48,000 mile service

First, let's talk about money and the cost of owning a BMW K1600GT.  Then, I'll give my notes on the 48,000 mile service.  Below is my maintenance and cost log since I bought the bike new.  It's everything I've done to the bike, except upgrades and any repairs that were my fault or the dealers fault... like replaced Tupperware, broken off bolts, etc.  When you add the total cost of maintenance, plus the cost of the bike and divide by the number of miles, you get $0.55/per mile cost of ownership.   That doesn't, of course include gas.  That varies highly based on country, state, locality, political fervor, foreign nations praying for our ruination, wind and the position of the moon; among other things.

I decided to start doing my own maintenance.  The bike is out of warranty.  This experience taught me that dealers aren't treating my precious bike nearly the way I want it treated, so I'm glad I'm doing this.  Since I am mechanically inclined; but, by no means a motorcycle mechanic, I sought help from my good friend who is that and more.  Scot and his wife invited me into their home, where I stayed a week.  We swung wrenches, barbecued, cooked and had a good time together.  There were delays, trips for parts and tools, etc.; but, we got through the entire 12,000 mile maintenance schedule and the annual maintenance schedule.  I estimate the dealer charge from my 36,000 mile invoice ($1373.89) + new tires + new brakes + labor to do all those things at $2500.  We did all the work for $1030.00.  In the process, we found 2 bolts with their heads completely snapped off, 1 that was rounded out and 1 that was missing altogether.

Below is the list of things that need to be done as part of 12,000 mile service.  In addition to that, I'm losing 500ml of oil every 5,000 miles (I measured).  There is either a leak somewhere, or the engine is burning oil.  In addition, the rear tire pressure sensor is lying to me.  It's reading no pressure in the rear tire, when it is actually at 40psi.

* Run the vehicle diagnostic system
* Valve check and adjustment
*  Replace all spark plugs
* Oil and Filter Change
* Air and Filter Change
* Oil Change Rear Bevel Gears
* Drain Condensate Hose
* Visually inspect brake pipes, brake hoses and connections
* Check front brake pads and disks for wear
* Change brake fluid, front brakes
* Check rear brake pads and brake disc for wear
* Change brake fluid, rear brakes
* Check clutch system
* Check coolant level
* Check ease of movement of side stand
* Check was of movement of center stand
* Check lights and signaling equipment
* Function test, engine start suppression
* Final inspection and check of roadworthiness
* Run the vehicle diagnostic system
* Setting service-due and service countdown distance
* Checking battery charge state
* Confirming BMW Service in on-board documentation

First up, sourcing the parts...  For this, I shopped at Morton's BMW online.  I spoke with Cassandra, who was very helpful, although, we missed ordering the spark plugs.  Morton shipped the tires, oil change stuff, air filter change stuff, rear differential oil, pads, brake fluid all for $30.  Later on in the service, I needed some ideas as to how to get the air distribution rail off.  I called their service department and they were very happy to help me.  They certainly didn't have to and they got nothing for the advice, except the likelihood that I'd do business with them again...and I certainly will.

Right off the bat, and at the top of the post has to be this awesome forum with the service manual in PDF format.  If you can get the DVD service manual, please do.  It will be much faster.  If you don't, you'll still have the information; but, you'll have to hunt for the pages.

Tires

I went with Michelin Road Pilot 4 GT's.  I was happy I ordered these online.  It seems that every time I go into a dealership for tires, I come out with a mismatched set.  Last set was at 33,092.  I had an RP3 on the front and an RP4 on the back.  Interestingly enough, I got about 14,400 miles out of the rear and the front tire.  The front was ready to replace, by conservative standards; but, the rear was worn out; any more, I'd be into the belts.

Getting the tires online leaves the DIY guy with a problem - either mount and balance yourself, or find someone willing to do that for you.  It's not easy being a BMW rider.  Many shops will not work on BMW tires.  Don't ask me why, I don't know.  Still other shops won't mount and balance unless you buy the rubber there.  Deepening the problem is that every BMW dealership is always 500 miles from your present location, unless your're actually making the pilgrimage there.  Fortunately for me, my friend Scot found a local shop that would do the work, since we didn't have the proper equipment to tackle the task.

The next issue is getting the front axle out.  To do that, you have a couple options while your bike is on the center stand.  All options involve weighting the rear of the bike to lift the front wheel off the ground and then supporting the bike in that position while you do the work of removing the front wheel.  Scot and I are a couple of burly guys, so one held the rear end down while the other worked the front end magic.  I had to buy a tool for the job, a 22mm hex axle removal tool.  In order to mate this tool, which is driven by a 3/4 inch driver, I needed a reduction socket.  All that cost $76; but, won't be included in my cost of service because it's reusable and I could have gotten it much cheaper online.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to wait for delivery.

Off to the shop we go to have the tires mounted.  When they got the tires, Gary, our technician, discovered, without any prompting from us, that the rear pressure sensor was broken.  The issue here is that the rear pressure sensor is held in place near the valve stem.  Apparently, it had worked it's way loose.  How anything, traveling at speeds varying from 0 - 70 something something miles per hour could work it's way loose is beyond me; but, it did and, they didn't have the specific part to do the repair.  As good luck would have it, the tire could be mounted so this could be addressed at a time that wouldn't ruin the rest of my travels.  I left the shop with new rubber on my rims and a pressure sensor in hand.  They charged me $98 and change for the service.  I was still way ahead of where I would be if I walked into a dealership.  Here's a picture of the new sneakers.

