07/30/07

Week Two

Day Eight

Just a short ride down to Lennox Head, getting more confidence on corners and in shifting. The suspension is amazingly good, but the engine does transfer some vibration (more than the Harley Night Train, I think, but that’s streets ahead of most Harleys).

A fabulous bike with style and character.

Day Nine

Did not ride today, not wanting to put any more miles on it before the first service, supposed to be 1000 km (600 miles) but will be around 1200 km by the time I get to the dealer’s tomorrow.

Day 10

Rode with Annie on the back down to the dealer’s, delivering the bike with 1250 km on the clock for its first service (due at 1000 km). They gave us an old beater as a loan bike, a 1982 Yamaha XJ650. We rode it back the 44 km to Byron Bay, where I had some work to before riding back to Lismore to pick up the BMW. Came time to go and the 650 would not start. It had been raining lightly, so I pulled off the spark plug caps, sprayed with WD40 and tried again using every starting technique I know, including full choke and full throttle, and eventually gave up. I noticed on the ride home it had been missing slightly and lacking power at medium revs, and then catching again when revs picked up, but I thought maybe that’s just how it is as an old bike. I let it stand and it still wouldn’t start, so Johnno from the dealer’s will come by in the morning to take me and the beater back to Lismore.

Day 11

Johnno came as agreed and of course the 650, having been in the shed all night, started for him third time. “Maybe I did flood it”, I said. He nodded. We drove down to Lismore in moderate steady rain, the sky grey as far as we could see and rain haze in every direction. I was going to see how the BMW really performs in the wet.

The service people, including Johnno, were very helpful. The larger panniers have been ordered but won’t be ready for our first trip away next week. We are looking at rescheduling so we can take the bike instead of Annie’s car. The suspension got moved up a notch and didn’t seem to affect seat height. The fog light switch was moved free of charge. Clear coat was recommended for the chip in the front fork (not in paint, but in the polished metal). The handlebars cannot be moved without something touching the tank in the fully locked steering position. The battery did not need charging, and the mirror was tightened.

The best news, and a real delight, was to get it home and find it so much easier to move. The steering has freed up, so it is easy rather than stiff, and it seems to wheel so much more freely that my biggest doubt about whether this was the right bike began to dissolve. I don't know what happened in the first service to change this, but it's a relief. I had been wondering why it seemed so much harder to push while sitting on it than the Virago 1100 (the two bikes weigh about the same, around 275 kg-- 605 lb). Now I find it’s not much harder at all. The difference in the bikes must be the weight distribution. Is that right?

Oh yes, and it was, as I suspected, perfectly behaved in the wet, so that although I took it easy as always, it was more pleasurable than wet riding has ever been for me. New helmet and screen are great for visibility, and new rain gear helped keep me dry, so it was a fun ride back.

Day 12

Perfect riding weather, so I hopped down to Lennox Head, just enjoying getting to know the bike better, and refuelled there. In the afternoon we met Johnny at his place and with Annie on the back and Johnny on the Harley we toured north up Tweed Valley Way through Murwillimbah (accent on the second syllable) and then west through lush rainforest past the Natural Arch, up into the state of Queensland. The roads were fairly narrow, hilly and windy, so it was a chance to put the BMW through its paces, until I realised I was going a bit fast for Annie and let up, just drinking in the scenery, which varied from forest to pastoral, until we landed on the Gold Coast and stopped at one of the largest bike dealers, Morgan and Wacker, who handle both HD and BMW. They had a nice looking Scarver (BMW F650CS) there. Annie was drawn to the HD Deuce and Johnny to the V-Rod. But when Johnny sat on an R1200GS he said it was the most comfortable bike he’d ever straddled. I looked for light riding boots but found nothing I thought suitable.

We had a quick snack. Annie swapped over to the Harley on the way back, and we zipped through the traffic and out on to the freeway where we were able to do a legal 110 kph (which means you can usually get away with around 118 kph or 73 mph). The bike is so comfortable and easy at those speeds, giving you plenty of passing power even without changing down, and able to put on a satisfying spurt for a pass or a hill after a quick downshift. The sun set and I got a chance to set high beam when traffic thinned out. Very impressive. The fog lights are great but would be more useful aimed further forward. We got back around dinner time. Annie said the Harley pillion seat was too hard, although she said the BMW seat was not too comfortable either. The Harley feels more solid under her, but as a rider that’s because it’s very heavy and has to have a lot of grunt to make up for it.

The low fuel light came on at 205 km and we had 250 km up for today on our return. Haven’t checked the mileage yet because I made it home without refuelling.

We’ve rescheduled our trip to the Sunshine Coast while we wait for the panniers.

Day 13

An exhilarating ride out through Lismore, along the back road to Casino, with Susie and Paul on the Virago 1100. He has already made good progress tidying up my old bike (1986 model), converting rust and painting sections such as the mirror stands with chrome paint. We stopped at Casino for lunch, and then headed north through natural bushland and pastoral land, and up through the Burringbah range where we stopped at a lookout to see the large and small peaks of Mount Warning in the distance. Up through Uki and Stoker’s Siding back to the Pacific Highway, where we headed south back to Byron Bay just in time to refuel before dark and for me to clean up some bugs from the screen, backs of mirrors and lower front, where they really collect on country roads, especially at dusk. It gets dark quickly at these latitudes, and all the bugs seem to collect as the sun is going down, and they all seems to think a motorcycle lamp is a sensible thing to aim for. The removal of bug remains is a daily chore.

Day 14

Rode about 80 km alone, heading south from Byron Bay and then west through Wollongbar along a twisty, hilly road that let me see how the bike can perform down in the lower gear range, pulling up hills and into curves and behaving so well at every corner that I am starting to get the confidence I once felt with the Virago. Not bad in only two weeks. From Wollongbar up to the Bruxner Highway, turning southeast to Ballina along another picturesque stretch of road and from there up the coast road to Byron Bay, with views of beach after beach to the right, a mild surf today. I kicked down to third to get past a cage and felt a surge in the bike and another in my blood and swooped past so quickly I was gone before they’d looked sideways to see me.

Kilometres travelled in first week:    700 km   (435 miles)

Kilometres travelled in second week:           630 km   (390 miles)

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