It made it to Tomales

Ok, the true test of a bike is it's ability to get to one's favorite
destination, among other things. So today it got a shakedown to the Tomales
Bakery. I was vry impressed with the way it handled the Panoramic and
especially that mine field Marshall-Petaluma Road.
Ok perhaps BMW has made some progress since they made my first ever bike, a
1959 R50..
What is the deal with tires for these guys though? I found the 205's had a
tendency to slide a bit at rather brisk cornering speeds. Anyone ever put a
170 on one of these rims with good results?
Strange not having to stop for gas either, even when I saw 175 miles on the
trip meter I had plenty left.

--
Jim Stinnett
VTR1000
R1100RS
NT650
Too much motorcycle information @
http://moto-rama.com

 

: Strange not having to stop for gas either, even when I saw 175 miles on the
: trip meter I had plenty left.

Were you homesick for the VTR?

 

Well, it was at home, but sometimes you feel like a blast sometimes you fell
like breeze...

--
Jim Stinnett
VTR1000
R1100RS
NT650
Too much motorcycle information @
http://moto-rama.com

 

I've not messed with my tire sizes, but I've decided the Metzeler MeZ4
have the best grip and handling and reasonable life on my R1100RS. Make
sure you get the MeZ4"B" for the front, its got stiffer sidewalls
specifically for the telelever beemer, the regular Z4 120/70-17 will cup
something fierce.

 

I ran BT56s (which are still available according the the Bridgestone
website, http://www.motorcycle-karttires.com) on my R1100RS and didn't
often experience dry grip problems. What pressures are you running? I
don't remember exactly what I used, but it was well below the 42psi max
shown on the rear sidewall.

 

I've gotten the best results on my R1100RS with 42 in the rear and 38-39
in the front, which is slightly more than BMW recommends. When I've run
the front softer (36psi), I've experienced bad cupping and uneven wear. I
ride quite a bit on real bad quality tertiary twisty roads with uneven
rough pavement.

re: bridgestones, I used the BT020's for awhile, but found they were way
nasty on grooves and uneven surfaces, and I didn't like their wet traction
at all once they were somewhat past 'new'.

 

Like home again, afterwards... Aside from that, sounds pretty good.

<snip -- 'fraid I've got no good tire advice for you. Get good ones
that fit, and keep them properly inflated, but you were doing that
anyway.>

Huh. My new bike doesn't go as far on a tank as rattletrap did, but
300 miles is no problem... Same size tank, give or take a bit, but a
bigger engine.

Al Moore
DoD 734

 

Interesting. I really hated those tires on the VTR. They were ok for about
500 miles, then they seemed to get sort of hard or something. Maybe on a
heavier bike they'd be quite different.

The other thing: Are there any BMW dealers that have a fiche type online
parts ordering service? It looks like they all have a picture of Clem , the
parts manager and some phone number, not even an 800.
Honda dealers have gotten very hip to that type of marketing, ala
partsfish.com and ronayers.com , both very easy to use and cost effective.

--
Jim Stinnett
VTR1000
R1100RS
NT650
Too much motorcycle information @
http://moto-rama.com