So the 90,000 mile service happened. Ocean Motorrad manager #4 Martijn (half Dutch by way of coincidence) has now taken the chair but James the mechanic is still there. The day before I stripped the bike back and gave it a good clean for the first time in too long. As the air filter on the lefthand side had mysteriously not been replaced for over 3 years I highlighted this to Ocean and thought I'd take a picture of it for posterity.
The bike is in reasonably good nick considering its now 11 years old. There are several areas of bubbling paintwork on the front forks and the shaft drive, and some of the bolts on the front brakes are now rusty. Inside the fairing its remarkably clean. A lot of paint has come off the engine block but its hardly important and you cant see it with the fairings on. There's no significant corrosion
I was able to clean the fairings properly inside and out and got rid of a lot of road dirt. I discovered a lot of scratches up the LHS of the belly pan so as previously mentioned somewhere I seem to like left hand bends more than right hand bends.
I was short of a bolt for the belly pan under the rear end so was quite pleased when I found a bolt dropped inside by the battery box. Reassembling everything from the assembled yoghurt pots of carefully husbanded bits I was very annoyed to find that as I assembled the battery cover I was not only still a bolt short but also that a bolt was missing from the battery clamp, and I had managed to lose the bolt retaining clip from one side of the battery cover somewhere during my enthusiastic cleaning and polishing.
So anyway the freshly polished bike went down to Ocean to get taken to bits. I had asked for the radiator back after they took it off so that I could take it home to give it a good clean because of the hot running in the long run down to Munich and back. When I went in to get it I had a good chat with James the technician and a good look at the top end. There is the first indication of wear on the tip of the exhaust cam lobe on the LH cylinder, and one other , may have been the cam lobe at the opposite end.
All of the valve clearances were in tolerance nothing needed altered
The general condition of the engine is not bad, you can see the hose clips starting to rust now
The unexpected replacement of the service was the coil packs. The plastic heads with the lugs for removal by the special tool have not got many lugs left and were difficult to get off. Also the connections inside which are tiny were full of that blue green shyte that grows on electrical connectors. Anyway new ones are in there now. The plugs all looked good and evenly coloured but my god what tiny electrodes! Hopefully this will help the odd hot start issue I'd been having recently
The object below is apparently the radiator. After 4 hours work it looked a bit more like a radiator in that water could actually pass through it from front to back. Estimated 30-40% blocked solid. I cleaned a lot of road dirt out of it. I tried the pin poking from the back but the dirt was so well welded in that I was breaking the fins so stopped. Wife refused to go out as she knew it would be straight in the dishwasher as soon as she pulled out of the drive...
It became apparent that there were 2 lines of particularly well glued blockages and it occurred to me that I was looking at brake dust and rubber in line from the front discs. Discovering my brake cleaner had mysteriously been used up I went out the next day and bought some. Emptied the entire bottle and it was beginning to make a difference but I ran out of time. Maybe an overnight soak in cleaner would have been more effective. Anyhow its much better than it was, we shall see on Monday if its made much difference.
Had a new PR5 fitted to the front to match the rear fitted at the last service which has been doing rather well. So the preceding PR3 did 12200 miles, albeit well illegal after the nearly 2000 miles I did in the last 2 weeks (Amsterdam Munich Amsterdam Falmouth with the B500, a bit of commuting and trips to Rotterdam thrown in)
There been a bit of discussion over grip puppies elsewhere. Just thought I'd throw in a picture of the original LH grip and the RH grip that was replaced 12000 miles ago.
And so to the courtesy bike, a GS1250. Frustratingly due to being busy all week (some holiday with financial advisors, solicitors, opticians, fixing both sons cars, replanting trees and other gardening) it stood in the drive for most of the 3 days I had it. This was more of a shame because when I finally got out on it I found for the first time I actually liked a GS. I've had 2 1200's before and did not get on with them. This one had low seat and also adjustable suspension. With it lowered I could get both feet on the ground with my 31 inch inside leg. With those huge wide bars I found it easier to paddle around in the drive than the K, and pushing it about on garage forecourts etc was pretty easy.
The instant punch from the engine is great, keeping it below 30 in town is very difficult. Very easy to ride slow and filter too. Initially it was in Road mode which proved more than enough in the lanes and pottering around. Over 50mpg on the dash readout (which for one of these fully electronic jobs is pretty simple) in this use. Other switchgear was OK except the nasty little indicator switch. The keyless ignition was easy enough to get on with, although this is the second time I've used it. I was still getting used to the dive at the front end when I gave it back, you forget how flat the K stays under hard braking. After a petrol stop I put it in Dynamic mode and the plush feel of the ride became more K like. It accelerates very rapidly to 70 or so in either mode, and 90 is not long coming up.
The wind protection is surprisingly good and quieter than my current screen (as I mentioned in an earlier post). Sitting bolt upright was initially literally a pain in the arse. I found that the seat slopes forward and you gradually grind your gonads into the tank or find your trews getting very tight as you slowly slide forward. I got used to it after a bit of shuffling about. Those high bars need moving around a lot more as you start doing some proper cornering, I felt like I had clip ons when I got back on the K, but I think I'd get used to it. If I was given one I would keep it , but at 17500 drinking vouchers I'll not be rushing out to buy a new one. There was a very clean K1300S 30th Anniversary edition on the ramp next to mine in the workshop (Mr Grey who ever you are - nice bike) and I think I'd be on a second-hand one of those at less than half the price in jig time.
So £1039.43 later we are ready to roll. My retirement planning budget has been altered accordingly.....hopefully will be joining you retired layabouts within the next 12 months
