Re: New guy message..

[Bob Hadden <kbhadden@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike,  Welcome to the BMW crowd.  You're gonna like this bike.  A 
couple of pointers.


On Saturday, December 6, 2003, at 12:07 PM, Mike Eyre wrote:

> Hi all!
>
>  How long will this engine go for until
> it needs a rebuild?

These motors have the potential to go about 200k miles before rebuild.  
But there is plenty of opportunity to screw them up before that point, 
so who knows how many miles you will get.  The motors are very robust.  
The run lean for pollution control, so there is potential to hole a 
piston if anything goes wrong with the fuel supply to cause even more 
lean running.  But, generally speaking, you should not have to do any 
work on the mechanicals for a long while.
> . Any ideas on a good
> starting point for suspension settings for this set of suspension 
> parts,
> given I'm 6'2" 165 lbs?

You should set up the spring pre-load so that you use about 1 to 1-1/2 
inches travel when you sit on the bike.  Check both the front and rear. 
  Damping is a personal thing, but you should start soft, then go 
stiffer until you start to pump down the rear shock when going over a 
wash board.  Then  you back off to slightly  less rebound damping for 
your  normal setting.  After some miles, you might choose to vary from 
this a bit, depending on your preference.  On the front if the damping 
is too soft you will feel floaty.  So go firmer until that feeling goes 
away.  You should get a good balance with a few miles of experience.  I 
expect you have no compression damping adjustments on these shocks.

The Ohlins are very good shocks.  You can get what ever ride type you 
prefer.  Either very taut, or cushy if that is your preference.
Hope this helps.  There are a number of good articles that explain this 
better than I just did.  Go to www.ibmwr.org and go to the oil head 
maintenance section for a complete library of tech info for your bike.

Bob Hadden '98RS

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