Sunday ride

October 2015 - A little stop at a silly useless place while on a 2-up sunday ride.

I utterly love this bike whatever people think it is and even though it's not a sharp as it used to at the time of writing. The front shock is due for a rebuild with high expectations.

Welded plug

Oh no, the faux-O2 sensor plug has gone again. We're back in May 2014 and the R11S is making a rattle noise again after losing the meral-resin made center of the said plug for the third time ...

Time for a definitive fix : a weld. The plug hasn't failed since.

Like the Exxon Valdez stranded on a shore

Picture this : one day (way back in March from what I can remember), you just get out of your bed happy because it's one of those days where you can go to work on your motorcycle. No prim appointment, no drive-through shopping, no kid to drive around ... just green lights all the way.

So there you are, whistling in the lift on your way down to your underground parking lot, light hearted ... just to discover the unthinkable terrible truth when sliding up your garage door : your bike is laying on its side in the middle of a huge oil spill spoiling your toolboxes and other part containers ... like ... like the Exxon Valdez stranded on a shore vomiting its brent over local animals.

I think it took me almost 2 full minutes staring at the scene to realize what was in front of me that morning. The R11S had escaped from its stand overnight and fallen hard on the ground breaking the left engine cover open and letting 3 liters of rather fresh oil pour out from a huge crack. Some days ...

A new magnesium cover from NOS and some new oil later, the bike is on its wheels and working great again, but it's without mentioning the 2 hours spent bent both knees down wiping up the supertanker slick. It's rather rude for the R11S calling it a supertanker, as it's way lighter than you'd think, but you certainly better get the idea and full picture that way.

OK, it was already damaged before the fall ...

... but now it has a huge crack

6000 miles tag

While away from this place, I kept on shooting some pics of what's been happening in my motorcycle life. For instance, this one is back in may 2014 when the R11S broke the 6000 miles tag. 6000 miles since rebuild, that is.

Think Motorworks

There was the photo below attached to the last Motorworks promotional email.

If you're into a BMW project, especially into a airhead one, their huge stock and precise knowledge might come handy at some point. They were to me several times already, even though the project is an oilhead. Motorwoks would also be a useful address if you own a hexheads as they offer a full range accessories for recent flats.

BMW R90 Interceptor

I want one badly ... Go to the Rocket-Garage website to learn more about the build.

Trip to The Netherlands

Last week, I rode the R1100S to The Netherlands, to have the Rapid Bike fuel injection module set up by Dutch specialist Ruud Fredriks, founder of Tovami. How a sunny and sweet ride it was. I mostly took A roads, but there were areas where the landscape was absolutely beautiful and hopefully where only B roads were available.

Just a few miles before destination, I stopped by a town map to make sure I was where I intended to.

When I arrived, I wasn't really impressed with Ruud's shop. I even thought it was closed. But then that was before I pushed the door ...

Ruud's shop is clean and organised. There was a BMW HP4 on one bench waiting for a new set of clutch plates. The story of this bike is that it's being raced in the Dutch Superbike championship (as well as IDM). Ruud has spent half of the time praising for the HP4 technological advance and build quality. He's prepared the one you see below himself by working on the electronics (making the ECU think the rear wheel is smaller to change the traction control's behaviour, for instance).

I've spent 2 hours with him that felt like 5 minutes. Ruud is a very knowledgeable person who has dozens of racing and riding tales to listen to, like the one about this dyno room he's built himself.

Ruud also builds his own kit like this battery-powered air-fuel ratio tool he once took in an airplane to check if his setup of  the plane's old Bings would work up there. Would ...

Now to the RapidBike fiddling part. He put the R1100S on the dyno, tweaked the map for every rev range and throttle openings and only stopped when he was happy with the result. He managed to build a map that provides a nice flat torque curve (where the standard one has a flat spot around 4500rpm) and helped bringing the power figures up to 101BHP at the rear wheel (compared to 98 standard at the crank).

The ride back home was great. The bike sure pulls stronger. I said that already, but this R1100S came to the point of being the best bike I've had in all these years. Now that it's well set up in the engine department, the major improvements made in the suspension area can really be felt and are definitely to be considered as the bike's best upgrade.

Lost map

When I bought the RapidBike for the R11S, Robert Foster from Foster Performance had it initialized with an advanced map that he and his team had been playing with for a bit of time. It didn't work well for my bike - or so I thought - so stuck with the standard map coming with the RapidBike software which was already an improvement over the standard ECU mapping. 

With time I had forgotten there was this advanced map waiting somewhere to be tried again now that the major issues with the fueling (dodgy idling, way too lean AF ratio, impossible cold starts) were cured. But now that I needed it, the map was nowhere to be found again. And indeed, with 2 computer crashes and a one stolen, I lost a fair amount of important files over just a few months and the map was unfortunately one of them ... 

Downhearted by this loss, I made a desperate call on the Pelican Parts forum to seen if anyone had been given the same map with their RapidBike. But there were much less RapidBike users that I thought (more PowerCommander users) and even Robert Foster didn't seem to be able to put a hold on a copy of it. The map was to be considered lost.

Until last week when I was browsing my own blog to discover an old post where I had included a picture of the said map as a graph. I immediately grabbed the RapidBike CD and installed the map manager. It took me 2 hours to rebuild the fueling map from the picture which was harder to read that expected, but finally it's here again. Now let's save it multiple times all around the Internet.

