Re: New guy message..

["Michael D. Ash" <redlegduke@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Re: New guy message..

I have a 1996 RTL.  The L stands for radio and top box.   Motor lasts 
forever.  In fact, everything lasts forever on just about any BMW from what 
I can tell.

Some 1996 R1100 bikes (like mine) have crappy transmissions from the 
factory.  They have long and short dogs on the gears, like "stepped" so to 
speak, supposedly to get easy gear engagement with little driveline lash.  
They only made this particular transmission for a short while, maybe only 
1996, I'm not sure.  If you have a crappy one, your bike willl tell you by 
"sort of but not quite" jumping out of gear.  Then it'll bend the shifting 
forks.  This is a first-hand account.  Don't worry about, just ride your 
bike.  Mine has been rebuilt twice, once by a shop in CA by the previous 
owner and once by me.  It has never shifted correctly.  My plan is to ride 
it until it gets real bad again then to buy a factory new upgraded 
transmisson for about $1800.00.  Reports indicate that the factory new ones 
work great.

The splines mentioned are the clutch splines at the transmission input 
shaft.  The general consensus is that they should be lubed every 30,000 
miles.  Dryness supposedly can cause hard shifting.  I can't speak 
personally about this since my splines appeared adequately greased when I 
removed my transmission at about 35,000 miles.

You might want to just ride your bike a few months before you mess with 
suspension settings.  Get to know it, then you'll know what to do.

Good luck,

Duke

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