This guy gets the nod for how to change the wheels on a K1600GT...

Brakes

While the tires were off, it was time to take a look at the pads, hoses, pipes and disks.  I ordered pads for the front and the rear.  I happen to be pretty hard on the rear brake, mostly because I do a lot of slow riding with trail braking.  I really like slow riding, so I do it a lot...much more than I use the front brake to stop the bike.  I typically scrub most of the speed with downshifting.  As expected, the rear brake pads needed to be replaced; but, the front brakes weren't too bad.

We noted that the brake rotor in the rear is starting to develop some grooves.  It's not bad; but, should be replaced.  That will happen next time I'm ready for brakes.  I will change the rear pads and rotor at the same time.  The cost of a new rotor is $700 and change from BMW.  I am told there are good aftermarket rotors available at substantially less cost.

Interestingly enough, the service manual does not seem to supply a torque setting for the bolts that attach the calipers to the bike.  This is unfortunate because I really like to torque things.  Keep that in mind if you do this.  All aspects of replacing the pads, dumping the brake fluid and replacing it are very straightforward and intuitive.

Front Brakes

Rear brakes  - all cleaned up!

One thing that I'll note is that while the tires are off, it's the perfect opportunity to do some cleaning.  You won't get that at the dealership.  Yeah, they will wash the bike for you; but, everything under the wheel guards will be caked with more road grime than you can imagine.  I bought a box of disposable shop rags and a bottle of Simple Green for the purpose.  I'll be surprised if I have any of them left.

Bleeding the brakes

Bleeding brakes is pretty easy, and even easier with a friend and a mini-vac.  These brakes required a little patience.  Initially, we couldn't figure out why the brakes would not bleed and were looking for another bleeder screw.  The shop manual indicates there is a bleeder valve right by the master cylinder; but, there is not one there.  We consulted YouTube for someone who may have done a video on this and ran into a problem when a video, about another bike with linked brakes, indicated that there was as second bleeder valve on the rear caliper, as the linked pistons were independent of the rear brake pistons.   This made perfect sense, so I looked for another bleeder.  There was another rubber cover on the rear caliper and I pulled it off.  Unfortunately, it's not a bleeder, it's a rubber piece that allows the pads to 'float. We couldn't get it back on.  I asked in the K6gt forum for thoughts on this and got no reply.  The solution was to pull the caliper off and separate it into two halves.  From there, the rubber piece is inserted into the caliper from the inside, using the blunt end of a dental instrument to push it through from the inside of the plug.  Any thin, blunt object will do, even a bolt.

Oil Change

Changing the oil requires steadfast attention.  Getting the oil out of the pan isn't the issue, it's getting the oil out of the sump.  When the oil starts to rush out of the sump, you have a problem.  Hot oil is running down your hand and arm, you can't move the bucket anywhere to get better position and so, your arm is contorted into this awful position whilst trying to balance that little plug on the end of a tool.  I happened to lose it in the commotion.  Fortunately, simply inserting the outer plug with it's magnet was enough to pull the sump plug over and I managed to recover it without any issues.

Air Filter Change

A busted bolt.   It looked like 1 of the 3 bolts were simply not reinstalled; but, on closer inspection, we realized that the bolt head was snapped off.  This was probably the result of someone using a power tool to reinsert the bolt and it got cross threaded.  We tried backing it out; but, that wasn't happening.  We used the cutting wheel on a Dremel tool to cut it flush and next service, I'll replace the air box...that is made in Vietnam and sent to us via Germany through whatever dealer we use...most certainly it will be Morton's again.  It will take at least a week and we did not have the time for that during this service.  I'll order it in advance of my next service.

Rear Bevel Gear Fluid Change

Well, here, things took an interesting turn.  BMW, in their infinite wisdom, put the filler hole under the rear rotor.  That means the rear tire has to come back off.  If I had read all the procedures before I started doing the work, I would have known this; but, I was reading them one at a time as I went along.  Sooooo, the rear wheel came back off.  When Scot and I went to drain the rear gear oil, we noted that the drain bolt was rounded out.  This is really bad as we can't drop the oil any other way.  We ended up buying an impact wrench, that we didn't use.  We were able to tap a hardened easy out bit in there and turn it with vice grips.  Once that was done, we drew up 180 ml gear fluid and pushed it through the filler hole.  Mighty Vac sells a hand vacuum that worked perfectly to accomplish this; although, I've read about people using other, less expensive items.  The hand vacuum also came in handy for evacuating the coolant reserve; so, it was a good purchase.

Coolant

This was a major surprise.  The overflow was dry and we couldn't see or feel coolant in the radiator.  What wasn't a surprise is that we had to remove more Tupperware to get to do the refill.  I'm very curious about why this was so dry.  Was it missed last service, or did I just use it all?  Note that I've never seen a drop of anything under this bike.

Spark plugs and Valve Adjustment

Initially, the plan was to leave this part to the dealer; but, because we had to wait for a rear bevel gear drain plug to be shipped to us, we took it on.  Scot was really stoked about this.  I was quite skeptical.  There are a lot of pieces parts involved in this step.  This is, as they say, where shit gets real.  Here's the list of what has to be done, just to change the spark plugs.  The only step beyond this to check the valve clearance is to remove the crankcase cover.  This is also the part where we're most likely to determine the cause of the oil leak or burn.

