls, is why I swapped out my forks.  

BMW claims that they've never heard of this before, but ADVrider.com came up with at least six different riders who've had the exact same failure, some of whom have never had prior crashes or any off-road "down time".  

Plus, BMW itself changed the fork design radically in 2003 at exactly this failure point.  There have been no reports of fork failures on the 2003+ fork model.

So, was swapping my forks for the 2003+ model the cheapest thing I've ever done? No, of course not, but it wasn't the spendiest, either.  And knowing that I've put my bike through everything Rashmi did (and maybe more, offroad) and she still had this happen to her while riding down a smooth paved road....that piece of mind has been worth every penny.

Though she DID look pretty punk-ass in that hot black forearm cast.... *giggles, ducks, and runs*

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:

B4TheSnowFlies ride report

It still counts towards my "blog every day" goal, since I wrote the ride report in November. ;)

Clicky clicky for the B4TheSnowFlies ride report
 

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.

 

Puck Ewes vs Red Menace: 1-1

We had a great, if short-handed, game against Christine's team "Red Menace" tonight.  It was 1-1 going into OT, but no one scored then either, so we ended the game a tie.

I played center with Chris W and Sheila, our two new players from the Green division.  They're a really fun line!  Though I think I played a lot better on the defensive side of center than the offensive.  I had a couple of shots on net but nothing spectacular.

I did enjoy riding the Beemer to the game....mostly to see if I could. :)  My gear bag weighs about 25 lbs and, since my stick is short enough to fit sideways, it worked pretty well!