The web’s favourite damaged outdated Beemer is again — now, much less damaged than ever. After we final noticed my BMW F800GS, it had lastly been restored to its bright-blue glory, however the course of got here at a price: My front-right flip sign, lengthy hanging by a thread, lastly succumbed to the engine’s vibrations and freed itself from my entrance fairing.
However that one flip sign wasn’t the one factor this GS wanted. Firstly, the sprint stored yelling at me for an oil change, however there’s extra to it than that. I’ve a visit developing this weekend, a freeway trip to Connecticut adopted by 100 miles of mixed-surface trails, that means the F800 wanted to prepare for touring and dust using. Does wrenching ever begin to really feel Sisyphean for anybody else?
(Full Disclosure: Motul kindly despatched me sufficient oil for a full oil change. Garmin additionally despatched me a GPS unit for an upcoming assessment, which I wired into the bike right here.)
Enjoyable With Fluids
Once I purchased the bike, the prior proprietor informed me it was due for an oil change. The sprint agreed, shouting SERVICE at me on each startup, so I figured the bike was a number of hundred miles overdue for its 12,000-miles change. No massive deal, proper?
Not an enormous one, nevertheless it did turn into an expedition as soon as I began to drag the bike aside. Eradicating the aftermarket bash guard gave me an excellent view of the GS’s magnetic drain plug — a plug that, for some purpose, unscrews with a novelty outsized hex key. Right here I used to be, with my socket set able to go, staring down a plug that may solely yield with a 10mm Allen key. It took a full ironmongery shop journey earlier than I may really drain the bike’s oil.
As soon as, I did, I found the situation contained in the oil pan. The bike might have solely been a number of hundred miles overdue, however god solely is aware of what number of years it took to build up these miles — the oil that drained out was pitch-black and syrupy thick, like an espresso shot pulled with molasses as an alternative of water. I feel it might have legally certified as a biohazard.
However, for all its age, the oil from the GS wasn’t glittery with particulates. The magnetic drain plug had a little bit of shmutz on it, however removed from a regarding quantity — with oil on this situation, a little bit of metallic on the drain plug appears nicely inside spec. I’m unilaterally declaring it tremendous.
Recent oil made the bike instantly really feel higher, smoother to shift and extra desperate to rev out. This additionally led to the invention that it stumbles over 6,000 RPM, however I’m hoping that’s simply an air filter. Please let it simply be the air filter. The spark plugs are so buried on this bike, and I’ve so little curiosity in reaching them.
Get Positioned, Son
Whereas out on this upcoming journey and path trip, I’ll be testing out the newest Garmin flagship moto GPS: The Zumo XT2. In fact, with a purpose to try this, I needed to set up the unit’s base on my bike. That meant wiring the system up, melding its naked wires with the included fuse and ring terminals, in addition to attaching the accursed RAM mount to my bars. I can not stress sufficient how a lot I hate RAM mounts, and the way unjustified that hate is.
This results in my first little bit of actual recommendation, although: Maintain a multimeter readily available for wiring work like this. Certain, the ring terminals and fuse all got here with the Garmin — they’re going to work nicely collectively, it’ll be tremendous. However within the uncommon occasion one thing isn’t, it’s higher to test continuity on the device chest that doubles as your kitchen island than to mount every little thing to the bike and be confused when it doesn’t work. Additionally, when working with heat-shrink tubing, you should definitely solely use your most interesting Entrance Bottoms lighter.
After making certain {the electrical} connections had been sound, I spent a strong two hours simply making an attempt to determine the place to place the Garmin on my GS. I like the Dakar look, each gauge and instrument tucked up behind the windshield, and I attempted so exhausting to make the unit match close to my sprint. Plus, the RAM mount didn’t actually match on the middle of my bars, and I needed to keep away from placing the GPS out to the perimeters. I’m assuming I’ll drop this bike rather a lot within the dust, and I’d wish to avoiding hurting the display screen if I can.
Sadly, two hours of looking out solely jogged my memory that I didn’t shell out for the F800GS Journey with its manufacturing unit navigation bar. Maybe sometime I’ll add such a function to my humble non-Journey mannequin, however for now the Garmin lives — poorly — within the middle of my handlebars. The RAM mount is actually solely hooked up on one facet, nevertheless it’s tremendous. Don’t fear about it.
