Traffic was light and primarily truck traffic. While going through Indianapolis, I saw a lady in the number 3 lane come out of the lane like a NASCAR driver into lane 2 and instinctively, I knew she was going to keep coming. I had just enough time to start squeezing the brakes before she was in my lane. I was both slowing down and moving left toward the concrete barrier to avoid a collision. I wailed on the horn, and it was only at that moment she knew I was there. I could see she was a combination of terrified, upset, and apologetic. One would think that would be enough for her to slow down and be cautious about her driving, but that didn't happen. She was just as aggressive for the next 10 or so miles that we were on the same road. 3 minutes after that first attempt on my life, a second idiot did it, although not as aggressively.
The rest of the trip was very uneventful, and I pulled into Gateway BMW 2:30 early. The GPS on the bike led me astray, but Google came to the rescue and got me where I needed to be. Shannon greeted me at the front desk. Shannon open carries in appendix draw fashion and had 2 extra mags on his weak side. He also carries a knife on the front of his belt. I asked him about that, and he said this was a very bad area, and BMW lets him carry, so he does. We are definitely off to a good start here.
The next discussion we had was about my oil consumption. Shannon said I was on the bottom end of normal oil consumption. BMW won't even consider it a problem until it is 1.4L per 6k oil change. He also said it is the oil, not the engine. He said what is happening is that the oil is breaking down and that I'm burning more oil in the second 3,000 miles between oil change than the first 3,000. HE IS SPOT ON ACCURATE. That is my experience exactly.
We took a look at my bike, and the front tire is at the wear indicator, so the discussion ensued about changing that. I told him if we were to do that I did not want to go back to MP-4's. He said my experience matches every other K16 owner he's seen, and all of them are shifting to Dunlop tires. As I write, I'm waiting for them to put a new set of Dunlops on my bike - front and rear. Hopefully, these will last longer than the RP4's.
As much as I want to get on my way, it is lunch time at the dealership, and he's hoping he can get me in sooner than my 2:30 appointment. So far, I'm very impressed with the folks here. Not only did they get me in on short notice, but they gave me a better explanation of my oil consumption problem than I've had yet. Note these signs at this BMW Motorrad dealership:
Things didn't exactly go as planned. Shannon called me in to review an issue he found. As he was putting the bike on the center stand, he felt a rattle in the front end and on closer inspection, felt the wheel bearings were in need of replacing. He could shake the front wheel and get movement out of them. I authorized that repair. They had the wheel bearings in house and could do that easily during the front wheel change. The problem was they would have to reuse the seals since they did not have those. They said reuse shouldn't be a problem.
Awhile later, they called me back. This time, the tech was working on the wheel bearings, and Shannon showed me that the rattle was still there and some spent wheel bearings. This was a multiple problem situation. Next up the chain are the ball joints,. We could identify movement in the upper. The lower was unclear. They did not have ball joints in-house and I could not wait for them to get them. With very little play in the ball joints, I elected to get that repair done when I got the bike back to California. They said I should be fine, but to avoid aggressive riding. Rodger that.
I didn't leave the BMW shop until after 5 pm. This was a bummer because I really was hoping to get further down the road; however, this was definitely necessary, and in the scheme of things, I could accommodate it.
New wheel bearings made things different for sure. I still can't decide whether the more responsive front end is due to the different tires or the ball joints, and I can't decide whether the 'hump' I feel like I'm transitioning over during turns (about 5 degrees of lean) is the tire or the bushings. I'm sure I'm more sensitive to everything going on in the front end and will probably have to wait until I have the ball joints replaced to know for sure. Either way, I'm definitely not riding as aggressively as I have been.
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