Drone; Sorry I was not trying to high jack your thread and agree should use other threads for discussing tires and mileage. I got carried away responding to Claude. Steve
I am most interested in 2 particular mods. The white parking brake and the attachment system used for the garage door opener. Have you patented these ideas? Are these prototype or production models? Awesome combo, I'd love to see it in person some time. Good job!
I have not been able to patent those two items due to the tremendous backlogs in the U.S. Patent office. :huh But my patent attorney, to whom I have paid $4000 so far, says that for another $10,000 he's sure he could get the approval process moving.
Totally awesome rig, the paint/colors are stunning! See you have a Vredstein SnowPlus 155/80-R15 listed as your pusher. Can you point me to a source?
Hola Mike...Willkommen Zurueck! You might be able in getting them according to ADV inmate RWAZ who writes: "For any of you that are interested I did find the Snow+ tire in Denver. If interested the company and phone number are Premier Tire Terminal 1-303-297-9555 They said they had plenty." I don't recall when he wrote this..(winter/fall/summer of 2011 ??) Cheers...
Mikepa emerges from Gobi Desert or whatever far off place he's been just to comment on my thread! Too cool for words! Mike, the 165's are more available than the 155's and there was a recent thread that talked about sources -- here. Seems like Vredestein does a production run once a year and fills North American orders in the Fall. Now, if you are headed back to Shangrila or wherever, and want to take a 155 with you, I got an extra I can let you have (it's a fresh one). I won't need it until the end of this riding season which means I could order a new one in the Fall to replace it with.
Hello Mike...try Clicking here: http://www.vredestein.com/Dealerlocator or go to: http://www.vredestein.com/ and find the dealer locator . It is global
Your offer is way too kind, why I love this commuity (especially the Hack-ers)! Actually, I have 3 spare 165R15 BFG's (for the pusher and tub) and 2 spare 135R15 Nankang's for the front, but the BFG's are not that great in the wet and mud, and the Nankang's just make me nervous. Would just like better-quality M+S-rated shoes all around, but sources are limited here in the USofA as we all know. Am heading over on 24 April with my lovely bride to pick up the rig I have stored in Heidelberg (my R1200/EZS road hack) and ride Europe for a few weeks. The guy I store my rig with (Stefan Knopf, check him out at http://www.knopftours.com/Web-Site/Hello.html) is pretty resourceful, totally into bikes and hacks, and ships a couple of containers of bikes and stuff across the pond every year. I'm going to see if he can find hack tires for me in Europe, and if so, will have him stuff some in one of his containers. Anyway, gracias for the very kind offer, but I'm good to go. Best,
Hi Claude - Thanks for the links. Searching for a dealer in my area just links me back to their offices in NJ. But, appreciate the research. BTW, super job on Stroker's tub! Regards,
Hola 'Farher, long time no see. Hope you and your lovely Missus made it through the winter and have some riding planned once the weather breaks! Thanks for the heads-up. As noted above, I'm going to try the direct import route first, but if all else fails, I'll see if I can order a six-pack of these when I return. And remember, if you guys are ever out this way again, mi casa, tu casa. Kindest Regards,
Maybe a universal rule of thumb at work here. I put my rig on the scales, and with our camping kit, my wife and I on board, we came in at 1,280lbs rolling weight, the distribution was: Front: 440lbs (34%) Tub: 280lbs (22%) Pusher: 560lbs (44%) That's roughly the 30/20/50 split (give or take) you saw on your rig and "kit". Best,
Wife and I took WUMPA to Sequim for lunch yesterday. 230 mile day. Google Map of our route. Wife's first time on gravel. She didn't like it--only because of the road vibrations coming up thru the suspension into the seat. Haven't made any significant changes to WUMPA. Got a new (smaller) Bags Connection tankbag. Added some clear protective vinyl to the tank. Changed the brake pads on the car. Re-coated the headers--the black ceramic did not hold up very well so I'm trying the Chromex now. Added a new-style cam chain tensioner which quieted down the engine and I think maybe even smoothed it up somewhat. Tried a Steptoe jumper to change the engine map to something richer, but performance went backwards, so I removed it. Replaced the original starter with a new Valeo. Added a TyreGard TPMS--very handy mod by the way. Got a little over 62,000 miles now. Pretty happy with the set-up. Oh, wait, I just remembered that I did add one more piece of bling that I got on eBay from Andrew Fekete. Remember him (Adventurer's Workshop)? It's a Rear Master Cylinder Boot Guard which, as the name suggests, protects the double-barreled master cylinder setup from my ginormous size 48 boot. Only $20.
