Motorcycle Maintenance while Home

There's been several items on the to-do list for my motorcycles.  I've delayed them so I could do the work in the comfort of my garage at home rather than in some wind-swept and dusty campsite.  (That and parts had to be ordered)

Wednesday, March 10

I replaced the battery on Brigitta, my BMW R80 Airhead.  The old battery died on Monday when I tried to go for a ride.  I'd noticed via the voltmeter that the battery wasn't charging as I rode out of the neighborhood and so had turned around and started troubleshooting.

My battery tester said it was bad, but it's also not quite suitable for motorcycle batteries with their low Amp Hour ratings.  Must get a more suitable one in the future.  I also verified via an Autozone tech that the battery was bad.

I replaced it with the same battery, a maintenance-free unit from Amazon (it came full charged)

Installation was straight forward, no issues.  Brigitta started right up and now charges when the RPMs go above 2000.  The battery lasted about 4 years.

Since I was on a roll, I went ahead and swapped the stator on Yagi, my Yamaha TW200 Dual Sport.

Nothing wrong with the one that was installed.  I had recently received back from a neighborhood friend, a refurbished one.  The first swap I had done oh so many months ago had failed (something broken in the stator itself).  

So I had my neighbor who is good at soldering, transfer the good wiring harness from the failed stator and connect it to the known good stator that came with the motorcycle but who's wiring I'd damaged by not routing it correctly.  This had started the whole stator debacle.  Chronological order:

Home Early due to Lack of Spark

Yagi has spark once more ! Kinda... (now waiting for parts)

Boondocking near Westcreek, CO

A Paradigm Shift?

Maybe not so big a Paradigm Shift after all.....Yagi has Spark Again

So, I swapped in the refurbed stator and she fired right up when tested.  I'll keep the known and trusted Partzilla Stator as "known good spare" and ride Yagi with the refurbed one for a while to gain trust.

A Ride for Brigitta while Enjoying Neighborhood Fall Colors

The time for Fall Colors is actually a couple of days or so past peak for my home neighborhood trees to display their Fall Colors.

I had decided to finally get Brigitta out of the garage and get some exercise.  My departure was delayed when she expressed her displeasure at not being out since September 4 however.

Yep, she leaked gas from her right side carburetor onto the garage floor as I readied her for riding and got my riding gear on!

Tried new cork seals, that didn't work, still leaking.

Tried doubling up of the seals, still leaking.  Finally figured out it wasn't the seals for the fuel bowl, but it was coming from a overfill tube in the bowl.  I then used some needle nose pliers and bent the metal tab for the floats a tiny bit downward.  

That seemed to do the trick and I went riding.

The first two pics were taken with RichardM's comment in mind that Fall Colors should be more than just yellow.  So here you go, RichardM.

Of course, the rest will be of the yellow variety:

So what do you think?  Landscape or Portrait format better with the below scene?

I only rode perhaps 12 miles, more tomorrow.  No further fuel leaks from the right side carburetor.  Hopefully, Brigitta has finished showing her displeasure at me.

Brigitta's Clutch Cable End Breaks, A Torture Run for the Sammy and Sun Visors

 Monday, May 9

I rode out on Brigitta, my '87 R80 Beemer, just for a short run to get some stuff from the VRRV at the storage yard.  All was well until I was on Arapahoe Road heading home.   Then, I went to engage the clutch lever and there was a pop and then no resistance!  Yep, the end of the cable had snapped at the lever.

I was able to get within one mile of home before I could go no further without being able to engage the clutch.  So I parked Brigitta at the corner and started walking down the hill towards home after crossing the busy intersection of Smoky Hill Road and Himalaya Road.  

About a block down, it occurred to me that since I was walking downhill, that I could easily coast downhill with Brigitta!  So I walked back to her, pushed her across Smoky Hill Road at the pedestrian crossing, then mounted and rode her down the hill.  

Got within a half block or so of the house before she lost all momentum, then I pushed her a bit closer before getting Patrick (Thing One) to come out and help me push Brigitta onto the cul-de-sac and into the garage.  

I had a spare clutch cable at home fortunately, so I mounted it after using the old clutch cable as a routing guide.  Got the ends connected; then realized something:

Note, in the picture above, the small grey cap that is the end of the new clutch cable. (red arrow).  This bit is apparently called the nipple.

Seems to be a lot of room inside that cavity huh?  It had also been a remarkably short interval since I last changed out the clutch cable. (Less than 3000 miles).