These Damned Indicators
Final time, I teased the thought of putting in compact Motogadget m-Blaze Pin flip indicators on the GS. These are the precise indicators I ended up shopping for, alongside some resistors and a set of adapters from Rizoma to assist fill within the now gaping divots within the entrance fairing. The resistors, regardless of all proof on the contrary, ended up being completely pointless — they didn’t have an effect on the flash pace of the brand new indicators in any respect. I ended up preserving them round within the storage simply in case, however I don’t actually anticipate to ever use them.
Sadly, the symptoms proved horribly inconvenient to put in. The difficulty isn’t essentially theirs however comes from making an attempt to make use of them with my BMW’s manufacturing unit flip sign plugs. The way in which the Motogadget indicators mount, as a single pin, merely didn’t need to play good. For a visible, right here’s what the indicators seem like on their very own:
The sunshine ingredient itself serves as the pinnacle of a hole bolt, by way of which the wires run out to the bike’s harness. Whereas that’s all very good and smooth, it additionally means the nut that holds the sign to your fairing must be utilized earlier than the naked wires of the indicator will be hooked up to your manufacturing unit harness. The nut merely gained’t match over any sort of OEM plug. A budget crimp connectors I hold round my condominium wouldn’t seize the wires, in order that meant soldering plugs to the symptoms after mounting them.
A enjoyable reality about me is that I’m godawful at soldering. It’s simply by no means one thing I’ve been good at — I could make {an electrical} connection, certain, however making it clean and sturdy? That’s a taller process. However by god, I went out to Micro Middle for some warmth shrink and a warmth gun, and I gave it my all.
…Yeah, I’m simply kinda hoping the warmth shrink holds every little thing collectively. The indicators have already survived a nighttime freeway trip by way of a thunderstorm, so I’m pondering they’ll be okay. If one thing breaks, it’s simply extra solder observe.
As for a way the indicators really work, my emotions are combined. They’re a lot brighter than the inventory indicators, and far more compact — you may see within the high shot how little they stand proud of the bike’s fairing. That was intentional, to scale back the danger of breaking them in an offroad drop, however I do with they prolonged only a little farther from the physique. The inventory indicators had been recessed, and my adapters don’t fairly fill all that area, so these are fairly tucked in. Nonetheless, they’re vivid, seen, and securely hooked up — higher than what I had earlier than.
Windscreen Woes
One other function the F800GS Journey will get over the bottom bike, past the navigation bar, is a taller windshield. This alone seems like a worthwhile improve — the 800’s inventory display screen pushes turbulent air immediately into my helmet’s chin bar. This, as you may think, sucks. I think about it could suck extremely on a trip out to Connecticut, and one residence from Massachusetts. So, a taller windscreen was so as.
I did a variety of analysis right here. A $41 choice from Alibaba was on high of the record for some time, till it turned far too late to really get the $41 choice from Alibaba in time for the path trip. So, Givi it’s — identical to I had on my G310GS. I attempted to check its wind-deflecting capabilities, to see if it actually pulled that turbulent air off my head, however simply ended up in a lightning storm. No actual profitable there, from a wind perspective.
Cell Carrying
Have I discussed that I hate RAM mounts? This bike got here with one for a mobile phone, an enormous ungainly X-grip mount that at all times tried its finest to hit my telephone’s quantity buttons. It additionally had a charger that plugged into the port subsequent to bike’s ignition, and led to tow USB ports on the bars. From a cable administration perspective, a sleekness perspective, this is able to not do.
Now, the telephone is on a Quad Lock mount, charged by a six-foot-long Lightning cable that runs all the way in which to the battery. That is a lot cleaner, even with the brand new mount’s vibration damper in place.
Street Journey Prepared
With that, the bike ought to be set to go. It nonetheless wants a number of issues — the brakes nonetheless don’t really feel nice, even with the brand new fluid, and the chain and sprockets may use substitute — nevertheless it’s in ok form to belief for this journey. That’s a far cry from the situation it was in simply two months in the past, when even the trip residence from my buy was sketchy as hell.
Now, I simply must attempt to not damage it an excessive amount of over the weekend. I’ve successfully no dust expertise beneath my belt, so the place higher to start out than a 500-pound BMW? Stay up for a sequence of blogs popping out of that, assuming I make it out in a single piece. I’m certain it’ll be tremendous.