Bad BMW for requiring all this just to get at 6 spark plugs.  Removing the radiator to access the spark plugs is completely ridiculous and compounds maintenance costs for this bike.  It's no wonder why BMW riders a pissed off about BMW maintenance schedules and costs.  BMW, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Tear down - Getting the Tupperware off

Get your T-25 torx wrench out.  The side panels need to come off, as do the lower panels.  There's plastic bits that go over the radiator, the radiator itself and the mounting piece of plastic that's behind it.

To get to the plastic, we had to remove the Wunderlich engine guards.  These hefty bars get bolted into the engine and protect things should the bike go down.  They look like this:

While removing that, I noted that one of the 3 bolts on the right side guard was broken and just hanging there.

Here's what was left of the bolt above, after we got the cover off to see if we could deal with this.

Fortunately, there was enough there to get vice grips on and back it out.  I was also lucky that the threads were not cross threaded and the new bolt slid in pretty easily.  This makes for the 3rd bolt that was either rounded out, or the head was taken off altogether.  It begs the question; how much of this sort of thing is caused by service technicians who should know better.  At a minimum, if they didn't do it; but, see it, they should tell the owner.   I'm glad I'm taking responsibility for my bikes maintenance now.

After completing this mini-project, we got back to removing all the tupperware on the front end of the bike.  At this point, I found evidence of my oil consumption problem that is making me lean heavily toward the possibility that this is a leak from the valve cover gasket.  When I went to remove the right lower cowling, I got a handful of oil.  It would seem that oil is coming off that gasket, dripping onto the cowling, where it runs off the back side as the bike is moving.  I've never seen a drop of oil under the bike.  This would be the result of the last valve clearance check, which was done by my local dealer.

 This is what came out of the Tupperware on my radiator when I removed it.

Draining the cooling fluid the BMW way.  I think it's easier at the radiator; but, who am I?

 This crispy little guy was wedged somewhere in the Tupperware on the bike.  The bike is an absolute bug killer.   I found two dragon flies of this size.

Here's a view of the left side of the bike once the Tupperware is off and the radiator out of the way.

Once the radiator is off, you can get down to the business of removing the air distribution line, the coils and spark plugs.  I called Morton's service department for assistance in removing the air distribution line.  I am using an online manual and can't click through the links as I should be able to.  I was unable to find the procedure for getting this off.  Morton's was very helpful and indicated that heating up the metal with a hair dryer would help.  It just pulls out.  We did that and removed the plugs and ignition coils.

Removing the crank cover gasket is problematic as there are two bolts holding it on that are in a place where a torque wrench will not fit.  There is not enough clearance.  I put a question out to the forum above and hope for some suggestions tomorrow.  Getting it off isn't the problem.  Getting it back on at the right torque is.  The solution turns out to be a torx bit that would go in a driver, operated by a ratcheting handle.  These will have to be carefully torqued by hand based on the feel of properly torquing the others.

After removing the crankshaft cover, we got a look at the valve gasket, which didn't look so bad; but, when we put a flashlight behind the cylinders, we could see oil that had been leaking at some point.  There was also oil on the outside left front of the cylinder cover, I'm really thinking that the oil leak was most likely the cylinder head cover.  I ordered a new gasket.

Here's a good pic of the engine with the crankshaft cover off.  We measured the valve clearances and they are all well within tolerances.  In fact, I'd say that they are barely worn.   I had to buy a ratcheting wrench to slide over a torx bit in order to get the rear bolts off the cylinder head.  Note that there is a big risk of dropping the bit down one of the holes for the direct ignition coils.  Use paper towels to block these holes and prevent all sorts of aggregation, frustration and general discontent.

The valve clearances are all within spec.  A couple intake valves seem just a smidge tight; but, better tighter than worn and loose.  One thing I didn't mention yet was the cover for the access to the crankshaft.  That cover provides access so we can turn the crankshaft during the valve clearance check.  It was entirely missing one bolt.  That leaves open the possibility that oil could have been leaking from there as well.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

We can't go much further without talking about this dirty rotten scoundrel.  She is this absolutely adorable 50% wolf, 50% German Shepard mix named Grace.  Those precious brown eyes and seemingly innocent looking face are a disguise.  She is a thief, a burglar, a pilferer, a sneaky robber who stole a plastic bit of my motorcycle and absconded to the back yard with it.  Fortunately, she didn't chew it to pieces.  There are only a couple small tooth marks on it and now, I can honestly say my motorcycle was bitten by a wolf.  Gracie, thank you for your contribution.  Don't do it again.

GS-911 to the rescue

The bike didn't start up on first attempt after we got it back together.  We couldn't find anything to let us know what was wrong.  I bought a GS-911 and had it shipped to me.  It bricked 10 minutes after I got it.  All I did was register it and update the firmware.  Fortunately, we were able to find a back version of the launcher software and get it to do what we needed to for this service.  Support says I need to ship it back.

Wiring

The GS-911 pointed out that the crankshaft sensor was unresponsive.  The cause was that it was plugged into the wrong harness.  That was my fault.  This brings about a very critical point.  Wires are not labeled.  Label them before you separate wires from harnesses and save yourself the trouble.