One of the DMC subframe mounting points is to the bolt that attaches the brake pedal to the right side peg bracket. See red arrow below-- You can see the black subframe there behind and under the peg bracket. Well, after a recent ride, my rear brake pedal was loose. When I looked, I discovered that the nut on the backside of this bolt was missing. Easy fix, right? But, turns out that this bolt had apparently been over-torqued (not by me--I had never touched this bolt before) and stretched. This changed the thread pitch so that a replacement nut would not spin on. Again, easy fix--just buy a new bolt, which I did. But, the point of this post is just a heads up to say the OEM bolt is not designed to handle the load and stresses that get transmitted to the subframe. You need a stronger bolt here. My local shop did not have this bolt in a 12.9, so I'm going with an 8.8. I'm guessing that this is the same as the OEM BMW bolt, so I'll check it every so often to see how it's doing. And rather than torque the hell out of it, I'm using a flanged nut with some blue loctite and only torqued down a half turn past snug. Also, for you guys who get bored easily by all this tech talk, here's a picture of Kirby taken the same day the nut fell off. He probably heard it go tink, tink--
Another problem to report is that on this same day I cooked my hydraulic clutch slave cylinder. By searching the forum you'll find that this is a typical maintenance item on the 1150GS, especially after 50,000 miles (I've got 64,000 now). I need a new one. Think I'll put in one of those steel braided clutch lines at the same time. Maybe get proactive and upgrade the clutch too? The other problem is that while on a trip to Idaho last month for the USCA National Rally, I blew out the seals on my Ohlins front shock. I'm getting that rebuilt now by KFG Racing and while it's off the bike I'm also bumping up the spring rate a couple of levels. Does it ever end? For you guys who get bored by posts with no pics, here's SWMBO at Barlow Pass all bundled up to stay warm on a typical July afternoon in Western Washington. You can see the front shock oil on the telelever--
Drone Its a lot of work to change clutches, the throwout bearing or clutch slave is allot easier and can be done with transmission in the bike.If it ain't broke don't fix it. No it never ends.DB
Yo Droney...Amigo...Fear not, Hasten Not...you might only need to clean and reflush your Slave . Might be just darn schmutzig (dirty). Although a nice braided Stainless steel cable would complement the simple repair. See here: http://advwisdom.hogranch.com/Wisdom/Clutch Flush.php.html LOve your SWMBO...reminds me of the countless miles I had with mine cheers....
Originally Posted by DRONE Another problem to report is that on this same day I cooked my hydraulic clutch slave cylinder. By searching the forum you'll find that this is a typical maintenance item on the 1150GS, especially after 50,000 miles (I've got 64,000 now). I need a new one. Think I'll put in one of those steel braided clutch lines at the same time. Maybe get proactive and upgrade the clutch too? And... ?? Cheers...
Can't say I subscribe to this philosophy. What we got here is an organic clutch which is designed to wear out and be replaced, with an unknown amount of abuse dished out by the previous owner for 47,000 miles as a solo bike. Then, another 18,000 miles of use as a sidecar rig which basically is more abuse even if you drive it gentle. Finally, we have God who has already proven that His idea of a funny joke is to have the clutch burn out in the middle of the first trip I take after replacing the slave. So, the clutch ain't broke but I'm fixing it anyway. Towed the bike to South Sound BMW today and left it there with instructions to replace the slave and the clutch. I bought a TRW/Lucas sintered metal friction plate from Wunderlich which should last for the remaining life of the bike. Also bought a new housing plate, pressure plate and diaphram spring. Since I had to remove the subframe and the y-pipe for this clutch job, I'm taking the opportunity to get the y-pipe ceramic coated to match my headers, and getting the subframe powder coated. Not sure yet what all this is gonna cost me, but it should come out less than $2k. Prolly around $1800.