Bikerscum - Patrick St. Jean

...or adventures in motorcycle maintenance. I went out to the BMW club's tech day to get some regular maintenance done. It was a busy day with a really good turnout and I definitely got some help learning how to do the work. The summary was that I got the oil, transmission, and final drive fluids changed, new spark plugs, new air filter, valves adjusted, and throttle bodies synced. The alternator belt replacement didn't go so well, and I ran out of time so didn't go after the fuel filter or the brake/clutch bleeding.

Things I learned were that there are some special tools which I need to buy, but other than that the work isn't that hard, just time consuming and tedious.

This morning's adventure was going out to the BMW club's breakfast and then over to the Fort Worth dealer to pick up the fluids and alternator belt I need for the 48k service. It was an interesting drive, and yes, I didn't ride, because of the remnants of Ike moving up into Texas. We missed most of it because the track stayed east, but I still had to deal with a lot of wind and some rain. I've now got engine oil, gear oil, and an alternator belt, so if I've missed something it's probably minor and can be done later.

I hit the road a little earlier than I would have because Gustav had come on-shore and was heading our way. I went back up TX-6 to I-35 instead of playing on nice roads because I didn't want to get backed up in evacuee traffic, especially on I-45. The ride went well, averaging 47 mpg over the trip. The seat really needs to go. I'm looking at a Corbin, but I'm going to be saving my pennies for a while for that one! I'm going to check with the club members to see their opinion, and barring any any negative feedback or advice on something better, I'll have one before the long road trip.

Other than my sore rear end, I don't have a single complaint about the bike's performance. It's a great mile eater!

I packed the bike up for the first somewhat decent distance ride, from Lewisville to Houston. The ride was great, if a little on the hot side. There is a disadvantage to that full fairing in that I don't have the airflow I did with the Sportster, so the heat was an issue. Other than that the bike performed wonderfully. I averaged about 48 mpg over the entire trip, with most of the cruising in the 80 - 85 mph range. In fact, lets call that a second disadvantage to this bike, if I'm not careful I'm going to be spending a lot on speeding tickets!

I went down I-45 to Madisonville and then hopped on TX90 over to Anderson where I picked up FM149 which goes through the Sam Houston National Forest. The road was suitably twisty, which made the ride through the forest a lot of fun.

I got stuck in a little traffic in Magnolia and Waller, but after that no problems.

I think that the first upgrade is going to be a better seat though. This one was good for about 300 miles, and the last 50 or so were not as much fun as they could have been. Definitely going to have to get a long distance seat!

I went down to MotoLiberty this evening to look for a tank bag for the Beemer. I did find one, a nice black Cortech Mini. It's got everything I needed, including a non-magnetic mounting system for a bike with no ferrous metal in the gas tank or fairings.

After that I decided to look at helmets and jackets. Thanks to some great help and advice from the staff I came home with a Dainese Air-flux tex jacket and an Arai Vector helmet.

The jacket is amazingly light and comfortable, even with the spine armor in it. And best of all it's got pockets all over the place.

The helmet is nice and comfy with great air flow for hot Texas days so we'll see how they perform on the Houston ride...

Link: http://www.longwaydown.com/

There was a one night only sneak peek screening of an edited down version of the Long Way Down series that's about to air and I got tickets thanks to a timely announcement on the BMW club's mailing list.

After reading the book it was clear that they'd have to cut a lot of content out to fit into a movie length. They did a good job, though there were a few things I would have liked to have seen, but overall it was a good lead-in to the series.

I've been having some increasingly annoying issues with the Beemer. It's been starting rough, needing full choke to stay running until it's warmed up, it dies randomly, fuel mileage in the toilet, and flat spots all over the acceleration curve.

Thanks to some good advice from the on-line BMW community I made an informed guess as to the cause and went down to the Fort Worth BMW Motorcycles dealer and picked up a new stick coil. I replaced the one on the left hand cylinder last night and it was still running poorly, so I tried the right one. Bingo! The idle was back to normal.

This morning, with a totally cooled off motor it started with no choke, idled perfectly, and the flat spots on acceleration are gone. I'll be watching fuel consumption through this tank but it really does look like it's fixed.

Link: http://www.bmwdfw.org/

I got up a little early this morning and went out to the BMWDFW club breakfast to meet some of these people. It was a fun morning, lots of good discussion, humor, and very little attitude.

I'm glad I took the time to go out there to see them and will be sending in my membership money soon...

Just got back from the county tax office where I had to hand over some money and sign some more stuff in order to get the title transferred over to my name. The bike's now legally mine and I'll be riding the heck out of it to get used to it. Got a few errands planned for lunch today, etc.

It feels nice to have a title with no lien on it. Really nice.

Now I've just got to name it...