I suspect, that I didn't realize that what BMW calls a Nipple Holder, is what you mount the end of the clutch cable to, then you insert the nipple holder onto that round cavity under the clutch lever!  Doh!

Nipple Holder

I ordered the parts (replacement clutch cable for spare and two nipple holders) and they came in today and Brigitta is whole once again.

Yesterday, May 11, Wednesday.

I drove the Sammy about 7 of the 8 hours it took to go and wander about the camping sites along Rampart Range Road, in the Rampart Range Riding Area.  The driving was a combination of highway, surface and dirt road driving.  Lots of slow driving from one campsite to the next, checking each out for future usage.  

The view from the Cabin Ridge Picnic Area

I believe this is near the junction of Rampart Range Rd

and Forest Road 507

After returning from the Rampart Range Riding Area, I detoured to Bee Rock for pics:

I would end up returning home via US85 to Castle Rock, then the Crowfoot Parkway to Parker and "enjoy" the stop and go traffic of Parker to Lincoln Avenue and thence homewards via Inspiration Drive and Gartrell Road.

I'm happy to report no issues with the oil pressure gauge leaking at the fitting anymore (I'd tightened it slightly).  It also had no coolant issues even in heavy stop and go traffic with the outside temperature approaching 90 degrees!

I did see the temperature gauge's needle, reach the 3/4 mark on the gauge and a bit beyond three times during the drive.  Each time, the gauge's needle would, after a few seconds, then start to move back towards the middle of the gauge.

After a conversation with RichardM, he suggested perhaps there's air in the coolant system, causing the gauge's behavior but that as long as it drops each time, all should be well.

The Sammy's oil level was about a quart low once I got home (yep, she continues to burn oil) so I topped it off.  The oil pressure gauge never fluctuated so it appears the oil level has to be more than one quart low before it'll affect the oil pressure gauge.  Good info for me to know.  RichardM explained to me that when you see the oil level on the dipstick below the low mark, that means the engine is about a quart low.

Later in the evening, a couple of cheap sun visors I'd ordered from Ebay from a vendor in India arrived.  The finish was "meh" and I had to adjust the placement placement of the mounting holes for the visor to align correctly.  I guess that's what you get when you go cheap.

Still, the Sammy's got visors now, no more starting into the sun in the early morning or late afternoon.

Snow, delays, batteries and a sunset

Sunday, Jan 10

Went for a short drive with Mariko, to check out her 4WD in a more extended manner on what I hoped would be snow covered road.  The area I picked did have some snow on the roads, but not much, more muddy than anything else (which is also a good test I guess) as the weather had been warm the last few days.

Aside from a slight rattling noise when engaging the clutch before bleeding down the speed, no issues encountered.  The PO told me he'd heard some noise too, especially in Low Range but I guess we'll see if its something to worry about.

I dropped Mariko off at the mechanic's shop on Monday, the 11th.  They estimated at the time it would take perhaps 3 days.

Wednesday, Jan 13

I'm not known for patience so it probably won't surprise you that I was disappointed to be called and be told by the shop that the carburetor rebuild was delayed.  

Looks like they have to replace the e-choke component involved with the radiator ( the fluid temperature tells the choke to activate or shut down ).  Also, apparently the float has to be replaced.  The delay involves finding the right parts for this old carburetor model: Hitachi DFB306-832.  The parts are due in Jan 21, Thursday of next week but they'll call me if they arrive earlier.

On the positive side, its good they found these problems now and are working to fix them.  Hopefully, it'll mean a more reliable key component to the Samurai being a dependable vehicle.

-----

I'd been exercising both Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol and Brigitta, my '87 Airhead Beemer the last few days.  They've not gotten ridden much since the last three months or so as I was away camping.  Scarlett gave me no issues the couple times I rode her around the area.

Brigitta, on the other hand gave me the dreaded clicking noise of a dead battery.  This is even though she started fine at home, and no issues all the way to the RV storage yard where I'd been doing some work on the URRV.  

Sighing heavily, I got the jumper cables from the URRV, hooked her up and she started right up and caused no issues all the way home.  I looked up on her maintenance records when I'd last changed out her battery and it was over 10 years ago!  Dang.  Just goes to show how little she'd been ridden in the last ten years!  So a replacement battery is ordered and on the way, a PowerStar PS-NH12-18, which is equivalent to a BMW 51814 which is suitable for R Bikes.

More battery issues, the small lithium battery on Yagi, my 2006 Yamaha TW200 failed completely same day.  The battery had been stuck on 14.1 volts for over a day, so I'd disconnected the charger and reconnected...not bothering to check the voltmeter readout.  

