This is a collection of experience and incidents such as I can remember some of my misspent youth and thrash through my later years.
The beatings will continue until moral improves.
Nine years of riding, repairing and maintaining a used motorcycle – Or, which part of this bike will wear out next? My Life With a 2004 BMW 1150 GS Adventure
My current motorcycle, I refer to as my last is 13 going on 14 years old and has rolled and tumbled through a bit more than 91,000 miles. Those miles have not been without incident however. A valve was swallowed at a very high rate of speed both vehicle speed and engine speed. That did a lot of damage. Enough to require a lot of work. Expensive work. I questioned then and second guess myself on a frequent basis about the decision to rebuild rather than scrap. But, this is not about that. This is about what happens to motorcycles as they age. If you’re squeamish about the aging process, well look away.
I have owned three motorcycles I rode past 100,000 miles. The last was the 200,000 mile 2004 BMW 1150 GS Adventure. I sold my CBR900RR after buying this last BMW I will/would own. The CBR had 100,000 plus miles on it. It had never required a valve shim change, the cam chain and tensioner and guides were all original as was the clutch. It didn’t burn a drop of oil between changes every 5,000 miles.
So, what wore out along the way. I rode it for nearly 9 years.
The very first failures/warranty recalls were for the hydraulic line for the clutch and the final drive large bearing. These were addressed by a dealer under warranty along with a brake service. Coming from a slightly modified super bike with full floating front disc brakes the ABS system on the 1150 Adventure never felt that great. The brake service slightly improved the performance, but it would not be until I serviced the ABS system myself that I would experience the systems performance as BMW designed it. That first service by a dealer was found to have not been completed correctly, the service department had in fact not fully tightened the bleed screws at the front calipers. I discovered this on a long rally ride alone out in the desert. I tightened the screws after a quick front circuit bleed there in the desert, then rode the 150 plus miles home where I completed my first ABS system bleed.
For all its life when parked it was either inside a garage or under a cover. So, what wore and how? That list begins with the seat. The original grey and red seat soon developed these brown strips along either side on the grey material. This was apparently the adhesive working its way through the vinyl. I would wear the. seat covers of four seats out over the course of 9 years. Twice I bought new all black saddles in place of the. grey and red for less than recovering would cost. The padding and shape of the saddle was fine. I bought two saddles used that were nearly new, their owners having opted for fancy custom seats. Each time I should the saddle I’d worn through for around half the coast of new. Though the two black saddles I bought new were about two thirds the cost of the grey and red. The first part to fail on the bike was the speedometer cable. It was on backorder which had me waiting for a little more than two months. I still rode the bike, I just didn’t have a speedometer or odometer. I think that cable had to have been damaged somehow or defective from new as it failed around 15,000 mark. The replacement never faltered.
The odometer reading when I picked the new-to-me bike up in the midwest 09/23/2004.
Next was the tail light. The tail light lamps would begin not working and what I eventually found was the lamps were melting the plastic reflector so the contact would push away from the lamp end when the plastic was soft. The lamp would go out then the plastic would cool with no way to get the contact back to the lamp. this happened the last time while I was at the MotoGP races at Laguna Seca. I rode home without tail or brake light. It had gotten so hot the reflector had melted to the lamp so I could not remove the lamp at all. That was 2005. Eventually I got an LED replacement but not before buying a second reflector, then finding lower output a brake and tail lamp other than the BMW OEM.
Odometer 09/01/2005.
In 2006 I updated the cam chain tensioner.
The. older design on the right, newer design on the left. Then came the prematurely worn throttle cables and bodes box design. This was a mess of drag and wear.
A poor photo of the OEM cable after only two years of life in the motorcycle, showing a burr at the end of the housing that prevented smooth operation.
The other end at the throttle grip was re-designed to add a smooth radius tube for the cable to ride in. OEM cable top, new design below.
The new box assembled and ready to slide back under the ABS unit.
This was a ridiculously difficult removal and replacement. Obviously not originally assembled in this order.
I’d been fighting a surge that had appeared around 50,000 mile mark. I could never pin it down. All the service managers I had look at it all said, “They all do that”. Well this bike had not for the first 40,000 miles I’d ridden it so I figured something changed. It wouldn’t be until I was on a work travel trip a thousand miles from home that I would, with help from the Advrider.com forum figure out what was wrong. A failed stick coil.
Just as I was preparing to leave on this trip, the last morning at work in California, I went to the garage as usual to ride the bike to work and when I went to start the bike I was greeted with a screeching loud siren sound of shearing metal that was the fuel pump failing. This was a Monday and all motorcycle dealers were closed. I was set to ride to Washington beginning Tuesday. But, at that time, near my office there was a BMW car dealer that was also the site of the motorcycle dealer, they both shared the same parts department. I called and found they had the fuel pump. Lots of money but I was out of options. I got the pump, drove back home and installed it, tested yes it works. Back to work to finish the prep of computers and laptop loans. Pack up and head back home to pack and ready for a moth on travel. The fuel pump never again failed.
Odometer 08/26/2006
Continued with Part II
Along The Way 