The picture used to rebuild the map

Shiny new tires

The big S was still equipped with the Metzeler Roadtec Z6 it came with when bought as a damaged repairable motorcycle. Ok, so I bought it in December 2009, almost 4 years from now. It had apparently stayed still in for a year before the purchase and, although these tires had plenty of thread left, given the mileage they certainly started their life on the BMW a year before the crash. Which makes a total of  4 + 1 + 1 = 6 years ... No wonder I'm power sliding at each roundabout exit. It's funny, but utterly useless and a bit ostentatious.

Old Metzeler has had its time

I was decided to finish them and change both front and rear whatever could be their level of wear before winter comes. But then came the rain and what were acceptable tires on hot and dry tarmac proved to be dramatically dangerous on soaked roads. They had become hard and slow to warm up. I loosed the front twice on the road back from work one day and with the bike straight the rear was sliding under acceleration. Time for a change.

I had read nothing else but good reviews about Dunlop Spormax, so ordered a set and had them fitted. It's been a new honey moon since for me and the R1100S. The tires' profile makes the bike feel lighter while offering high level of grip. With these new rubbers and the front Bitubo now up to its best, I can say without being disrespectful to the others that I never had a bike that much precise when approaching a corner and inspiring that much trust while leaned on its ears.

Old tires and new ones are round

Bike is waiting new rubbers for the back ...

... and front as well

Rims with the new Dunlops

Shiny sticky new tires ready for action

Unmovable

I know this is supposed to hold the front tire tight, but to this point it's getting ridiculous ... It took several minutes to get the bike out of its trap, leaving two one meter long trails on the ground.

It's the first time in 2 years this Matthys bike grad gets locked this way. It was last week, been used in and out for the whole week and haven't been able to reproduce again.

Every little detail count

Big sporty german bike gets new turn signals to match already white rears. It would also need a good wash as well, but it gets ridden a lot and hard these days.

Forteen years set these parts appart and given the price it's no real surprise BMW are still making them. Every little euro count ...

The return of the Bitubo

The Bitubo front shock is back (was it gone ?), but there's something new about it ... Let me explain that a little.

The first time this shock was put on the front end, the main idea was to replace the 20 000-mile old Showa. Expectations were big : not only the Bitubo was supposed to work as a new part, but its higher specs - spring preload, compression, rebound and length adjustments - would mean nice improvements over the Showa's behaviour. But once fitted, the reality was sadly different. As soon as the brakes were grabbed, the R1100S wobbled like it could never regain balance again. The overall setting was too soft and not a single adjustment seemed to temper the ride. Though a complete setback admission, at that time the stock Showa was put back on the bike for the rest of the season.

And then 2 months ago, I resigned myself to do something about it and did contact suspension guru Eric Delcamp. His company Delcamp Energie is known to build among the most advanced shocks in France. They provide suspension units and services for rally cars and the Pro Twin challenge. We talked about the Bitubo and what could be done to improve things. Eric wasn't very keen on modifying what Bitubo had designed, but agreed to have a look at it and service it. He also asked a few questions about the Showa that he would agree to prepare. 

Fast forward a couple of weeks later, Eric called back to tell me he had put the Bitubo shock on the testing bench. The result was rather embarrassing ... for Bitubo that is. The shock wasn't working properly as if something was stuck in there that was preventing the shock to properly apply any sort of damping. Before calling that a complete failure, Eric decided it was now certainly worth to open the shock not only to repair it, but also to apply his magic to the internal components.

The shock was back home from Eric's facility before we moved house, so with very little time to fit it on the BMW, it's still unknown whether it's working properly or not. I'll figure it out later this month.

Tweaked R1100S

Now this is one seriously tweaked R1100S (from Japan) and one that actually gets raced given the transponder on the forks.

From the picture, this advanced track version comes with Öhlins shocks (at least at the front), Brembo Oro calipers, side exhaust (though keeping the stock down pipes), tasty rearsets and a total loss system as the generator and poly-V belt are missing.

Random from the archive

Abstract:

While wandering from bike to bike on the 2004 edition of the Brussels motor show, I stumbled across this Michelin promotional BMW R1100S. I had still not had my first at the time, but had already tried one and really loved the experience. Even though this one comes with a fun Michelin paint job, you had to look beyond its (glass fiber) clothes to see it lacks most of the Boxercup special parts. Despite the sparky twin exhaust - which in fact is a Remus - and the lower fairing -which is not 'cup spec'ed - it misses the carbon rocker covers and it seems like the rear shock is still the stock Showa. Ok then it was simply a stock version with a sporty disguise, but the bike was fun to look anyway and deserved a picture.

Reworked windscreen

Time for the big S to get a new windshield. It still had its scuffed and cracked one from when I bought it from the salvage more than 3 years ago. Lots have been done since on this project but not much in the aesthetic department. 

This light tinted Pyramid Plastics screen was waiting on eBay for an affordable price. The main issue is, compared to the standard BMW screen, it won't hide the dashboard as mush.

I initially thought about making the lower part darker by painting it black, but that meant taping, sanding with 600 sand paper, spraying and waiting for paint to dry. And then, there still was some black 3M vinyl on the shelve from the Triumph rear seat unit project and so popped the idea of covering the screen instead of painting it.

The holes still need to be cleared, but the result is not bad at all. One of the good points about having it covered rather than painted is that the black part can still be reshaped. I'm not too sure about the straight line design.

BMW Concept Ninety by Roland Sands

Below are some fresh picture of Roland Sands' new creation the "Concept Ninety". It's been built to pay a tribute to the glorious BMW R90S.