Not much to say yet. I do know that the plastic cylinder head guards are a bit of a struggle to fit if you're not a professional arm-wrestler. Running in limits you to 4K RPM, which is enough for just over 80MPH in top gear. 4K is just about enough for making progress through traffic on main roads, but you need to keep working the box. I rode home the long way, got 10% of the running in finished, and enjoyed the ride.
One advantage of running in the engine is it does stop you pushing too hard on an unfamiliar bike with brand new slippery tyres and brakes that are not bedded in. The tyres are the first annoyance - the demonstrator had Metzeler MEZ4s, and another bike in the showroom had Dunlops, but mine is sadly shod with Michelin's horrible Macadam M90. I'm hoping to wear these out very, very quickly.
Another annoyance is that I'd asked for the bars to be pushed forward when I collected the bike from the dealer, but they'd forgotten. So they tried to do it there and then, only to find that the routing of the hydraulic line for the clutch caused it to foul on the instrument panel when the bars were turned, if they were not in the rearmost position. This looks like a design or manufacturing problem, and they will need to alter the routing of this pipe, which they say can be done at the first service after talking to BMW UK about it. So I've got at least 600 miles of a more upright position than I would really like, which is especially irritating since a key reason for buying this bike was the comfortable riding postion I could get with the bars pushed forward.
This was done at 650 miles, and the bike is now running a lot more smoothly. The dealer replaced the leaking front shock under warranty, but they are still unable to fix the handlebar reach adjustment - the technical people at BMW UK are still waiting for an answer from the factory. I had an R850R as a loan bike, and had to ride the 25 miles back to Hertford in very heavy rain and wind. Naked bikes are not for the faint-hearted in those conditions !
I went through the saga in the forum. The supposedly correct Givi E183 fitting kit I ordered didn't fit, and the easiest solution seemed to be to buy the BMW topbox rack, and fit the Givi E250 universal adapter to it. Here's what it looks like:
Not really, but it's probably better than falling off on ice. The painted alloy parts (swingarm, wheels, footpegs, brake/gear levers) seem to be standing up well. All the alloy bolts on the brake calipers and discs are starting to fur up, and the worst parts are the lower ends of the front brake pipe. This is after just a couple of weeks exposure to road salt.
After washing the bike today, all the water froze on the drive, which made getting it back into the garage a bit interesting.
Three months after buying the bike, the dealer was still unable to give me a definitive answer about how they are going to fix the handlebar adjustment problem. They claim to have received little help from the factory, via BMW UK technical support. As it was all going nowhere, I called BMW Customer Support myself, to log two outstanding issues: The handlebar adjustment and the lack of a fix for the surging problem. We'll see if this helps.
To summarise: The bars are currently at the default position, as far back as they will go. I want them as far forward as they will go.
My theory is that they've just taken the standard hydraulic clutch cylinder and pipe as used on other bikes (it looks the same as on the RT), and failed to spot that it stops the handlebar adjustment working. The brake side is OK, because they are using the same pipe design that they used to use on the 1100.
See below for the Final Solution.
Coming down the A10, accelerating away from a roundabout, I noticed the bike slowing dramatically each time I changed gear, and generally feeling very sluggish. I stopped, and found the right hand front brake had partially seized on, and was extremely hot. This had happened once before in town, both times, turning the ignition off and on was enough to cure it.
So as I was near Sawbridgeworth, I went in to ask their advice, and was told it's a known problem with the ABS EVO brakes. They can get attacked by winter salt, and because they have such tight tolerances, can jam on, which makes them heat up, then jam on more, etc. They were able to remove and clean the calipers there and then, free of charge, which should fix the problem (until next winter ?). Seems like another teething problem BMW will have to fix in due course.
Has just been done, including a pair of BT020s, for a somewhat eye-watering four hundred and twenty two of my English pounds. I was advised to take it easy for a bit on the new tyres - ironic since even unscrubbed, they have more grip than the horrible M90s that were on it before. They seem to improve the ride quality as well (unless they're just flat, which I'll check when they cool down...)
