Monday, July 8, 2013 [25,089 miles]
I’m still waiting for BMW to deliver the R1200GSW I ordered. Maybe this week. In the mean while the R69S has been my primary means of two wheeled transportation. On the way back from visiting a friend in San Francisco my left mirror started vibrating and then hit my left arm. It wasn’t loose — it had rusted through the stem where the lock nut hits the clutch perch.
Albert Mirror
out of the box
The mirror that broke was a Bumm that I installed as part of my original restoration. The Bumm was about the only mirror choice available at the time. This time around I had a choice. Since I have an Albert mirror on the headlight bucket for the right side view I decided to spend a few more dollars and make the left side match. Benchmark works got my order last week. The Albert mirror was delivered today.
Old Bumm mirror
broken
There were just enough threads left on the Bumm that I could use the mirror without the lock nut until today. That worked because as luck would have it the threads on the stem stopped with the mirror in approximately the correct postion. There was no room for the lock nut, though.
Albert mirror installed
matches other mirror
Installed. With blue Loctite. The Albert looks better than the Bumm. I prefer its shape. I haven’t ridden the bike since installing the mirror so can’t say for sure if the rear view is any different. It looks fine when sitting on the bike in my garage.
Wednesday, Aug 14 2013 [25,348 miles]
I’m almost 150 miles over the next scheduled service mileage. That’s due to almost 200 miles I put on the bike Sunday. Anyway, it’s time to put the bike on the lift and get started.
Drive shaft oil level OK
FD oil level OK
Wiped up oil
Crush rings
Since the bike is cold I’ll start with things that can be done with a cold bike. That includes checking tire pressure (it was a bit low both front and rear) and lubricating things such as clutch and brake linkages as well as side stand and center stand pivots. I also checked the oil level in the transmission, drive shaft, and final drive. New crush rings were used. I did find oil on the “shelf”. It was engine oil—didn’t have the gear oil smell. Not enough to worry about. I cleaned it off.
New air filter element
Clean… for a while
Last time the service schedule called for a new air filter element I didn’t have one on hand and put the (very old) existing element back in the bike. I got a replacment element and decided to install it this service. I also cleaned up the air filter housing and gave it a good coat of wax.
Checking the battery
Side stand grunge
Center stand pivot
The battery was only on the charger about 10 minutes before the indicator switched to solid green. That was expected given that the battery is only about 800 miles old.
I cleanded up the side stand pivots and checked that they were tight. Looks like the loctite I used last time I was in that area is working. The last image shows the grunge collected by the side stand. I cleaned it up a bit and oiled the pivot.
More later.