Cooling System

Make sure to burp (bleed) your cooling system.  Failure to do so will result in your engine overheating.  Here's the issue.  When your bike hits about 230 degrees, the cooling fan will come on.  Under normal conditions (proper radiator fluid at capacity), the radiator will cool the cooling fluid down to about 200 degrees F, and keep the bike in that range.  If, you don't bleed the cooling system, a tiny air bubble could keep the proper amount of cooling fluid from being in the bike.  You'll see this after bleeding because once that bubble is gone, your reservoir will dump into the radiator.  Less cooling fluid = less ability to cool the bike.  The fan will still come on; but, there just won't be enough medium to move the heat away from the engine to the radiator.  Burp the cooling system and verify that the cooling system does not red line.  If you have a GS-911, you'll be able to watch the temperatures directly.  If you don't, make sure you test for at least 15 minutes at idle.  The fan should come on and you should never hit red line.  On mine, I get about 7 bars under normal operation.

Tupperware

There's a lot of it.  Putting it back together is a trial and error experience.   You have to be careful about what panel tie into what and make sure that you account for all places that a bolt is supposed to go.  Failure to do so will result in an insecure panel and my bet is that at 70 mph, it might depart the bike with plenty of damage to go with it.  My suggestion is to get out plastic baggies and put all the bolts for each panel in it's own baggie and tape them to the Tupperware in question, or number them, or mark them in whatever way makes you comfortable.  You will spend more time putting it together than you spent taking it apart.  I also recommend that the next time you happen upon a BMW dealer, or come across them elsewhere, you pick up a couple dozen T-25 Torx bolts for the Tupperware parts.  It's easy to drop one and not find it until the next time you take the bike apart, or never.

I still haven't gotten the order down to science yet.  So far, I've figured out that the top 3 panels can go first.  The piece on the bottom by the radiator can be placed at any time before the lower panels and the big middle panels have to go in before the lower panels.  The biggest pain in the neck are the fog lamps and you will have to be patient with getting these right.  If you have crash bars, take note of what bolts you need to use for those and make sure you don't sink them in before you have the crash bars on.

Final notes and impressions:

1)  With 48,000 miles on the bike and the non existent wear on the valves, I'm considering not doing the valve clearance check at 12,000 mile service intervals.  The BMW dealer said that they rarely have to do a valve adjustment and I'm seeing negligible wear.  Every time you remove the gasket, you risk damaging it and creating more problems.  12,000 miles seems like too often.   I'm considering also moving the spark plug maintenance and the valve clearance to 24,000 mile intervals.

2)  There is a lot of time involved in this maintenance.  Lots of it is wasted going on tool runs, parts runs, waiting for parts to be delivered, taking tires for mounting and balancing, trying to do the maintenance on the garage floor, etc.  If you're serious about doing this yourself, you might consider getting a motorcycle table lift and being sure you have everything you will need at your fingertips and the bike is in a position where you don't have to get up and down every couple minutes for a tool.  Being able to mount your own tires would also be very worthwhile.

3)  Having the GS-911 or the BMW tool is a must.  The service for all service intervals calls for reading the diagnostics and it is also necessary to reset the service reminder.  If anything goes wrong, you'll need to have it on hand to diagnose the problem.  I originally was going to do the service and just drive it in to a dealer to reset the service reminders.  I've come a long way from that way of thinking.  There are plenty of switches and such that the rider never even knows about.  If any one of them go bad, you'll need this tool to diagnose the problem.  That crankshaft sensor, for example, will not prevent a running bike from continuing to run; but, the second it's turned off, it won't start back up.

Uneven road surface - what happens if you catch an edge of your tire?

The question usually goes like this...I'm riding on the highway and there's construction up ahead.  They are paving a lane and I have to merge into the new lane.  The pavement level of the new lane is higher than the pavement  I'm on. 

The picture below is an alley way in Chicago.  I was approaching this for the second time to access a garage down the alley to the right, after that brick wall.  The first time, I took the center because my bike is wide and A) I didn't want it near the garbage cans B) Even more, I didn't want it near the brick wall and C) that center piece is wider than my tires, so it shouldn't be an issue.  The first time, I was paying attention and did this without problem.  The second time, not so much.

The second time, I was focused on something else.  I don't know what it was.  It could have been a bumble bee in my helmet or a chipmunk running up that drain pipe.  It doesn't really matter what it was, I wasn't giving this obstacle the attention it deserved.  My front tire  edge caught the pavement's edge ...I think the left side of my front tire contacted the raised pavement on the left side.  I was launched at the brick wall.  The distance between the center and the wall is less than 4 feet.

Right about now, you're probably wondering what happened.  I did not wreck; but, I'm absolutely sure that an inexperienced rider would have either hit the wall or dumped the bike after narrowly missing the wall.  It was a violent event.  I was fortunate, my reaction was the right one and that's why I want to share.  Every situation is different, so your mileage may vary.  Don't take this as an instructional post - just the thoughts of someone who's had the experience.

My reaction wasn't to grab the brakes.  This would certainly lead to a wreck.  Why?  Because when you grab the brakes you change the geometry of the bike and destabilize it.  The faster a motorcycle is moving, the more stable it is.  Try riding 1 mph and compare that to 70 mph.  At 70, your bike is rock solid at 1 mph, it's as unstable as Charles Manson on crack.   My response was to turn away from the wall and keep my speed unchanged.  Pressure the left handle bar and lean.  I stayed off the throttle.  My thinking is that once the bike is back upright, it's a good time for brakes.  Throttle, uncontrolled could send you into the opposite wall...and that would bad.  Bouncing off the garages all the way down the alley, like a pin ball, would not only hurt; but, it would probably wreck your bike.

So, there it is....what happens if your tire catches an edge.  Going back to the highway example, you probably have a much greater time period to deal with the problem...lest you merge really late and find yourself face to face with some road signage.   Attacking the obstacle deliberately is the best approach, just don't be  but, wishy washy about it.  Don't lose your focus.  Commit.  I wasn't paying attention and nearly payed for it with a wrecked bike.

