review and confession... (a bit long)

Well if he gets that on ebay too, it'll be a lot lighter to post.

 

although the original design was found in some pictograms, on clay tablets
found at Ashurbanipal

--
wessie at tesco dot net

BMW R1150GS

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

 

Surely that was the boxer.

 

No, no. Bricks predate reciprocating mass technology.

--
wessie at tesco dot net

BMW R1150GS

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

 

wrote in 4ax.com:

FFS, Steven, close that fucking stable door



--
wessie at tesco dot net

BMW R1150GS

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

 

They have the same Brembo F08 calipers as 70s Guzzis [1] and they can be
made quite good. I think BMW used the larger piston F09 (48mm rather
than 38mm) on some models but I reckon you have F08s.

As has been said fresh fluid and braided hoses will go a long way. If
they have dull grey pistons (the later coated type - which yours should
be) they shouldn't need rebuilding, just the pins cleaning.

The later ones also have a single 10mm bleed nipple which makes life
easier as the 6mm two nipple type snap if you 'look at them in a funny
way'.

I use Brembo pads in the Guzzi [2] and they're very good. EBC non HH are
dire and barely knock the rust off the discs. HH are marginally better
but, IMO, not as good as Brembo's own. Although the friction coefficient
is listed as higher - I suspect it's more marketing than anything else.


[1] ....and Ducatis, Laverdas and - amazingly - early MZ ETZs
[2] Mine has 4 pot Brembos now but I used them in the originals.

 

The Guzzi is supposed to use leaded but I just sling 95 RON U/L at it and
it seems to go ok.

Not snake oil (according to the Federation of British Historic Vehicle
Clubs):
http://www.fbhvc.co.uk/fuel/index.htm#adds

 

It's not really an old bike though.

 

The sample of five K75/100s I've had all had ceramic pistons. Some of
these still managed to get 'sticky' with 20 odd years of gunk between
the hydraulic and dust seals.

I think they only used the single bleed on the K. At least both of my B
reg bikes (85?) had these.

 

For some value of "old". Still a 1984 model, which makes it 22-23 years
old. Not technically an antique, granted, but still old enough to have
rusted/cracked bits.

 

snip

Agreed, and fitting braided hoses isn't going to improve them to modern
UJM standards either.

snip
What have you done with the real Andy ?

I would leave the panniers on for the Elephant, if you do go sliding
they'll stop too much damage.
I generally only get 137 miles to a tank on my K75S

snip

You should have said, I would have let you have my K75S for free. It's
got less than 40K miles on it too.

 

Whilst I appreciate the thrust of your argument, I do think that you
meant "4 star petrol", not 2.

 

Why? They were all built to run on 2*, AFAICR.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10
`\\ | //'
`\|/`
`

 

2 star was only 87 octane - I thought BMWs needed 4 star (97 IIRC).

 

That's what I was getting at - Loz was referring to the BMW, Ace to
the UJM. 4*/2* respectively. I'm confused now.

 

sweller () gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying :

2* was 92RON, 3* 94, 4* 97, 5* 100.

87 is common in merkania, but they measure differently - their MON+RON/2
makes their 87 "Regular" about equivalent to the Euro 91RON "Regular
Unleaded" we don't get here.

 

It's pretty cheap too - I've been using it all year in Avis's finest
hire cars and at an average of $2.85 per US gallon, it's cheap motoring.

The septics got a bit funny when the price fluctuated up to $3.10 a
gallon, tight fuckers.

 

No trouble with the valves or faces?

 

Damn, beat me to it.

 

I can see where you're coming from with this, but my statement was
based upon the fact that almost every Japanese bike from 1971 onwards
was designed to run on 2 star fuel or unleaded - very few required 4
star, and those that did usually had highly tuned engines. Tbh I was
ignorant of the fact that BMW bricks needed 4 start fuel, and again, I
can't see why BMW decided to make an engine that required such a high
octane fuel when cheaper lower octane fuel is more readily available
worldwide, and in such a softly tuned engine too.