What did you do to / ride to with your Beemer today?

BMWs came from Germany, last I heard....

Nicely edited thread title! :thumb:
 
well, it's a move over world now, at least here in Canada, sorry, [haven't got any arms or troops, it's really all we got,] gotta check the spelling, is it still called Canada,
slings and arrows, sticks and stones.
 
3 months ago I installed the HPOskam fuel strip emulator in my '07. It was about $55 delivered from Europe. I had been watching the fuel strip die a slow death for a couple of months prior. BMW owners with bikes equipped with fuel gauges that get data from a fuel strip immersed in the fuel tank are aware of the high probability the strip will fail at some point and strips often fail fairly quickly. It's a poorly designed feature. AFAIK affected bikes are 2005-2013 R series bikes - RT, R, ST with the 1170 cc twin. Some strips last forever but many don't and there were so many failures and complaints BMW extended the warranty for 10 or 12 years. Mine is out of the warranty period and the strips are recently NLA from BMW. When the strip fails the fuel gauge shows empty all the time but in the instrument panel multi function display a bright yellow warning appears and the low fuel icon flashes continually. The yellow warning triangle could be ignored or covered with piece of tape but the triangle warning light is not exclusive to the inop fuel gauge and would mask another diagnostic trouble code that might pop up. I could not use the piece of tape method and had to fix this problem. I decided gambling on a used strip for $50 - $100 was not what I wanted to do so I ordered the HPOskam emulator. It spoofs the gauge to read full all the time and I would have to use #2 trip odometer to track distance from full, remembering to reset to 0 after filling up. I have a back up to #2 trip meter because I use Fuelly app to track every tank and I have tracked mpg of this bike for over 30,000 miles so I was confident I could estimate when to refuel but I did mourn the expected loss of a working fuel gauge with it's Miles to Empty and Average MPG functions that display on the panel. If I forget to reset #2 I still have the miles on the tank showing in the app.

Within 30 seconds of the first key-on after installing the emulator the fuel gauge showed full and the miles to empty showed 311 miles which sort of puzzled me - I expected to lose miles to empty without a working gas gauge but I've ridden with it now for 19 fill ups of gas. I expected to lose the average mpg function and miles to empty function without a working fuel strip but the mpg display continues to work and based on the past 19 fill ups of the tank, the mpg showing in the panel is pretty accurate. The 'miles to empty' still works but now instead of miles to empty it is range expected from a full tank. It correlates now with displayed avg mpg times 7.1 gallons tank capacity.

Now instead of the previous 'miles to empty' the figure displayed is approximate range of a full 7.1 gallon tank at the calculated mpg since I reset the average. For example riding open or sweeping roads up to 75 mph the mpg is about 46. 46 x 7.1 = 327 miles and the actual figure displayed as 'range' is 328. At this value I'll use #2 tripmeter to keep track of fuel burn with the figure of 278 miles range plus ~50 mile reserve. If the mpg has been displaying 51 avg then 51 x 7.1 = 362 miles range less 50 mile reserve is range of 312 miles. I still have to remember to reset trip #2 and avg mpg at fill up but working range to empty to my mind is actually better than having the previous Miles to Empty which I never fully trusted when the low fuel started blinking. When #2 trip is getting close to 40 or 50 miles less than total range I know I have a solid reserve.
 
dduelin said:
3 months ago I installed the HPOskam fuel strip emulator in my '07. It was about $55 delivered from Europe. I had been watching the fuel strip die a slow death for a couple of months prior. BMW owners with bikes equipped with fuel gauges that get data from a fuel strip immersed in the fuel tank are aware of the high probability the strip will fail at some point and strips often fail fairly quickly.
Click to expand...
I was just researching this today and it seems as though BMW released a new version of the strip to fix the issue. I've only had my '08 GS for a couple of months and not much time to ride so I don't know if it will be an issue, but it seems to work properly for now. I think this is the part, but don't quote me:

16141600132 - Fuel level sensor 2003-2014 BMW-Motorrad | BMW Motorrad USA

Genuine OEM Fuel level sensor (16141600132) for select 2003-2014 BMW-Motorrad motorcycles at an affordable price!
www.shopbmwmotorcycles.com www.shopbmwmotorcycles.com
If mine goes I'll check with the local dealer to see if I should tackle it myself or not. They seem pretty cool.
 