20130408 - Chicago - Beaver Creek Ohio - Readington NJ - Florida

The plan all week was to take the bike for a 3 day leisurely ride, camping along the way and doing maybe 300 or so mile legs.  I checked the weather this morning and realized that wasn't going to happen.  It looks like I need to arrive on Saturday, or face rain and wind on Sunday.  Then again, Saturday night could have snow and the temp won't be higher than 36.  No matter how you slice this, I decided that I was better off being in the north part of the country than playing around in the southern half.  I loaded my stuff up and left.

The plan now is to avoid Atlanta on a Friday, and instead, go through Montgomery Alabama, pick up I-6 and ride it up as far as Bowling Green Ky.  From there, I'd pick up Rt. 41, yes, the same 41 that goes all the way into Florida and ride it to Chicago.  41 is also a free road.  I-65, of course is owned by the toll Nazi's.  Tomorrow will be quite tricky.  I should be OK until I get somewhere in Indiana, when the temperatures are likely to be hovering around freezing.  I'll need to be mindful of snow and ice.

So, today's ride was pretty nice.  Of course, I've ridden Rt. 19 many many times; but, I had a nice lunch in Bainbridge Georgia.  It looks like the center of town is on the decline; but, there is a nice deli right in the middle of town.  I was looking for something other than standard fast food while on the road, and I found it.  I ended up having a chicken tender sandwich with buffalo sauce, lettuce and tomato, plus chicken enchilada soup.  It hit the spot.

The entire route up to I-65 in Alabama was state and country roads.  This is exactly what I like to ride.  There was a short 10 mile section of I-10; but, no other interstate until I-65.  In fact, somewhere around Troy, I was thinking about how nice it would be to have some twisties.  Before you know it, God blessed me with about 15 miles of 55 mph semi-blind sweepers.  It was a nice break from an otherwise routine destination ride.

Once I got to I-65, everything was good until Birmingham, which I hit at rush hour.  I'll take Birmingham over Atlanta any day.  When the sun went down, temperatures started to plummet quickly and Nashville was hosting every sporting event known to man, so hotels were sold out for miles.  I was just about to call AAA when I managed to find a room at a Super 8 motel.  Actually, this room is quite nice, although I don't understand this:

So far, I've made it to Franklin, Ky.  As suspected, this is where things get interesting weather wise.

 

The good news is that the snow has moved out of Chicago and my route today should be clear of falling snow.  The bad news is that the temperatures won't break 35 for the majority of my route.  That means that there could be snow or ice accumulation along my route.  Also worthy of mention is that I called the B&B that I'm staying at.  They can't accept an early arrival because they have people there.  My check in is no earlier than Sunday at 3pm.  The forecast shows 70% chance of showers at that time; but, the temperature will be in the 40's.  It's nice when the options are limited...the plan is to go about 4 hours today, leaving at a leisurely 10am and riding for 4 hours, or maybe 5.  That will put me 2 hours south of my destination.  If I can get a late checkout tomorrow, I will leave at 1 and only ride 2 hour in the rain; but, it will not be freezing cold.  As much as I don't want to be on the Interstate, I might be better off if there's any precipitation left on the ground.  I-65 it is then.

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It's Sunday morning, and I've made it to Merrillville In., just shy of Chicago.  Yesterday's ride took longer than expected.  What should have been 6 and a half turned into 8, mostly due to horrendous traffic around Indianapolis.    Indianapolis has more than it's share of clovers.  Clovers is a term I heard first used in an article posted by my friend Jim.  It describes drivers that aren't paying attention, squatting in the passing lane, riding along side each other so no one can pass, and otherwise obstructing traffic.  Indianapolis has more than it's fair share.  I think I shocked some millennial clover when we got to the top of the interstate off ramp and she decided then was the time to finish texting.  My horn interrupted her and after we turned, she shot me a look like I'm some impatient, aggressive driver.  Perhaps things are different out here.

Other than the clovers and the huge traffic jam in Indianapolis,  yesterday's ride went really well.  I was expecting temperatures to drop to 35 degrees and stay there the whole way.  Instead, I was blessed with a 40 degree ride most of the day.  5 degrees does matter.  The temp only dropped below 40 when I was 34 miles from my destination.  Once again I need to thank Mr. Gerbings for providing such wonderful riding gear.  Riding in an electric riding suit is really awesome, and being behind the big fairing of the K1600GT really breaks the wind.  I am certain that riders without a fairing on the front won't fair as well as the wind wicks away all the heat from the suit.  When the weather gets really cold - below 30 - I put my rain gear on to further break the wind.  I've ridden in my riding gear comfortably down to 11 degrees.

Late into my ride, I got the check oil warning again.  I checked the oil and indeed, I needed to add some.  This has been going on since my last valve adjustment.  I needed more oil just before the last oil change and at the time, I was wondering if the shop didn't add enough after the valve adjustment, or if they did the adjustment wrong, or perhaps the head gasket is leaking.  I did the oil change the last time and I'm sure I added the correct amount of oil.  That removes human error from the equation.  I will be doing my maintenance this time around with my friend Scot and we will look into this.  Another valve adjustment is due.  If we can't deal with the issue ourselves, I hope we can point the mechanic to the cause.  So far, the bike is burning less than a quart per oil change.

