Friday, July 29, 2011

Try Again

Well, it's a year later, and we're going to try it again.  To do the trip that didn't happen last year.  I still feel bad about the way it turned out, but even after a year to think back over it, I don't know anything I could do differently, given the circumstances.

I sold the 05 bike about 6 weeks ago.  Took a hit, financially, due to the repairs and high mileage.  But that's done now and there's nothing I could do differently.  I ended up fixing everything that was broken (driveshaft), using used parts.  Turns out the transmission was not leaking; I don't know where the fresh oil came from, but it was not the transmission or the final drive (could have been excess oil from filling the final drive, I guess).  A russian guy bought it, and I think he planned to export it to Europe.

The new bike is not quite ready to go yet.  The fuel pump controller started failing and was replaced about 2 weeks ago.  In checking out the bike after the repair, they discovered the final drive was beginning to fail.  So, it has a new final drive now.  The fluid in the drive has to be changed for the trip.  So much for BMW reliability!  I doubt that I'll buy another BMW when the 09 is gone.

Need to do the 24K maintenance too (oil and filter, air filter, trans oil change, valves).  Planning to do it Sunday or Monday.  New tires to be installed; hope to do that on Tuesday.  Flush final drive on Friday morning.

We plan to leave on the trip on or about August 9 for 3 weeks, and plan to take in the Moto GP in Indiannapolis on the way home.  So, it's about the same trip as last year's trip, but done earlier.

I decided to add on to last year's blog rather than to start a new one, thinking that bringing back some of last year's thoughts would be good (and I'm lazy; didn't want to repeat some of it).  So, this is a twofer blog, but this time two years in one blog!  Hope you enjoy it.