One for Lozzo / It could have been worse

So, I needed to be in my office for 8 and didn't leave home until 7.10
plus I needed petrol (riding the K75). I had to ride rather faster than
I preferred. After I left the motorway and hit a set of traffic lights
I gunned it away as normal... well, except not as normal. The bike
barely moved forward and seemed to drop a little at the back. ****,
I've lost all drive. Am immediately concerned that it's stripped the
splines on the clutch plate/gearbox input shaft since that's a day's
work on the BMW.

Parked it on the pavement, walked to a nearby petrol station and called
a taxi[1]. Left office at 5.30 and then sat around for two hours
waiting for the AA[2], still saved me the price of a train ticket *plus*
my petrol costs.

Inspected this morning; splines on drive shaft gone, sourced another via
eBay for fifty quid.

Conclusion; don't gun it hard from the lights every morning.
Other conclusion, the availability of low mileage K75/100s that can be
ran for two - three years without needing attention is drying up. Time
to identify another bike.



[1] Newbury CabCo are robbing cunts, 7.50 for a 5 minute sub-2mile
journey.
[2] AA membership through bank package. In the morning got normal AA
telephone operator; not helpful (i.e. "no, I can't book a recovery since
we may be able to fix it by the roadside.) Operator in the afternoon
(answers as a bank service) helpful; "You should have called when at
work, we could have recovered it and have taken it home for you whilst
you were at work".

 

Nice service.

 

FJ1200 or ZZR1100 + scottoiler and chainsaw oil

 

Welcome to the effing club.

Nowt to do with that, mine went when changing up from fourth to fifth at
~50mph. It seems to mostly down to lubrication on the splines themselves
but given that it's such a huge pain in the arse to do that, I guess I'd
pay for the replacement when it's due.

I've been eyeing up K1200RSs after I spoke to my tame mechanic back when
Bear was considering one. He reckons they're a bit of a bargain if
you're looking for a bike to run until it dies[1], mainly because nobody
can shift them, so you tend to be able to get low-milers pretty
cheap. No idea how good the weather protection is compared to an 1100LT,
though.

[1] Down, Lozzo

 

In a most uncharacteristic way I'm going to be sympathetic. You abuse
those bloody old bricks something rotten, and use them all year round
with the minimum of maintenance. Yours don't often break given the
amount of shit you give them, so this one was about due..

Everyone else's BMWs are shite though.

 

I thought yours was the gearbox input shaft/clutch that went.

Well, I don't think lubrication was the issue with mine since it was
done at least twice in the last year; it was the driveshaft which isn't
that much of a pain really; rear caliper off, suspend swing arm from
frame, remove shock mount from bevel box, remove speedo sensor, four
allen bolts and it's all accessible.

Doubt the weather protection would be that good to be honest.

 

wrote in message

fx: collapses.

Have you been on some sort of empathy course to do with your new job?

Oh, and re abuse, they love it really. That's why they haven't been
that troublesome. It's when you don't use bikes or get them properly
warm that they start to die.

Ah, thank heavens for that.

 

Yep, you're correct. I just lobbed yours into the bin marked 'BMW K
spline problems'.

Fair enough. Most of them seem to go just because they're dry but I
guess they just go eventually, period.

Yeah, I know - there was one parked next to my K recently so I had an
ogle. Weather protection looks better than on, say, a K100RS but that's
not saying much. Guess to match the weather protection it would have to
be a 1200LT and I'm not going there - too lardy for London, IMHO. Plus
they're massively expensive to service compared to the 1100. But they're
getting fairly cheap for a lardy barge.

 

Deauville
XJ900 TOGversion
R11xxRT
Tmax


--
wessie at tesco dot net

BMW R1150GS

"Wessie is a lovely man with many wonderful qualities" TM Blaney

 

Well, FJ's a bit long in the tooth. ZZR, too fast for what I want
(boring daily rider) plus the luggage isn't going to be as integrated as
the K and I often need the three large, relatively secure, boxes.

 

Luggage issues, fairing doesn't look that effective (plus I don't like
the look of them).

Now that's just naughty. No Fucking Way. Don't you think I have some
self respect? It's only 500cc.

 

MZ and top box.

See, helpful me.

 

Trouble is nothing is as good at what it does for as little money as a
K1100LT, despite its few foibles. I'm sure WUN's new toy is great but it
hugely heavy (I read) and costs 3 times as much. The fairing doesn't look a
patch on the beemer either. An FJR can be had for around 4k now, still a
grand rich for a hack and again the fairing is a toy by comparison.

Possibly a big retro styled bike with a Polaris style aftermarket fairing or
a Powerbronze Voyager. £2500 for the bike but another 400 fairing then
scottoiler and luggage.

 

Umm this is a surprise.
www.hughendenm40.co.uk/viewstock.asp?SP_ID=1339970&BRA_ID=17&PAGE_CODE=USED

10,000 miles!
Your fairing is an easy straight swap of course. **** me the thing must be
like new.
They have a low miles LT too but I mention this RS as they do carry one or
two little advantages.

 

ST1100

 

Could it be part of the BMW outsourcing parts to China Problem, rather
than you?
Bg

 

All this talk of ZZR1100s is making me want to look at 'em closely...

D.

 

Sheesh. That's an Onda.

 

wrote in message

Er... given that the bike's 15 years old umm... no.

 

What 90/00s hacks are there from manufacturers other than Honda? I take
it we're hypothetically looking at 600-1000cc, faired, with luggage and
the usual UJM format.

My knowledge stops at about 1991; I ran 70/80s GS550s for a fair amount
of time about then.