K1300S

[black-k1]

It was stunning scenery and brilliant roads. It's just a shame that. like all good things, it had to come to an end. The only thing outstanding, other than the money we owe Martin for picking up the beer bill for Germany, is - where to next year?

[fjtwelve]

So the big clean begins. After a trip to halfords to get more cleaning materials...

Taking the front wheel off I've found the abs sensor is seized in its bore, so the wheel came out without removing it

Tried taking the rear wheel out but found the hub design on the motosport wheels means the wheel bolts  are more deeply recessed than the K12 and my star drive socket won't reach. The long end of my star drive key will reach but even with a tube over the short end I can't get enough torque to undo the wheel bolts. What does everybody else use?

[Matt]

Ah that's a good point, I suspect I never took the rear off of my Motorsport. Did with the old one and just used whatever is in my Halford Professional 200 odd piece set. That's going to be a faff unless someone has specifics!

Mine is sat underneath me at the moment in a little log cabin'ee type place in Montenegro. It is filthy after the storm ride yesterday especially.

Oh I just noticed your fairings are off too! I shall have to remember to do the same!

[TomL]

You need a set of long series torx bits. Or you could cut the long leg off your star key and use it with a socket and wrench.

[fjtwelve]

Will need to increase the preload for the next  trip. The belly pan was all scratched and the top of the radiator guard and tip of the mudguard was worn where the front wheel got forced up under heavy braking. Never noticed at the time.
Everything went back together OK despite the standard dropping a fairing screw down the inside at 75% reassembled  and having to tear it off again 😠

[richtea]

Will need to increase the preload for the next  trip. The belly pan was all scratched and the top of the radiator guard and tip of the mudguard was worn where the front wheel got forced up under heavy braking. Never noticed at the time.
Everything went back together OK despite the standard dropping a fairing screw down the inside at 75% reassembled  and having to tear it off again

https://www.speedyfasteners.com/collections/dzus-fasteners ?

[fjtwelve]

Yep the thought has crossed my mind a few times

[fjtwelve]

So 27000 arrived back in mid August. I was on my way back from Shropshire so a few of us had a bit of a fling around mid wales, and this picture is on the A30 just East of Bodmin Moor. After the normal sat naggery discussions for the days route, my hooky version of TomTom finally packed up. It had stopped giving me camera alerts a few weeks back, then on the routes for the day it would download from MRA to TomTom Mydrive OK, but then the route wouldn't sync with my phone. Then when I opened the route it immediately changed it into a fastest route and sync'd that. Much frustration ensued, added to which my old work phone from 2018 finally went phut.  Cutting a long story short I now have a new second-hand phone (ANOTHER new second-hand phone as my cheapy one bought in 2019 also went phut about a month earlier), Gold membership of MRA route planning and a legit subscription to TomTom Go navigation. Thus I am now able to open routes in MRA with full functionality, save to TomTom, syncs with both my phones, and use the Go app on my phone which includes all speed limits, cameras and so on.

Its also become obvious that the USB plug in adapter I bought is not the right solution. Bumpy roads knock it out of place. If it reconnects the phone shows a "charging " notification which is fine, but if it doesn't reconnect the first thing you know is the phone says "low battery". And using full brightness and volume sure chews through battery life. On the plus side, the Samsung Galaxy S20FE I bought has a way better display than either the A20E or the A8 or the S9 i bought to replace the A8. It is far more visible in bright sunshine.

[fjtwelve]

I decided to see if the MRA flip up screen would fit on the K13 as the extensive motorway bashing of the last couple of months was getting a bit tiring and noisy despite the Neotec 2 flip up and earplugs. It proved a very easy switchover and recent rides have been smoother and quieter. Another screen is on the wish list now, along with a spare radiator. Oh and the ultrasonic bath. Ah, and getting the wheels refurbished.

[fjtwelve]

So we liked Wales so much we went back.  A couple of days romping around some of the best roads. Good food at the Bryncelyn Guesthouse again and a few beers in the Neuadd Arms. Day 2 was a bit damp for a while but otherwise excellent conditions. A bit under 800 miles but the motorway trail was worth it. Can recommend that route from the Cattle Shed stop down to Chepstow

[fjtwelve]

This is almost like being back at work. Last week I took a trip to London where I visited the very first site that I worked on back in 1980. Known then as IBM Southbank, its now being redeveloped in a pretty massive cut and carve job. They were going to demolish it but the building got listed during the design and planning application process so they have to keep a lot of the building, in particular the external structure. Had a great discussion on site about the original construction, I'd dug out about 50 photos, and my old training reports describing what I did . We had a walk around site (where I found a problem with the basement waterproofing but left my hosts to tell the project manager while I ran away to Cornwall). Its amazing how clearly I could recollect the details and construction 40 years on. There is a massive resource of information amongst older and retired people that is of great use to projects where they are refurbishing old buildings. This is more fashionable now that the buzz words are all about saving carbon. Make sure you have got all your jobs listed on Linked In as there might be be people out there hunting for information. I got a free lunch out of it...







On the way 28000 came up on the A303. I had to wait to pull over as the traffic was pretty dense and I had been working hard to get past it on the single track sections hence the 28002 photo. Must do better







This trip took me a bit past the service interval so this week the bike went in for a brake fluid, oil and filter change. The old "flog the customer some more spares" resulted in the rubber seal on top of the brake fluid reservoir being replaced, but  I turned down replacing the sidestand bearings. I found that yet another Motorrad manager has left, Jules is off to the Home Counties somewhere, so there's a new man to meet. I also found out that the price of BMW radiators has dropped massively , even less than I paid last month, so if you want to do some early doors spares buying get in quick.

[Matt]

Great update! And if you have a scanner, I'm the guy who wants to see more of that construction . The photos above, is that a mix of old and new structures or all new/old?

EDIT: Ok so this is the original (rings a bell):


And this is the proposed/new one.

[richtea]

No crumbly RAAC in there, then Martin?

[fjtwelve]

At the bottom of the picture is the new core of the building coming out of the basement.  The superstructure is almost all original that has been stripped out and cut away to make room for the new structure. And no  there is no RAAC in there, this was a traditionally overdesigned reinforced concrete structure from Ove Arup who are  generally very conservative in their approach. Also in those days most concrete was  100% OPC without the cheaper replacements of GGBS or PFA, designed to achieve its characteristics strength in 7 days or less so in the long term very high strength.  I can bore you for hours on our next meet with all the details

[Matt]

I for one fully support that boring conversation .

I've yet to read much about the RAAC debacle as it appears to be standard cost cutting geese coming home to roost. But in my ten seconds glancing now: aerated somewhat porous concrete (does it really only have a 30 year lifetime, and this was a known product attribute back then?) with metal inside surely is a hilarious approach to ensure you trap some of that pesky oxygen in the form of rust? Because yeah waterproof layers never fail right.

Sorry, I know I risk turning your K1300S thread into a "Barely Concrete Concrete Thread" but we're motorcyclists, danger is our collective middle name. As well as "god damn this fricking Sena"