Surging around town has not improved at all as a result of the service. I asked again about fitting the "Olive Green CCP", as is allowed for RTs with complaining owners, but was told that BMW still do not allow this on the RS. Since this is obviously nonsense, I'm going to write a formal letter to the dealer demanding that they get a straight and logical answer from BMW about why this isn't allowed (because as some contributors to the forum have said, they've done it, and it works just as well as it does on the RT).
The good news is that there is finally a fix for the handlebar adjustment problem, and there's a published Service Bulletin about it. As I speculated in the forum a while ago, it involves modifying the lockstops so that the steering range is reduced. Unfortunately, the dealer hadn't bothered to read through the procedure beforehand and didn't have the special parts in stock. So it's in again in 2 weeks for that to be completed. Ho hum.
The lockstop mod. has now been done - but it doesn't completely fix the problem. The range of adjustment of the bars is still less than half of what it should be. The fix is a grubscrew that is screwed into a new hole that's been drilled in the lockstop.
I'd also noticed increased vibration from the bike since the 6000 service, starting just below 4000 rpm. It starts in the bars, and then moves to the footpegs, and seems more buzzy than the usual boxer vibes.
Sawbridgeworth rechecked the valve clearances and the throttle balance, which were all OK. They test-rode the bike and agreed that the vibration was abnormally bad, so we now have to wait for "Howard from BMW UK" to get back from holiday, to advise them on the best course of action.
After finding that the official fix (above) only gives half the full range of adjustment, I just cut off the tab on the clutch cylinder, rotated the pipe backwards, and now finally have the bars fully forward.
Why the dealer or BMW UK did not suggest this, I have no idea.
9000 miles - Remus exhaust, Surging fix
The vibration that was evident after 6000 miles has gradually improved, and it's no longer an issue. The most likely cause would seem to be that the dealer had somehow unbalanced the throttles during the service, and they've drifted back into sync. I've checked it with a Twinmax, and it's now pretty much spot on.
I finally had the green CCP fitted with some sort of approval from BMW UK, so I can now officially report that it does improve the surging on my bike. It's not gone completely, but it's hardly a problem any more.
So after a full year of ownership and 9000 miles, that's all my problems that I reported at the 600 mile service, fixed !
The big change is an EU road-legal Remus exhaust. The dealer tried to persuade me to get the non-legal race version, but I was worried it might be a bit too loud, and it creates potential hassle at MOT time. So I went for the legal version, which has a pre-silencer box where the cat used to be, and a longer, slimmer, silencer in place of the chunkier BMW system. The O2 sensor screws right into the new system. It certainly looks better than the original.
Sound ? Well, it's better than the BMW system, that's for sure. It's got a deeper, resonant, note underneath the usual chuffing sound of the gas escaping. Definitely more like a motorbike, but not a lot louder than stock. I doubt on this evidence that the race version would be too objectionable. Something I read in the RT forum suggested that you can get a slightly noisier straight-through pipe instead of the pre-silencer box, so maybe that combo. with the road silencer would be ideal.
I did the first part of the 12000 mile service today: Valve clearances, spark plugs, throttle sync, battery check, air filter. It was all fairly straightforward after my previous experience helping David Harvey with his service back in November, and reading various tips and tricks from the net, the Haynes book of lies, and the BMW service CD.
The LH exhaust valves were a bit tight, and one each of the RH inlet and exhausts were slightly tight. I also found that the rocker arm free play on the LHS was much too tight - one end was at about 0.002 inches, when the minimum is 0.005. So I had to loosen the bearing cover off and retighten it - the IBMWR "Oilhead Maintenance" document helped with the procedure for this as the BMW manual is a bit brief.
I found it much easier to reinstall the spark plugs before putting the rocker covers back on, as my 16mm socket is too wide to squeeze through the tunnel in the rocker cover, and there's no way of using a torque wrench on the box spanner in the toolkit.
I found it hard to get the air filter cover back on, so had to lift the rear of the tank to do that. The battery level was about halfway between the min and max lines, so I added a bit of water.
The throttle cables were set up very oddly. Neither side was touching the throttle stop when idling. So I slackened off both sides to give more free play, and then reset the idle balance using one of the brass screws. Marc Parnes' patent throttle adjuster ring came in handy, but only after I'd borrowed a tiny imperial hex key off my neighbour (who has a collection of such things, as he has a stable of ancient british bikes), so I could fit it. I taped my Twinmax to the tank, and set the off-idle sync after a couple of runs up and down the road. More accurate, and saves frying the paint too.