I chose Merrillville not because of all the fun things to do; but, because it put me an hour out of Chicago, where rooms are likely to be cheaper and it gave me several options for getting into Chicago this morning.  Right now, I'm waiting for the weather to get warmer so I only have to ride in rain and not the 'wintery mix' they're having here now.

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OK, welcome to Sunday.  I found myself in an unusual situation.  Usually, I'm up, dressed and back on the road in a matter of minutes; but, today, I had to wait out some weather.  I even had to request a late checkout.  The latest I could check out would be noon.  By then, the temperature would be in the low 40's.  If I could wait until 2, I would have mid 40's for temperature  It was going to be windy and rainy for my 1 hour ride in to Chicago.  There was going to be no avoiding it.  Fortunately, it's only rain and wind and not thunderstorms with hail and tornadoes.  I found a path in that didn't require payment of tolls.  I hate tolls for several reasons; but, other than the obvious, they are dangerous places for motorcycles to be.  It's easy to get rear ended by someone who isn't paying attention, motorists aren't paying attention when they change lanes to get the 'open' booth and, equally bad, the area inside the toll booth always has a slick of oil/condensate mix that will sure as hell put you on your back if you get your footing wrong.  I always put the kickstand down when I'm in the toll booth rooting around for money.  I digress.

Checkout time came and I had 3 and a half hours to go before I could check in.  Initially, I planned to grab lunch in Merrillville and then head over to Chicago; but, when I left, it was cold; but, not really raining yet.  I decided to move toward my destination and deal with the lag when I got there.

On the way over, I got a low pressure warning on my rear tire.  It's probably because they are cold.  I put air in it anyway.  Next week, I have a new pair of Michellin Road Pilot 4's coming for both the front and rear.  I'm running out of tread and need new sneakers!

I GoPro'd the Dan Ryan and Lake Shore Drive on the way over.  Here it is - all of it in 5 minutes.  Specifically featured are the Chicago skyline, the proper way to zipper merge, what to do when you find yourself in the wrong lane and a roller coaster feel.

I arrived at the B&B suggested to me by a friend Justin.  He's stayed here before and said it's both comfortable and inexpensive.  I think he was right.  Here's a video of the place:

 Now I'm here, my blog is caught up.  I was looking for a restaurant to go to tonight; but, it's really ugly out there tonight.  I may just find a place that will deliver and avoid going outside.  I am expecting the owner to come over.  I arrived to find that the toilet was dripping from the handle.  I pulled the top just to see if it could be easily repaired; but, it can't.  It will require a plumber.  In the mean time, I'll have to turn the water off and on at the bottom.  Eric, the owner, said he'd make sure the plumber came in tomorrow and would be here soon to check on it himself.

I'm hopeful that I can get off street parking.  It seems like a really nice neighborhood; but, there are a lot more cars and traffic and people around than I'm used to seeing.  I know Erick offers a garage at $30/night; but, I also noted a gated place in the back that would be just fine.

I spoke with Erick.  He saw my bike sitting on the street and told me that he didn't want to see it there.  He told me he drives a BMW 7 series.  He said I could put it in his garage for $20/night.  That's fine with me.  Rusty, his business partner went to open up the garage for me.  It's big enough for both my bike and his car.  I don't plan on using it until I'm ready to leave, so chances are,  it will stay right there and Rusty can still use the garage.  I'm betting the guys won't even charge me the $20/night since they are still able to use their garage.

While I was talking to Rusty, I met Yankee - their Golden retriever mix.  Yankee came right over to say hello, get some lovin' and then demand that I play fetch with him for a while.  How awesome is that.  Rusty invited me over to have dinner with them.  I love B&B's.  It's rainy and windy and generally crappy out.  I really don't want to go looking for dinner.

---------------

So, I had dinner with Rusty, Erick and Yankee.  Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread and salad.  I ate more than I should.  Great conversation with these guys.  Rusty is an attorney and Erick is in real estate.  They bought this place 11 years ago, remodeled it and have been in business for 10 years.   Erick is originally from NY; but, you'd never know it.  I can't pick up even a trace of accent.  Rusty is from Ohio.  Yankee is from Chicago.  Yankee likes to play fetch and to be petted.  Nothing else really matters.  It was a good choice to stay here for the week.


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4/15/2016 - This trip continues.  On this leg, I will go to my friend Scot's house, where he and I will do the 48,000 mile service on my bike (separate post).  I decided to take the scenic route through Indiana and I'm really glad I did.  For the majority of the trip, I didn't encounter any traffic lights.  I stayed off the interstate also.  A few times, I encountered a blinking red light; but, that was the only traffic signal.

I do have to comment about the way they work on the roads in Indiana...and Ohio.  The just shut them down.  This is really annoying; but, probably cost effective.  The problem is that you encounter a road closed sign and have not idea how long the detour is going to last or where it's going to take you.  If you're navigating by GPS, the GPS is constantly trying to route you back to where the detour started at, so that's useless.  Since you don't know how long the detour is, you don't know if you should follow it, or bail and find your own alternate.  This happened twice during this trip and both times, put me far behind my intended travel times.

Sorry, no pictures of this one; but, here's the map of this trip so far.  The only comment I have about it was that I was pleasantly surprised that the trip out of Chicago on a Friday was surprisingly quick.  I was leaving at 1pm; but, still; very light.

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My 48,000 mile service is complete.  I had to extend my stay with Scot another day in order to get my iPhone fixed.  I crashed the glass with my handlebars and I couldn't do anything with it.  I couldn't even swipe it to get it to open.  This is the second time in less than a month.