As I was checking Brigitta, I finally noticed the voltmeter showing weird readings, changing rapidly, and reporting only 6.4 volts with the multimeter!  It was toast.  

Luckily, I still have the Yuasa YB7C-A  battery that had been installed in 2016 and which I'd changed out proactively when I brought the TW home.  I ordered a replacement battery as they're not too expensive and it should be here Friday this week.

----

Jan 12

We had us a pretty good sunset, with some nice clouds being lit up by the sun's rays once it had sank below the horizon:

Wrote this blog entry to keep my mind off the delays involving Mariko's carburetor, yesterday I washed part of the garage floor and mowed/mulched the large amount of fallen leaves that were in the back yard.

Sigh.

Replacing Fuel Lines on Brigitta and a look at past and present cousins....

 Today the weather had finally warmed enough to allow me an easy and almost iceless exit out of the neighborhood while riding Brigitta, my '87 R80 Beemer.

I rode her the nine miles to the RV Storage Yard and as I parked her next to the URRV, noted the smell of gas.  Oh Oh.

A quick look showed drops of gas emanating from the vicinity of the right tank petcock!  I had recently installed a couple of worm gear clamps  (none had been there before Fiona's immolation); and apparently the clamp's pressure caused an existing split in the rubber to leak gas.

See the split in the rubber fuel line, it's

on side closest to my thumb

Needless to say, visions of another engine fire pop into my head and I hurriedly shut off the right side petcock.  The leaking stopped of course and after retrieving what I had gone to retrieve from the URRV; I rode the few miles to the BMW Motorcycle Dealership.

Got me 3 feet of braided fuel line, borrowed a scissor from the parts clerk, and within five minutes had replaced the leaker with new fuel line.  Leak resolved!

While at the dealership, I saw this R60 /2 in very good condition sitting in the showroom.  I didn't ask if it was for sale so no need to ask me the price.

Now, with the above R60's 600cc engine representing one end of the spectrum....I present to you what is probably a new R18 that was sitting in the parking lot...with its 1800cc engine:

Those are some huge jugs eh?  Not being misogynistic here, that's what the engine's cylinders are called by some riders.

I believe the R18 is BMW's attempt to get some buyers away from the Cruiser crowd of motorcycles such as Harley-Davidson.  It doesn't hold any appeal to me but having 1800cc on tap would be so nice on those long trips involving interstate highways.

Asked to make a choice, I would go for the R60 /2.

Once I got home I also replaced the left side petcock's feed line even though it wasn't leaking, just so they're both same age you see.  I kept the old one as a "get me home" spare and will store it in the toolbox under the seat.

As a test ride, I rode to the Home Depot to get a wire brush Dremel bit and once I was back home I spent a couple of hours cleaning the burn stains on most of the moto tools, my hand started cramping up so will finish the rest tomorrow.  

In the first half of May....

A little bit of catch up being done with this posting, no real events but one and that one is on hold in terms of being posted due to issues beyond my control.

The R3W steering damper has worked out great for Scarlett, I've had zero instances of "head shake" and she takes bumps and pot holes with steadiness and surety now.

We had us some rain on May 3 and here's a pic of Scarlett getting wet under rainy Colorado skies; a rather uncommon occurrence I assure you.

Rainy Sunset

The next day, the fourth, proved somewhat better in terms of sunset conditions:

 Hazy conditions for the capital of the Stoner State

May 5th through the 6th, I went through what was to me a refresher Basic Rider Course for riders of Three-Wheeled motorcycles.  Much more to follow but for now, just a pic of me during the class:

May 7th's sunset was pretty good:

May 9th's sunset was better:

The sunset on the 10th was the best of the month of May so far:

Some mechanical notes for record:

Replaced the clutch cable on Brigitta, my '87 R80 Beemer, I discovered the end at the handlebar lever quite frayed!  Luckily, I had a spare but am still tweaking the adjustment a bit.  Quite different from a URAL's clutch cable adjustment on the gearbox side.

Scarlett: After much fiddling with the original issue being a high idle when engine was hot and unable to get it to idle at 1000 rpm AND be balanced per the Harmonizer tool; I opted for correct RPMs and skewed balance at idle.  The left side throttle body is somehow letting air in (checked all components, no luck); which causes vacuum higher on the right.

Once off idle though, and through the gears, the throttle bodies are balanced withing 4 mbars of center!  She sounds better too, not racing when at idle and engine warm.  Hopefully, I'm not doing long term damage.

Thinking of going camping again at the Hugo SWA (State Wildlife Area) this Sunday, but not for certain.