Oh, and I machined up some riser blocks from scrap sitting in the garage and a photo I saw of a place in Germany that sells them. I thought it was a great idea and pretty easy to measure out a set on paper.
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Haven't ridden them yet, but I think I added about 32mm of stack and replaced the torx (or whatever they are called) head bolts with Allen bolts.
 
Today I did a large loop of the SF east bay area and stopped to appreciate the redwoods at the Canyon Post Office on Pinehurst Road.
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And I found a spot on Skyline overlooking the SF Bay that has not yet been closed with giant logs to prevent people from, um, stopping. Afternoon sun so not the best shot of the bike, but the rest looks nice.

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100* inland and probably 65* on the coast. The new riser blocks felt good, but maybe a tad too tall because I felt like I was gripping the grips a lot more than I ever do, like I was hanging on. I may machine up a shorter pair just in case it's a "need to get accustomed to it" situation.
 
Except for having to buy a turntable for horrible brats I stayed at home and kept my hockey helmet on, went on a mad DOT4 fluid changing rampage, everything, both bikes, in fact I think I even put it in my super T-10 wide ratio... only drove it in the yard but it seems to shift way better and,
It just looks so nice...
No ride today but had a great day with the bike, another [un] dress rehearsal; little better at the proceedure of stripping it down and reassembly [not my fortee, the reassembly part, but whatever] still wouldn't take this thing apart on a dark desert highway, but got the clutch actuator, SMC, front calips, everything flushed, next week, no more Yamaha, it'l be the bullet train.
Will be fit and ready for the Pemberton / Duffy Lake / Lillooet, my ZX buddy just ripped it in 10.5
 
Winged_STer said:
After approximately 1000 miles on the Road 6 GT's I am mixed on their characteristics. I replaced a set of Pirelli Angel GT 2's which I really liked as they stuck like glue in the corners and in the wet. They inspired a ton of confidence, but the mileage was pretty lousy. It would have been about 5000 miles on the rear but that was cut short due to a puncture. I found that the Road 6's are a bit slippery in the corners under hard braking and acceleration, at least on my K1600 GTL which is close to 1000 lbs including the large rider. To the point where I got a little concerned a couple of times. I never had that concern on the Angel GT 2's, but I am sure that I will get a lot more miles out of the Michelins. What's my point? Yeah, I got nothing either.
Click to expand...
I’m with you on the pirellis , I lost track of how many sets I’ve went through, my mileage on them 7k to 8k on the rear and always changed the front at the same time. When I got the bike it had new pr2 which got me 11k next set was pr3 but the front end didn’t feel right, so I went though the front end , fork seals bushing steering bearings still wasn’t right after 3k miles , planing a long trip new pr4 were installed but at 60 to 75 miles per hour sometimes you could feel rear of bike wasn’t right, bike was in the shop for two weeks they checked everything finally they took the rear Michelin tire off and put my first pirelli angel gt on problem solved.
 
Smudgemo said:
I was just researching this today and it seems as though BMW released a new version of the strip to fix the issue. I've only had my '08 GS for a couple of months and not much time to ride so I don't know if it will be an issue, but it seems to work properly for now. I think this is the part, but don't quote me:

16141600132 - Fuel level sensor 2003-2014 BMW-Motorrad | BMW Motorrad USA

Genuine OEM Fuel level sensor (16141600132) for select 2003-2014 BMW-Motorrad motorcycles at an affordable price!
www.shopbmwmotorcycles.com www.shopbmwmotorcycles.com
If mine goes I'll check with the local dealer to see if I should tackle it myself or not. They seem pretty cool.
Click to expand...
That is the strip that in not available. It's a good part number and it did replace an earlier version but it's NLA. I've read that later R12GS models went back to a float sensor and it may be retrofit to earlier models but some electronic doodad is required because the float sensor's signal is reversed and a full tank reads empty and vice versa when fitted to earlier bikes.
 
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Rode out & back, Pine Canyon to its terminal at The Old Ridge Route, just east of Interstate 5. Nice three hour ride.
As with a lot of mountain roads in the Los Angeles area, most of the Ridge Route is now gated and closed to traffic.

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Just keeping them all clean and gassed. Stumbled into a leak. Does anyone know what can cause this and a simple remedy? I didn’t want to restart it yet.
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