Scot, Marsha and Gracie were fantastic hosts.  They not only accommodated me for what was supposed to be a maintenance weekend; but, they graciously had me stay for the weeks worth of delays.  Scot caused me to gain 10 pounds.  He's a hell of a cook.  Gracie was so disturbed that I was leaving that she was biting my boots as I was walking out.  She's a very sensitive creature and communicates very effectively.

So, the weather picture was such that I could ride between thunderstorms.  Storms would be coming in to Beaver Creek by 12:45 - 1pm and would be leaving the Cleveland areas and points east by the time I would get there.

I opted for the scenic route and took rt. 42 from just east of Beaver Creek all the way up to Ashland Ohio before bailing out to an Interstate.  I was getting into a lot of stop and go traffic, traffic lights, low speed limits and such.  My suspicion was that it was only going to get worse the closer I got to Cleveland.  I joined the Interstate for what must have been 3 hours - all the way to Conneaut before I was able to turn east on to rt. 6.  6 would take me all the way across the state.  Ohio farmland is nothing like Indiana farmland.  Indiana has much nicer manicured farms and farm houses...one after another.  Ohio farmers seem to like dandelions...by the acre load.

The temperatures plummet rapidly as you approach the lake.  I noted this with Lake Michigan as well.  The cold air blowing down from the north, over the lake cools things down for miles.  What started out as a 77 degree day in Dayton, ended up being a 42 degree day by the lake.  The best it got while riding east, away from the lake was 50; but, that was only for a moment.

I stopped in Porter County PA.  The sign when you enter on Rt. 6 says "Porter County - God's Country"  The lady at the front desk of this inn says it's God's country because no one else will have it.  She said there is nothing going on up here.  Before the new governor took office, they would be fracking; but, now that is gone.  She said most folks around here are elderly and and finishing out their lives where they grew up.  There isn't much infrastructure here at all.  Motels, food places and gas stations are all few and far in between.  When I came across this inn in Couldersport, I decided it was better for me to take it than to risk not having a place to be for the night in rapidly dropping temperatures.  Besides, it was after 8pm anyway.  I was getting hungry and cold.

Speaking of cold, I'll give another plug for Gerbings gear.  The thing about heated gear is that once you stop and turn off the bike, you get cold almost instantly.  When you get cold, you go from chilled to frozen and shivering in a matter of minutes.  That said, there is no doubt that it greatly extends the riding season and places people will go on their motorcycle.  Go Gerbings!


------------ 4/28/2016

The morning brought temperatures that barely made the mercury rise.  I had an easy 6 or 7 hour ride ahead of me, so I decided to wait for warmer temperatures; which the weatherman promised would happen in a few short hours.  I grabbed breakfast at the restaurant a couple doors down and saw a couple of paramedics getting breakfast.  The poor slobs got called away from their breakfast.  I remember, and do not miss, those days.  At around 10, I was able to leave.  The temp was closing in on 50 degrees.  I have to say that northwestern pa is pretty barren.  There is very little in terms of infrastructure..practically none.  The only industry up there seems to be fracking or maybe logging.  It's pretty dreary.  Until one gets as far east as Troy, there's basically nothing.

It just so happened that Dave, was working in Tunkanock and I got to see him for a few minutes.  After that, it was a quick 2 hour ride to my father's house in Readington NJ.

-------------5/2/2016

The trip from NJ back to FLA to conclude this trip started today.  The plan was to ride to Martinsburg WV, or Winchester, VA and then grab one of the US routes into the mountains and follow mountain roads down to Greensboro NJ.  The forecast for the entire week looked pretty bleak, with rain every day.  Things really aren't looking better further south either.  There's a line of thunderstorms forming up over North Carolina and eastern Georgia.    My best bet is to stay with I-81 to I-40 to I-75 to Chattanooga, Tn and then pick up US 27 down to Columbus Ga.  That is 765 miles and google maps says it will take 12 hours.  That's without traffic, construction and without delays for people driving poorly in the rain.  Generally, I allow 10 percent for additional travel time.  I'm betting that tomorrow it will be longer - if I get there at all.

--------------5/3/2016

I'm in Atlanta.  I decided to stay with Interstate and not do US 27.  Thunderstorms prevailed in southern Georgia and I was concerned that they might start cropping up in more northern parts of the state, preventing me from getting down south more.  I got a high temperature warning on the Atlanta byway.  That stopped me for the night since the byway was jammed for miles and it would be all stop and go.  I got to a Quality Inn off the byway and will leave first thing tomorrow morning.  The stop and go traffic was during 85 degree OAT.  It looks like I'm between the lines on the coolant, so it's possible that the water pump died.  I will find out in the morning.  My preference is to make it home and deal with the issue there.  Everything was fine today - 11 hours of riding, including a traffic jam in  Chattanooga.  I burped the cooling system again and will do it once more in the morning.  It appears that I have enough coolant in the reservoir, so I should be OK.  I'm thinking that the cooler temperatures in the morning and less traffic should be enough to get me home.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I'll be able to avoid the thunderstorms for my arrival.  :-(

-------------5/4/2016

The morning started early, as planned.  The idea was to get out of Atlanta before the heat and traffic started.  It was 56 degrees in the morning, so as long as I wasn't stuck in traffic, I should be good to go.  I wasn't more than 2 or 3 miles from the hotel when I saw the flashing warning triangle with an exclamation point in it and the headlight symbol with a zero.  See additional post about this.

