Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

A little update,

The first service has been done and they looked in to the bikes gremlins (SOS system and oil level faults) and found that there were several communication errors logged so did a full software update which can take up to 4 hours usually but sometimes needs the bike to stay overnight so they arranged for me to take the 1300GS demo home if necessary... It updated whilst the service was carried out and has been faultless since.

So what have I been doing other than riding it when I get a chance?

Tinkering and ordering farkles

So far I have a pair of horns from a 5 series to go on as the standard roadrunner horn is pathetic.
I have fitted the Yoshi end can which has made it sound much more like it.
And I have scooped up a bargain set of Denali D4 spotlights and a used HEX EZcan to power them*.
The extension leads for those are £not cheap and the EZCan will power the 2nd horn too...

I priced up appropriate extensions and splitters and was looking at the thick end of £100, which is when my inner Yorkshireman woke up and tracked down which electrical connectors they use, ordered a bag of those from Japan and a coil of marine grade 3 core wire rated at 21A. WAY over specified but cheaper to get the stuff to make 10 extension's or splitter's (Y leads) than to order 3 ready made. I also found the specific connectors BMW use for the horns and got some of those as the wiring will need extending and I don't want to cut the factory wiring loom.

I just need a nice day to take half the bike apart to run the cables nice and neatly.


*Using the can controller lets me adjust the brightness or even turn them off on the fly but still have them come on full power with the high beam automatically and if I select the option they will strobe with the horn, very fancy.

Gave it a wash and realised just how much of a pain these things can be to get properly clean, but before I washed it I saw a thing, a bad thing...

A cut in the rear tyre, so I found a non damaging thin thing to see how deep this goes. A cut off zip tie worked well.




Yeah that's deeper than the tread, I can feel the cords at the bottom of that so it's an MOT fail both from length of cut and the fact it's all the way to those cords... New tyre time, probably another A41 to get some use out of the front one... Or maybe a pair of Dunlop Mutants?


Bike scrubs up well though



Oh and the cage got a once over too, nice colour that Flamenco Red

Bike tyres Leeds is starting a promotion on the Dunlop roadsmart 4 on Monday, buy the rear and the front is free....
Very tempting at under £200 for a pair of tyres fitted to loose wheels.

Are they any good? I never get on with Dunlops

From reviews I've found, they won the German Motorrad test, Chris Moss loves them and a couple of youtubers say they have way less slides in wet and greasy conditions than Road 6's and last longer... (Ridercamtv)

Different tyre but my Italian friend has Dunlop Mutants on his S1000XR and loves them, when we went to Italy to see his family he rode 2-up with full luggage without any problems, when we got there he went out solo on the roads he grew up on riding like a teenager, still loving the tyres.

My last Dunlop's were Qualifier 2 on the Daytona 650 and they were okay unless it was damp, modern Dunlop's are much better.


With that offer I'm getting a pair fitted to loose wheels for £191 so I guess I will let you know


https://www.tyrepress.com/2022/03/newco ... tyre-test/


Mossy
https://youtu.be/xg10TJ_-wwc?si=csuUK6nwb1tT_bpd

7000 mile review
https://youtu.be/RIqI57n5FIo?si=FYfnCWo5dfZyk6yZ

You really can't argue with the price

I remember loving the Qualifier 2s, but that was nearly 20 years ago! F@ck we got old!

Monty wrote:I remember loving the Qualifier 2s, but that was nearly 20 years ago! F@ck we got old!

I think I had those on the D600. Great tyre, super sticky, 1200 miles out of a rear

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

The Roadsmart offer is hard to ignore but I will just say I fitted some Dunlop Mutants to the Multi over Xmas. Second time out today and have to say they are a brilliant tyre. Handle like a sports tyre but grip like a wet tyre even in winter.

Yesterday I spent a few hours taking the bike apart like lego, the tank and rear racking came off too, it was not long before slow and steady fighting threadlock gave way to the electric impact gun.



All to fit a couple of wires so I can run a better horn, bought on eBay from an E60 5 series so it now has the low tone running on the standard wiring and the high running from a HEX EZ can, a magic box which talks to the bikes canbus system so it doesn't throw a fit when an extra horn is fitted or some extra lighting... Like a pare of Denali D4's which I scooped up cheap on eBay.

I thought that I was going to have to extend the wiring to the snail horn which replaced the factory disc horn, thankfully I didn't because the ones I bought are slightly different so will not work..