Headlight Weirdness by Brigitta, Resolved.

Back when I replaced the speedo/odometer on Brigitta, my '87 R80, I happened to notice that sometimes my headlight remained on even when the key was off!  Weird.  At the time, I attributed the headlight behavior to me messing about the wiring involved around the headlight area.

It sort of remained in the back of my mind however, and this morning I took a closer look at things.

One obvious thing as I moved her front wheel back and forth, the headlight would come on when the wheel was turned all the way to the right!  Yep, with the ignition off.  Heck, with the key out!  Obviously, a circuit was being completed somewhere, independent of the ignition switch.

Off came the headlight so I could get at the ignition wiring.

Ignition switch wires

Saw some bare spots on the wires, thought it'd be an easy fix.  Trouble was though, as I checked things by wiggling on the connectors, the headlight didn't come on.  Hmmmmm.

I followed the wires into the plastic tube which housed all four wires, wiggled that and the headlight would come on when I moved it in different directions!  Aha!  

So I removed the battery's negative cable from it's grounding point on the engine case so I could work on things without making sparks fly.

Started off peeling the plastic tubing away, and exposed burned/melted red and green wires.  Red of course is hot or power, green is usually ground.  The insulation had burned/melted off both wires in multiples spots, allowing the wire underneath to touch and complete a circuit when bent a certain way.

I kept peeling away the outer plastic further and further along, more burned and melted plastic insulation on the red and green wires!  Two attempts at just patching what I had exposed just resulted in the headlight being on all the time when I would reconnect the negative cable on the battery.  Not good.

Off came the negative wire again and off came the gas tank, I pulled the connectors off and pulled the wires out of the headlight bucket, continuing to free it from cable ties until I reached a four connector plug into the main wiring harness.  

Once the cable was free, I removed the entire outer tube.  I ended up removing all the melted red and green plastic, leaving both the hot and ground wires complete bare.  Once I had all four wires separated and cleaned off, I used electrical tape to re-insulate the now bare hot and ground wires, ensuring there was no contact between them anymore.  Each wire I re-insulated, I tested by touching the grounding strap on the battery to ground, no spark meant no contact!

Tidied things up with more electrical tape, re-forming it into a single wire bungle which I threaded back along the cable path and into the headlight bucket.  Got everything connected back up, negative cable in place, no headlight coming on when swinging the front wheel all the way left and right!

Tested the ignition switch, lights came on when I turned the key as expected and she fired up when I pushed the starter button so the connectors were correct on the ignition switch.

No more mystery headlight turning itself on for no reason!  I did take more pictures, but bare wires are just that, bare wires!  I lucked out, the melted wires had connectors on both ends which were in good shape, and it was a relatively short run of wires, perhaps 18 inches; so not a lot of ruined insulation to remove, not a lot of new electrical tape used to form new insulation.

Brigitta gets a ride in the Trailer

Yep, once again, Brigitta, my '87 BMW R80 Airhead had to be taken home by trailer.  Last time, the transmission input spline had worn away to the point it no longer engaged.  Today, it was a flat rear tire.

I was motoring home eastbound on 17th street heading away from Downtown Denver, as I neared Peoria Street, I hear a loud noise and it felt like my rear tire had clipped some object on the road.  I distinctly remember seeing a dark object flying across the street in my left side mirror.

Nothing felt wrong at the time so I didn't stop.  I continued for perhaps two miles, the rear of the motorcycle feeling a bit "squishy"....I stopped after turning right onto Smith Road from Peoria and checked the tire.  It felt soft to the touch so I knew it was low on air.

I rotated the tire at least twice looking for punctures and finding none.  I was perplexed since my air gauge reported zero pressure in the tire!  I broke out my electric air pump and aired up the tire, it never got above 20 PSI even though I let the pump run for at least ten minutes!  Weird.

I decided to head back towards a gas station I'd seen on the way to Smith Road, thinking perhaps my air pump wasn't up to the task of inflating the rear tire to 32 PSI.  And yes, the mystery of where the air had gone and my not seeing any punctures nagged at me.

I rode slowly, the rear end feeling quite squishy, for perhaps a half mile and then I spied an air fill up station at a 7-11 convenience store so I stopped there.  After $1 and five minutes of pumping air into the tire, it still wouldn't rise above 20 PSI.....hmmmm.  I rotated the tire some more and this time I managed to hear air escaping and found this:

One heck of a cut isn't it?  No way I could repair that with my

tire puncture kit!

Apparently the tire has some strong sidewalls, this is without any air!