This would be the storm that awaited my arrival into Florida.  The forecast says that this would continue throughout the day.  The good news is that there were no reports of flooding or hail.  As predicted, the storm came with a ton of rain.  My rain gear sort of failed.  Actually, I failed.  I need to ear suspenders to keep my pants up high and make sure my jacket comes down over the pants.  I didn't do that and ended up with lots of water in my pants.  It was cool; but, not cold and I didn't care.  I care about cold rain.  I don't care about rain when it's warm out.

Getting home, I was greeted with living fish and weeds...plenty of them.  The only grass I have is the sod I put in last year.  The whole front happens to be weeds.  I'll be working on this for a while.

I also managed to get the front right Tupperware lid off and check the coolant.  It was empty.  I think my water pump is probably OK and I just need more coolant.  I have not run diagnostics on the electrical problems yet.

Here are the maps:

This is my first offering of motorcycle art - a new art form where one uses a 750 pound motorcycle as their paint brush.  I think this looks like a dolphin; but, friends say everything from breeching whale to eagle to other things.  I call it Failla #1.

My updated trips to date.  I should note that the file of coordinates that produces this map is 715704 lat/lon coordinates or 14MB in size.  I have written some tools in python to help with mapping.

One tool uniques a list of coordinates.  This is useful because each device has a certain precision.  Some will give you 5 digits after the decimal and some 7 or 8.  Some will pad with zeros, some will not.  Accordingly 123.4567 and 123.456700 are not seen as the same number.  This produces about 10% more coordinates in the file than there needs to be.

I wrote a second tool that will amplify the data set by looking up each lat/lon coordinate and returning the street, city, county, state, country and zip code for each.  The issue there is that the lookup will only allow 2500 lookups per day.  At that rate, it would take me 283 days to look all of them up.  I'm thinking of other approaches.  This information would be useful if, for example, I wanted to make sure I rode all the roads in a certain county or zip code.

5 minute tent setup

So here's the situation.  You're out riding and you get caught in the rain, an hour before dark.  You don't have a hotel option, so you're forced to set up your tent in the rain.  If you're lucky, it's just a drizzle.  If you're unlucky, it's a down pour.  Either way, the objective is to set up your tent and keep the contents inside dry.

This is how I set up in 5 minutes.  I take the time to put together my tent before I leave home.  I actually pitch it in the living room.  I pack the sleeping bag, air mattress and pillow inside.  It is packed on top of everything else in my dry bag.  On top of it is my rain fly and on top of that is my ground cover.

If I should have to pitch in the rain, ideally, I'd like to find a place between two healthy trees.  If you do this, look up and make sure the wind and/or rain will not bring any branches down on top of you.  Between the two trees, I would run parachute cord and drape my rain cover over it to give me some cover to start with.  If I don't have that option, I would lay the ground cover out first, the rain fly on top of it and pull the tent assembly out of the dry bag, in one piece between the two.  From there, I'd simply assemble the poles, pass them under the rain fly and raise the tent that way.  Having a second set of hands on a windy day would be very useful!

It is CRITICAL that when you pack a tent like this that the mosquito netting is on the outside so that when it is compressed, air will not stay in the tent.  Failure to do this will make you very unhappy when the seams burst.  Pack and compress SLOWLY!!!

Here's the video!

20160329 - March Moto Madness (Telico Plains Tn)

The plan for this weekend was to try my hand at Dual Sport motorcycle riding.  Over the last 2 years, I have been getting little tastes of it and it was time for me to get on a bike and find some dirt.

As luck would have it, Jeff Kurtz, the go to guy for all things rally let me know about March Moto Madness in Telico Plains, TN.  Here's the promotional video for this event:

There is no possible way that I'd be able to ride my K1600 GT.  In fact, I would have had troubles at the campground there is so much mud.  I rented a Yamaha XT250 from Dan Dickey, coordinator of the event.  It was the last one he had available.

I planned to ride to the event and take it easy going up, splitting a 1 day trip over 2 days.  I was taking my time packing out when I saw this:

 

That made me start rushing to get on the road.  If I got far enough North,  I would miss this storm.  I managed to do that; but, forgot my shin guards in the process.  Fortunately, Fred has plenty of extra riding gear.

 

Let's let some pictures and video speak to the riding part of the weekend.

 First order of business - drop my phone and break it.

(L-R) Jeff Kurtz, Secret Squirrel, Fred Zucker, Cliff Lose, (Hold my beer) Andre, Randy

 

(Not me.  I'd love to; but, I don't have skills like this yet!!)

  

2 barrels in a muddy field - endless entertainment for rider and observer.

Alvin and the Chipmunks survey the MMM campground

This was after lunch on day 1.  Fred led a really nice pavement ride back to camp.  This is the Cherohala Skyway.

Cliff and Jeff planning my demise.

This is the map of two days of off road riding in the Cherokee National Forest

 

Trip back.  This was really bad.  I bailed out and decided to get over to US 19 for the ride back.

I came across these guys with homemade pit BBQ.  Of course I grabbed a pulled pork sandwich.

 This is the ride up and back.  The first day, I took the more eastward leg (US 41) and west around Atlanta.  On the return trip, I went all the way without stopping.  I traveled around the East side of Atlanta and took the more westward leg (US 19) 

I hit 0 mls to empty 4 miles from my planned fueling stop.  When I filled up, I put 7.27 gallons in.  I have a 7.50 gallon tank, so 1qt left and I had an MSR can with 1qt of fuel in it as well - that's enough for another 20 miles of riding!  

My post isn't complete without the complete map!