New Member Intro - Familiar Bike

[Crarrs]

Hi everyone, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to the forum. I was a close friend of Dan (BMWR502), who we unfortunately lost a couple months ago. I was fortunate that his family wanted to ensure his bikes went into good hands, and was able to purchase his beloved 2003 BCR from his father.

I’m mentioned here and there in his posts around the forum as “The guy with the noisy Ducati I want my R1100 to sound like” and “The guy who rented the Triumph for the Labor Day trip in NorCal”. We all miss Dan a lot, and I’m going to do my best to honor his memory with the 03 BCR. I hope to learn more about these bikes as my ownership experience with this one develops.

Nice to meet everyone, here are a few photos of the bike when it showed up at its new home last week. And one of my “other” twin cylinder machine.

[wswartzwel]

Dan was a super guy, only met him once, though we corresponded on social media a lot.

Hope you can enjoy the bike as your own, sometimes hard to get the idea that it was your friends bike out of your head. Not a Ducati, but you will grow to appreciate that the more you ride it and get used to the wonderful front suspension.

[ckcarr]

Welcome to the club!

Beautiful motorcycle. Plus the Ducati (I had one once)...

[Skibum69]

I never knew Dan but that is one sweet bike!

[Crarrs]

Thanks everyone. It’s definitely a fine machine with well-chosen mods. It’s currently at the dealer getting a basic inspection and some service done. I don’t know the recent history, and it had been partially disassembled for some unknown reason prior to me picking it up. I don’t know anything about BMWs yet, and it’s been over 110 here for weeks, so I’m not inclined to spend hours in the garage scratching my head and figuring things out. I should have it back by the weekend, and then I’ll get to think about seeing what it can do!

The lower, narrow clip ons are going to take some getting used to again, I haven’t ridden with clip ons since I sold my RC51 about 6 years ago. The wide bars and light weight let me flick the Monster into corners with pretty light effort, but I already felt on the ride over that it’s going to be different with less leverage.

So, first BMW quirk question. What is the deal with the sleeve on the shifter nub spinning? I thought it had just grown loose over time and looked to order another one, but found it’s actually mounted on a bearing by design. Why? For me it gives a vague feeling with a mechanism that’s already on the fairly light side compared to what I’m used to. Looking for a more direct and rigid feeling to the shifter. Anybody else complain about this? I haven’t been able to dig anything up yet.

[duckbubbles]

Originally Posted by Crarrs

So, first BMW quirk question. What is the deal with the sleeve on the shifter nub spinning? I thought it had just grown loose over time and looked to order another one, but found it’s actually mounted on a bearing by design. Why? For me it gives a vague feeling with a mechanism that’s already on the fairly light side compared to what I’m used to. Looking for a more direct and rigid feeling to the shifter. Anybody else complain about this? I haven’t been able to dig anything up yet.

I had to go out and check mine just now. Hadn't realized that it spins and hasn't caused any problems in 10,000 miles.

Frank

[wswartzwel]

50,000 on mine, never noticed it either. Now it will probably bother me.

[Crarrs]

Bit of an update on the bike. The dealer completed the checkover, and the only real issue was a leaking fork seal. They recommended a full service because of the unknown history. I'm well capable of changing fluids and a valve adjustment, so I just had them do the fork seals and brought it home.

I ordered a super service kit from BBY, and spent a morning last weekend changing fluids and filters. I didn't realize how easy I'd had it for 6+ years of only working on my Monster with no fairings until last weekend. That 15-20 mins on the front and back end of any project really turns frustrating when the temperature is rising in the middle of the day and you are feeling DONE with being in the garage after it crests 105F.

I took Friday off work to do my first real ride on the bike up highway 89/89A through Congress and Prescott. Impressions from the ride are below in bullet point format.

• I'm definitely going to need to learn the new language the Telelever is talking to me with. I'm very attuned to feeling the relative loading of the front tire I'm applying through the brake lever on corner entry with the pitch of the front end on my Monster. Definitely not the case with the Telelever! Even rolling into higher-speed corners, the BMW just feels like a completely rigid, flat platform. It's definitely not talking to me the same way, so I'm working up to get confidence. Dan was probably 20-30 lbs heavier than I am, so there are definitely suspension adjustments to be done to match that. It never really felt like the suspension was sitting down into the middle of stroke when I expected it to be loaded up while leaned over. I wanted to get a ride out on the bike before making changes and getting lost from the baseline. Other than that, the Ohlins on this bike are pretty amazing in controlling the motion. First ride with the gold stuff confirmed all the other anecdotes out there.
  
