| [ Saturday - January 5, 2019 ] |
| It's been a long wait. Approximately 3
months in total the 12GSW has been sitting at Brown Motor
Works. Is it Brown's fault? No. Is it BMW's
fault? No. In the end, it's neither. So if it's
neither's fault, then who's to blame? It's called US
customs. Dialing back the time machine a little (When
os a bike a dick?, Push
rod, slave cylinder, master cylinder... it's none of that.),
the 12GSW suffer a fairly catastrophic problem with the
transmission. Fortunately for me the AfterCare extended
warranty covered the problem. I received a good used
transmission instead of having to pay $7,800.00 for a new
transmission. So why so long the wait if I already
have a replacement transmission? This is because I
decided to get new bearings for the transmission. I
could have used the old set, but it doesn't make sense to
crack open the bike again when the old bearings fail.
Instead, I chose to go with the OEM bearings. At least
that the idea until I couldn't get the German made bearings
because of US customs causing problems. In the end I
had to settle for a good set of bearings from Japan.
At least it's not the $5 Chinese special. In the three months, I had put in 3K miles on the F800R (what I call, "The scooter"). It's crazy how people drive these days. I don't know if they're out to race the 8R or if I.C.E. is after them. At one point I started questioning whether I made the right decision to get the 8R instead of the S1000R... "I can't get away from these fools!" In the end I finally figured out that the 8R is plenty fast and that cagers are insane whether I.C.E. is after them or not. Of course 3 months of "The scooter" had me being extremely comfortable beyond flat feet. Heck, if I stand on my feet, there's at least 1/2" between me and the seat. I installed the center stand on the 8R, the original owner didn't bother.  SW-Motech F8R center stand. Got it on sale for $200. Honestly, I don't know how the original owner could service the bike without a center stand. I guess that's why the 8R has rust on the chain. I digress... Anyway, I get the 8R off the center stand by getting on the bike (tip toe) and rocking the bike forward with the feet. I then push the bike forward, start the engine, hit the garage door opener, and ride off to work. Suffice to say, when it was time to pick up the GSW, my thought after 3 months was, "How tall is this thing?" The GSW was waiting for me to pay, for some minor service, and ride it home. OMG, this thing is huge and it's tall. I'm back to the ball of my feet with both feet down. It's a big difference from "The scooter". Dang, babe's like a skyscraper. I feel like my head was going to touch the stratosphere doing 70MPH on the way home. Backing the GSW into the garage? Forget it. I got off the bike and pushed it in. |
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Written on: January 22, 2019 Last modified: January 22, 2019 |