First move was to call roadside assistance, after navigating through the automated voice prompts, finally got a live person and they promised to send a tow truck my way.  I called Martha to let her know what was going on.  

I got a text message soon afterwards advising it would be about and hour and 45 minutes before the tow truck would arrive!  The neighborhood I was in proved a bit "sketchy" for me so after talking it over with Martha, it was decided they'd hook up the trailer and come get me.

I am happy to report that Miles was able to move the trailer out of the backyard and hook it up with some assistance from Sean, our next door neighbor to make sure all hookups were correct!

A bit over 30 minutes later, my rescuers arrived in the form of Martha and my youngest son Miles, driving Schnitzel the BMW X5 and pulling the Aluma trailer.  Yay.

The following shots were I suspect gleefully taken by Martha as Miles and I rolled Brigitta onto the trailer and I tied her down with straps.

 Miles and I felt all 532 pounds of Brigitta, not counting the stuff in the cases, as

we rolled her up the ramp and onto the trailer bed.

 Here I'm position Brigitta onto her center stand in preparation for the straps.

A later discussion with Oscar over the phone reveals that perhaps the best way is to not use

the center stand but to tie her down on her two wheels, using of course

four straps to the four corners of the trailer.

I am going to have to research proper tie down of two-wheeled motorcycles to be sure.  Still, she was tied fast while on the center stand and her front wheel was in contact with the trailer bed.  I also made sure to secure the center stand to the front wheel so Brigitta wouldn't come off her center stand while being moved!

Upon a safe arrival home, the boys held Brigitta steady while I removed all the straps.

 We carefully rolled her backwards down the ramp, me using the front 

brakes to keep her from gaining any speed or getting away from us.

Safely on the ground, we pushed poor Brigitta into the garage,

there to await Friday when I can remove her rear wheel and tire

and take it to performancecycle to get a new tire.

I am kind of bummed that this happened on what was basically a brand new tire with less than 2000 miles on it!  But, the fact that it held up enough to allow me to slowly ride it to the 7-11 is truly a fortunate thing.  I am glad I stopped to check instead of ignoring the squishiness and attributing it wrongly to bad pavement conditions!

So, a successful test of the Chang Rescue Team in coming to pick me up!  I had intended a rehearsal to work out procedures but I think we'll call this one good.

Brigitta's Odometer found to be "wonky"

Wonky: A highly technical term used to describe a situation or behavior where the subject is displaying strange behavior.

Yesterday, while tooling around on Brigitta, my '87 R80 Airhead Beemer, I finally realized through more careful observation that the odometer reading was inaccurate.  It was roughly displaying 9.4 miles traveled for every 1.8 miles actually ridden per the tripmeter.

The last known accurate reading is for 102,351 when maintenance was performed on Brigitta's finned exhaust nuts by yours truly on March 30 of this year.  Sigh.  Currently, the odometer was displaying over 8000 miles racked up.....not even close to accurate.  Basically 5600+ miles too much.

The speedometer seems to be working fine (to be again verified via GPS when the roads are clear) and the trip meter seems to be fine.  It's just the odometer, which is after all over 27 years old, that has failed.

As the saying goes, the cheapest thing on a BMW, is the owner.  I am going to hold off on sending the speedometer unit out for repair.  I'll keep track of mileage for service interval purposes by the bicycle computer I installed this morning.

This is the same Vetta C5 Bike computer I'd used on Natasha when her speedometer needle was doing the wild swings during cold weather.

NOTE: For future reference: you must use a value of 1925 when calibrating the bike computer to the front wheel measurement for Brigitta. (From center of front axle to ground)

Warning, BMW Airhead purists....non-BMW compliant mods ahead.  Viewing the pictures will probably offend your sensibilities.

 Vetta C5 installed on handlebar

 Vetta Magnetic Sensor secured to right front brake fitting.

Yes, I know it's ugly, but it works.

Magnet secured to one of Brigitta's front wheel spokes.

A more aesthetic solution to be found....perhaps.

It's snowing outside, so not a good time to go out and test the bike computer's functioning.  I did rotate the tire by hand and was able to spin it as fast as 5 mph per the bike computer so I know it's "seeing" the magnet via the sensor pickup.

Update: 15MAR: I transposed the numbers, it's actually 1925 for my R80's measurements.  The cyclometer works great but I found one limitation that caused me to order a newer one today.  It tops out at 100 kph in terms of displaying current speed.  As Brigitta can do much more, I ordered one that maxes out at 200 kph, well above Brigitta's capacity for speed.