• Caveat to the above: There had been some late evening rain the day before, and it was a hazy day preventing the roads from being the typical high desert dry. In addition, some funny stuff had happened with the chip seal since the last time I was up a month ago. Basically any corner where I'd normally be cranked over had a couple stripes of separated chip seal with loose pebbles. Completely sapping to confidence when you hear all the pebbles pinging off the inside of the front mudguard through earplugs and over the 50mph wind noise. So maybe I was never riding hard enough to get the suspension properly talking to me...
  
• The throttle response was definitely inconsistent, which also didn't help with confidence. Some corners, it seemed like 10 degrees of twist would be enough to completely unload the front tire and push the bike wide. Other corners, I'd give 10 degrees and just be waiting for the engine to spin up to get me to neutral speed midcorner. I did some reading, and it seems like I'm gravely in need of a TB sync. The windscreen is shaking like crazy during idle at stoplights, so I believe I have all the telltale signs. Seems like a good job for the holiday weekend while avoiding the crazy tourist traffic on the good roads.
  
• The powerband seems a bit flat to me, there really doesn't seem to be any slope or rise to a power peak. The bike doesn't seem to be lacking acceleration or power overall, just behavior. It also consistently gave small afterfires through the exhaust on closed throttle when braking into corners. I know Dan had a Techlusion on this bike at one point, but it doesn't seem to be there anymore (possibly repurposed to his 2005 BCR now owned by another friend). Is this a typical "stock tune + decat" problem? What would I be looking for to see if a Techlusion or other tuning device is present? Fuel was AZ's finest CA/AZ 91 octane premium pee water rather than the 93 octane everyone else gets.
  Caveat: The flat character could just be perception from the lack of squat from the stiff suspension, but other symptoms point to more than that.
  
• After returning home, it seems like the chicken strip on the front tire is narrower than the rear tire. That's not normal for any other bike I've ridden. Is this typical behavior for Tele/Paralever geometry characteristics? Or maybe pointing to other suspension tuning issues that I'll correct with dialing in for my weight? Just looking for general feedback here rather than a riding style critique.

A couple photos from when I stopped long enough to let slow-moving interlopers get away to let me enjoy the road.

[duckbubbles]

Even with a great throttle synch the windshield, mirrors and rear turn signals do a dance- I think it's part of the model's character and I like it.
Installing some late model injectors softens the initial throttle take-up eliminating or greatly reducing abruptness in that aspect. The downside is that with the Remus on mine they have just about eliminated all the popping, farting and general rambunctiousness (?) I really loved.
The telelever is definitely different but once you get used to it and learn to trust it, it handles on rails. The limits are the tires and rider skill.
You can probably take 5-10 mm preload out of the springs on both ends and back off damping a couple of clicks and see how that works for you. I put Wilbers on mine a little over a year ago and the ride is supple and controlled.

Frank

[Chris Canning]

What a great thread nothing like have a bike that is more than just having a bike...

Best advice I can come up with is loads loads of search’s on here, assuming you can still get various aftermarket parts these bike respond really well too them,particularly Lennie Induct and the SJ filter.

I actually bought my bike 20 years ago from a friend who at the time was building race bikes and motors for Troy Bayliss and when I pointed out he was riding to a race meeting on a BM he sold it too me....

Clearly your bike has an Ohlins in the rear what else....


As for riding...blimey that flat feeling with the funny front end takes a lot of getting used to,my 1100s is way down the food chain when it comes to bikes now but it won’t be going anywhere till I do...if you know what I mean.

Chris

[tomvv11]

Valve adjustment and TB sync will likely smooth out the response wrinkles. Whatever ride improvement changes you make certainly won't be made without serious analysis. Sounds like you have precision motion sensors in your hands, butt and feet. Didn't know Dan in person but glad his rig has found a good home.