The Aux lights I bought off you a few year ago are still going strong
Good one
Those on my 800 have been on four or five bikes' now.
Any tips on how to keep them in condition?
I never use a power wash, and I never give it a quick wash! I only wash it when I can do a proper job
FS365 applied under and around the engine twice a year, start and end of winter. I use none aggressive bike cleaner, wet the bike down, stiff brush, toothbrush, kitchen wash up kinda brush, in the corners, hose down and then wash with soapy water, Fairy liquid ... honest
and hose down again.
When dried off I use Auto Glym polish and Vynil and Rubber care, Wipe round the engine, rims, spoke nipples with Putoline 1001 penetrating/lubricating spray can oil.
I will spend all day cleaning it, and it doesn't matter how mucky and filthy it gets in the meantime ... I won't give it a quick going over, for underneath all that muck and grime there is a protective layer of sorts. It might go weeks without a proper fettling, but a proper fettling is what it gets
Remember, I'm now retired (of sorts) I've nothing to do but ride, eat, sleep, drink, clean/polish ... then repeat
I've got to ask...what the fuck do you do to head bearings? 7 sets? Do you wheelie everywhere?
Ah ... the head bearings, so glad you asked
Mmmmm a common and known problem I'm afraid, but not one that BMW acknowledge of course. I've tried them two or three times to the manufacturers settings, tried different grease. 5,000 to 6,000 and the notchiness is back. Again, at this stage, I have to say that I replaced them at the first signs, when others might get another two or three thousand miles out of them before doing so.
Tried them tighter ... tried them slacker, to no avail
Now when torqued up to the manufacturers settings and everything is fine and dandy, after a few hundred miles or so I can now detect a slight slackness, a slight freeness to the steering, no play, but clearly a different feel. I just nudge them up by about three or four degrees ... purely by feel! Bilko (below) made me a 10mm allen key about one inch long, so that I can tweak the head bearings up in two minutes flat without removing the handlebars ... cheers Bilko
I've now done this twice with the present set of head bearings and at 7,000 miles they are still beautifully silky smooth with not a sign of notchiness
Result? Dunno ... watch this space!
Congratulations and well done on hitting the 100,000 mile mark.
Not bad considering your running two bikes.
I remember a few days after Micky picked the bike up from Rainbow and a gang of us went for 10 days or so over to the Black Forest for a bimble. On the way back we were having a bit of a play on the B48 just short of Kaiserslauton when unbeknown to me I took a wrong turning, 4 or 5 miles down the road in hot pursuit was Micky. When I spotted him I thought I’d up the anti with it being such a great road. Micky eventfully passed me and indicated for me to pull over and stop. I was greeted in broad Yorkshire with Micky saying. ‘Yov taken a wrong turn and mi bike is well and truly fecking run in now’.
Obviously that little play did the bike no harm at all.
Here’s to the next 100,000 mile.
Malc
Cheers Malc ... Ha, I remember that, you took some feckin' catchin'
Glad to have ridden many of those 100,000 miles with your good self
You want to know why some bikes reach 100K miles without any drama and yet others have all sorts of problems.
The rider.
A mechanically sympathetic rider/driver will rarely have mechanical troubles or problems with their vehicles. .
Well done Micky
Well I got to agree there Steppers
My 'bike cost me a lot of money and my life depends on looking after her. We are as one, a partnership, we talk to each other
My father fired the main line steam trains through the war for his father, then afterwards the big diesel loco's, all main line. Through mechanical sympathy he never failed to get a limping train back home. Others drivers would thrash their train, no mechanical sympathy, in an effort to get home ... and break down
So the story goes
