I've just changed the tyres on my K16GT. I don't have a service manual for the K16 but, after checking with my freindly local dealer, it turns out the torques are the same as the K13 as I'd assumed. They looked up the instructions for removing the wheels on the BMW online manual and that says that to get the rear wheel out you don't need to remove a silencer (as I did). Instead you remove 4 screws and the mudguard/number plate holder slides forward and comes off easily. Although getting the silencer off is easy, getting it back on again isn't so I'll definitely try taking the mudguard off next time.

You'd think a computer would be good at binary, but it seems not. Let's hope it's not connected to the pod bay doors or anything else important.

I was out on Sunday on my K13S when the TPMs warning started flashing. The pressure display was dropping fairly fast, so I pulled over fairly quickly. Within a minute or so it was down to zero, so I put it up on the stand to investigate.

The culprit was a small metal tube. It looked like the outside part of one of those sprung pins that you get on watch straps, but with the internal pins and springs missing. Being hollow it was letting the air out quite quickly, though the actual hole was quite small. Pushing the Dynaplug thing in was quite difficult, made harder because the hole disappeared as soon as I pulled the tube object out. Eventually got it in and pulled the handle out. They tyre was completely flat so I connected my battery air compressor thing. That took about 10 mins to inflate to 37 psi. Then it switched itself off so I gave it a couple of minutes to cool down, then finished inflating to 42psi. I cut off the end of the Dynaplug sticky string stuff with the scissors of my Leatherman penknife. They weren't anywhere near sharp enough and I think my attempts at cutting it off were actually pulling the plug back out, or at least interfering with it sealing properly.

Finally it looked down so I set off again, but after 20 miles or so the tyre was leaking slowly again. When it got down to 30psi I stopped to pump it back up again. The battery finally gave out at 38psi, but that was enough to get home.

This was the first time I've used the Dynaplug/Battery compressor for real and though it did get me home I'll be making a couple of small changes to the toolkit...
- a small pair of needle nosed pliers for getting the object out
- small but sharp side cutters for trimming the plugs
- tyre marker pen of some sort to mark the hole
- din adapter for the power cable that comes with the compressor.

Once at home I put another Dynaplug in the hole and it's now holding pressure. It hasn't dropped measurably since Sunday, so may be alright. I haven't decided what to do next but options are...
- Take the tyre off and do a 'proper' internal repair. I've got some repair plugs and the various chemicals required, so might do that just to see how it works.
- Replace the tyre with a new Road 5, to match the part worn front
- Replace the rear tyre with a Road 6 GT, that won't match the front but the front usually lasts longer anyway.
- Replace both front and rear with Road 6 GTs or Angel GTs
- Ride something else for a while... 

If your 5.5" Zumo XT isn't quite big enough there's now a 6" Zumo XT2.

I took my K16 in for it's first service yesterday. I was looking through the window into the workshop and could see a fair amount of swaf on the floor under the ramp. Talking to the service manager, it seems there's a problem with GS swing arms filling up water so they do a free fix, which involves drilling a hole in the bottom to allow any water to drain.

Just to let you all know that I managed to ride my z900 RS the other day, having been off bikes since the dislocation/greater tubericity fracture that I did in April. Still lots of physio  required to get the range of motion back to anywhere near what it was, but as it seems to pour down anytime I think of going out on a bike you should all start looking out the waterproofs. For now the K13 is just slightly too much of a stretch, but it won't be too long before I'm back on that too.