I'd read various warnings about being careful not to strip threads on the valve adjusters, rocker cover bolts, or not to cross-thread the spark plugs. Really, I find it hard to see how you could do any of those if you have even a modicum of mechanical sympathy.
Then an engine oil and filter change. I stuck with non-synthetic this time, will probably put semi-synthetic in at 18000. Finally I replaced the gearbox oil with Castrol EPX 80W90 GL5.
I took me about 5 hours work in all, but I'd be able to do it a lot quicker next time. The bike's running fine, so I'm very pleased with the result. Just the oil changes and a couple of other small things to do. I'm going to get the dealer to change the brake fluid though.
I've always felt a bit cramped on the RS, so when John White reported
good results with the Verholen footpeg lowering kit in the Forum, I
thought I'd try it out. I ordered mine from Motorworks in the UK for
120 pounds.
It's a nicely finished kit, and fits well. Installation is quite straightforward, but
the instructions with the kit are very poor. A couple of points that
may help if you're doing your own:
Pictures from John's bike (looks the same as mine):
The amount of extra legroom isn't stunning, but it's enough to make a
difference in comfort. Ground clearance is reduced a bit, and your feet are slightly further
apart, but I had no problems using the controls. I'm happy with the result.
I had been thinking about getting a new screen for my bike for ages,
to reduce the turbulence I was getting from the stock screen, but had
never quite got around to it. I've now fitted the MRA (also sold as
Wunderlich) Varioscreen, which is imported by SPC in the UK.
I'm finding it an improvement on the stock 1150 screen. I think there
is certainly less turbulence, and it works well both in the low and
higher positions where it seems to give much better protection than
the stock screen, even though it's really not much bigger.
You do get a little bit of a draught through the hole in the middle,
which might possibly be troublesome in winter, I'll have to see. The
screen actually looks pretty good on the bike, much better than I
expected.
Two downsides:
I've just spent a few hours in the garage over the weekend doing the
18K service. I did a very careful adjustment on the valve clearances,
balanced the throttles, greased or lubed the stands, and changed the
rear brake pads which were close to the limit. The front pads were only
about 25% worn. I decided it was finally time to go for semi-synth oil, so
3.75 litres of Castrol GPS went in along with a new oil filter.
The only hiccup was that one of the rubber seals on the rocker cover
bolts was torn, which necessitated a drive to Vines in Guildford to
get a spare (an hour and 45 minutes to do 40 miles, for a 50p part!)
- Cooper Reading don't normally stock these.
Service time again... Since I moved closer to the office my annual
mileage has gone down. A lot. So it's taken over two years to put on
an extra 6000 miles since the last service.
Since then, and 2 years since it was last done, I had all the brake
and clutch fluid changed by Cooper Reading, and I also renewed the
front brake pads. The old ones, which were the originals on the bike,
were less than 50% worn, but I had bought spares ages ago and wanted
to fit them before the fluid was changed, so threw them in anyway.
I did the service a few hundred miles early as the old lead-acid
battery was dying, so I needed to take the bodywork off to fit the new
gel battery.
This time, the LH cylinder valve clearances were fine, and the RH
cylinder had just tightened up very slightly. I scatched my head over
my inability to get the throttles balanced, until I realised the
battery in my Twinmax was shot... After fixing that it was easy !
Some pictures of old and new bits:
Having read lots of horror stories on the net about the fiddliness of
changing the fuel filter, I got Pat from Mobitec to come
and do it for me. This was not exactly cost effective for such a small
job, but saved the hassle of going miles to a dealer (the nearest is
25 miles away since Cooper Reading closed)
13600 miles - Lowered Footpegs
Footpegs
Footpegs
Footpegs
Footpegs
Footpegs
15600 miles - MRA Varioscreen
Fully down
Fully down with top part extended
Five clicks up with top part extended
18000 miles - Service
Rocker cover off
Just under 18K
New oil filter
One of these sets of pads is worn out
Rocker cover off
23800 miles - Service
New and Old
New and Old
New and Old
Oil and filter change
Mileage
Tank off for fuel filter
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