I did clean it up a bit better after checking that it would A) fit and B) work.


Bikes doing a hoverbike impersonation right now between it's centre stand and a pair of 2 ton axle stands under the forks, the wheels are in the car ready for a trip to Bike Tyres LEEDS tomorrow for the Dunlop's, all back together and working other than that, although I did watch the wrong installation video and plugged the EZcan into the wrong sensor, it didn't do any harm, just wasn't getting the right signal/code from the bike so did nothing... Swapped the plug and the Denali's came on but it was a bit late to test the horns.

It will also provide fridge power for my tours this year without wiring direct to the battery like last time

Just been up to Leeds for the tyres...

Okay, first ride on the Dunlop's got off to a great start, I arrived at the cafe to meet Gaz with this on the dash..




And 200 miles later on dirty and dusty roads once they dried out a bit...


So what are they like?
Great

The bike feels more sure footed than on the 80/20 Bridgestone's and maybe slightly more nimble, yet strangely more stable.

The Bridgestone's were prone to the odd little slip on damp patches but the Dunlop's encouraged confidence with no slips at all, I had to remind myself "New rubber on wet roads, be careful"
Gaz has a GSA too and had a couple of rear end slips following me on his Road 6 tyres, he's seriously considering a set of these Dunlop's while they are on offer.

I need to get more longer rides in to get bike fit again and also need to grow eyes in the back of my head, there were a lot of people on the first ride of the year today, some riding like absolute bell ends, like the guy who nearly wheelied his SuperDuke into an oncoming car near Helmsley

Not much to report, I took the bike up to Alston today and found some really tight and twisty roads up near there. The tyres are fantastic and I'm slowly getting used to the handling of this big bike. 274 miles and all on 1 tank is nice,

Also fun being on comms with my friends and hearing them swearing and grumbling about the roads whilst the GS is ironing out all but the nastiest bumps and even jumping some crests with ease, landing more softly than such a heavy machine has any right to.

I have used most of the rubber


A quick pitstop in Reeth

A friend sent me a link, I had spotted the roadside photographer but couldn't remember the name on his advertising board...

Hartside pass

https://www.bikerphoto.co.uk/p400440737/he9dbffde


Edit

I bought it


I will lean more when there's less salt on the roads, you can see it to my right...

Saying that, looking through some other pics in their gallery I was leaning more than most, and GS's are too common

Long time no update, today the bike is sat in the garage with axle stands under the fork's, it's tyre time again.

After the dealership serviced it last week and offered to replace the RS4's for a sniff over £400 I rang my regular motorcycle tyre place, Bike Tyres Leeds and got a quote for £316 for the same RS4 tyres or £298 for the Meridian with the Mutant coming in at £320 all fitted to loose wheels.

5400 miles including nearly 2k on Spanish roads..



After many online reviews praising the Meridian I've gone for a pair of those. I also fitted the new front lower mud guard while I was in there.



My friend I mentioned earlier having road 6 on his GS now has Mutants. And is full of praise for them especially in rain.



The dealership has also agreed that the oil level sensor is indeed faulty so that's getting taken care of next Monday whilst it's having a software update which takes 4 hours minimum... And they're going to love the video of the smoke show yesterday.

Today the bike is in for it's software update and oil level sensor, for a loaner I had booked a R1250RS but it has been sold, so they offered me the 1250R, the R9T urban, F900XR like I used to own or the F900GSA.

I picked the GSA to see what it's like, I'm already very familiar with the engine so it didn't really hold any surprises, the 21" front wheel took a few minuets to get used to and the seat is just as plank like as the XR. It also has lower spec brakes than the 900XR which had the same Brembo 4 pots as it's 1000cc brother and the big GS, this has twin pot sliding callipers so they do get hot with enthusiastic riding.
I did do that, the rear chicken strips are gone.
They have improved the QuickShifter which seems smoother than on my 900XR and smoother than the GS at lower throttle, it makes a nice burble on the down shifts too.

I wouldn't buy one with that seat, and I would miss the lazy grunt of the Boxer but it's a really nice bike to ride.

That's a strange looking bike. It looks like BMW have picked bits from other models in the range.

Yeah it's a Heinz 57 alright, it works though except that seat... I just specced this bike up and it's £15K as it sits, I think that's too much for this. I got the big GS for 18 with all the bells whistles and panniers included.

I kinda want to ride the Tiger 900 now to see what it's like, but the dash layout on those is a very over designed mess, that bothers me way more than it should.