Sunday 17 April 2016

Leaning a little to the Left

My bike is now 12 years old. After a while things start to not work, break or or just need replacing. Most of the last 4 years has been simple maintenance and upgrades. Unfortunately the last six months has seen a few items in need of replacing. The brakes needed flushing which is a hugely complicated affair involving removing the 30L gas tank and flushing multiple circuits since the bike has servo(power) brakes. I sensibly jobbed it out to the dealer and they discovered the rear caliper bleeding screwed was fused to the caliper. BMW's answer to this $10 part is to buy a new $500USD caliper as they don't sell the bleed screw separately!! Fortunately I found an after market bleed screw for $20!! Next came my left indicator switch which started to fail. Once again a $20 microswitch which BMW would prefer you replace the $300USD switch assembly. An EBay search found a used switch in Sweden for $12o shipped. I had a new rear tire put on in the Fall. Ever since then the bike leans quite a bit to the left when on the side stand even with my hockey puck epoxied to the bottom. Recently it has become even more pronounced in that with a full tank of gas it is had to get off the sidestand. After showing the bike to my service manager he pronounced my sidestand bent! It did in fact look buckled and was rusting at the pinched point. Once again in BMW Land nothing is inexpensive, so $300 later I have a new sidestand and all new bushings and bolts to mount it. So how much of a difference is there you ask: I have now had to remove the puck from the sidestand as with it the bike was too upright!! So if you are at the point you need to add a puck to your sidestand you might want to consider the fact it might just be bent!!

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