Boxerworks.com

Souljer wrote:Hi,

Okay, so no doubt this will be a dumb question for some, but if products like Dri-Gas, etc. are alcohol to absorb the water, would it not be easier to simply add some ethanol? E85? Not a fill-up but just some? Last full tank I put in was 91 but I don't know if that has any ethanol or not.

When I drained the carb a few days ago I collected the gas in a metal tray. That's where I noticed the water droplets. I did not look in the float bowl that carefully. Maybe I'll take it apart again in the morning to double check. Then again, is this sort of normal and there are always some drops in the tank? Can you ever get rid of all of it?

I have noticed in a few rides that the carburetor was not leaking (so far) and the engine seemed to run fine ...as long as I remembered to turn the fuel taps back on...
I'll get the hang of this eventually!

Water in your gas is not normal. I have not even found it common. Pressure wash the bike and you will have problems----not just wet gas but trashed bearings.

That question has come up before and I haven't seen a good answer. The real question is: how much alcohol in the gas is good for dispersing how much water and how well does the resulting mix burn in the engine? As it is it's very hard to avoid gasahol in the US (not E85, just regular gas!)and the stuff has less energy thus makes less power and yields poorer mileage. But it gets pushed due to "emmissions". Actually there is a huge amount of politics and money behind the crap. Big, big money. You can find all sorts of stuff on the web. Follow the money--where does the alcohol come from and who is raking in the cash?

Anyway, Dri-gas is old time stuff--pre-ethanol days, and it is intended for cars where draining a tank is very complex. On the bike, draining the tank is a snap and if you want to get all the water out that is the only way. Gets dirt out too. Most important, you don't want the water coming back. So buy 2 or 3 gallons of gas at your favorite station---but in a clean can. Then look in the bottom of that can. If they are the culprit, you know. Already mentioned never buying when fresh gas is being delivered (tanks get stirred up), from low lying stations, from old stations (leaky tanks) and from first generation immigrants (your own little 2nd or 3rd world gas station).

If you try some chemical solution, like adding more alcohol, you just get poorer burning fuel, even if it works. So what's the point? Get good gas.

I stressed looking for water in the float bowls because you want to see what your engine is seeing. The engine does not see what collects in a tray from both carbs. It sees what is in each bowl. The motor will chew up a certain amount of water (with Bings) just fine. On very high compression motors water is injected to cool the cylinders and control detonation. Stuff just turns to steam---absorbing a LOT of heat. You can also inject water to clean the combustion chambers (know what you are doing!). But from what I have observed, if you have drops the size of a small pea in the bowls, you really feel it when running.

I have cut my reserve standpipes down so I can drawn down my tanks lower. This means I will suck water and dirt that I would not have before. Double edged sword there. I get more range and a more sensitive warning about bad gas but I need to keep the tank really clean if I don't want a nasty surprise when hitting reserve. I may end up not liking it and change it back.

Wipe the filler when buying gas. Gets the germs off from the last guy and the holder on the pump.

Avoid hitting the inside of the tank with the filler, chips the coating on the tank. in Ca I used a yellow plastic filler collar on the clean air pumps. Solved the banging the tank thing. Needs to be kept clean in it's pouch.

Sorry guy, but no excuse for not reading what it says on the pump and knowing what you put in the tank.


I go through spates of forgetting to turn the gas on. It's worrisome. If you want to stay alive on a bike you need your head in the game. What else am I forgetting? Am I sailing through intersections without scanning properly?.

Hi,

Well the carb seems to work a lot better. No leaks so far. I took that one apart again and this time looked in the bowl. There was some crud floating around in the bowl. I made a video of the whole process just as notes to myself. Not terribly interesting footage overall.

Been riding around testing out the carb. Also road a bit on Saturday.
Sunday I went out again. This was a group ride to a mini-bike get together. I ended up riding with a group I'd never met. There were about 5 or 6 of them all riding Harleys and at least three of them had the same chopped down, flat-black painted bike. They all looked great and one guy kept saying he really liked my bike. I was bragging about how it is reliable etc. (Guess what happened next??)

On the way to the meet for lunch the clutch stopped working correctly. Suddenly the clutch would not disengage. Shifting was very clunky and when I came to a red light I could not get it into Neutral. With the clutch lever pulled in, if I released the brakes the bike would creep forward. At speed I could shift, as I said, it was rough but it would work. A few times I stalled the bike at red lights as I searched for neutral. However the bike got me there. Once parked and settled I got a bite to eat and wandered around a bit looking at the various bikes. Several were old BMWs. I took a few pix of the various bikes.

BMW Cruiser


BMW Toaster

BMW BirthYear... someday maybe...

While adjusting the clutch leaver at the handlebar seemed to help it was still creeping. I moved my bike over to where some of the other BMWs were. When I was getting ready to leave this guy (who was parked across from me now) and another were leaving and talking.


I started asking them questions about the problem and the other guy helped a bit. He noticed that the leaver had too much free play and was not returning to it's correct position. There was a huge gap. With this as a target I could then keep trying and working on it. Finally got it to start cooperating but it was very far from what was working fine yesterday.

My bike

I got home.
Once home I started researching and reading on adjusting the cable. I found a video on YouTube. I read some more.

As I started recording my own explorations and loosening and tightening things, I found this:

Ah. Okay. That might have something to do with it.
Now I'll order a new clutch cable. I found one from a BMW dealer for about $40. with $10. shipping. Is that reasonable? Where do you go to order parts?
And to make the repair, I just unscrew everything pull it out and retrace the new one back through the same way?

P.S.
A couple of other interesting and pretty bikes at the meet.



An airhead?


Have to agree with those sentiments...

Yep, disconnect from the transmission end first, that will give you the slack to push the cable nipple forward through the barrel/pivot at the lever end: Then drop the barrel/pivot down off the cable, notice the slot for this. Make sure you clean and grease the barrel/pivot before assembly. Hucky has the cables for $32.80

Wow, great thread!

I forgot to check in here for a while, been busy. Good to see that life with the R has been a good and fun adventure!

To address some things from many pages ago:

Handlebar-mounted fairings: Duane is right about the older bikes (e.g. /5) not being ideal for such fairings, but it should be just fine on the R100R. Mine had a BMW S-fairing on it for a few years and I never had any aerodynamically-induced problems. I did ditch the fairing eventually though as I lived in TexSux back then and I was much cooler without the fairing keeping all that nice wind off me.
The 'newer' (compared to /5) bikes use different designs and different geometry to what the old bikes used, and the R100R uses basically the same front-end as a K75S. It's very stable and capable.

LED lighting: I'd steer-clear of the LED replacements for standard bulbs as the tend to be very directional, as they are not designed to emit light in most directions and therefore won't bounce any light off the reflector- the result being just one spot of light behind the lens, and that spot growing noticeably dimmer as you shift your viewing-angle farther to the side. The one exception I've found is the LED tail/brake light unit that you can get from Motorrad Elektrik. It is something like 52 LEDs mounted on a big piece of circuit-board, and it completely replaces not only the bulb but the reflector too, and is coated with a clear plastic to reduce the sensitivity to moisture or vibration. Very durable and BRIGHT! AS! HELL! Best $37 I ever spent on my R, although I'm sure it's more now. I also heartily recommend Motorrad Elektrik in general; good products and proprietor Rick Jones stands behind his stuff. I once had a problem with one of his charging systems and he spent hours on the phone with me to get it sorted, and then a while later I stopped by his house just for a social visit and he still had my bad part and showed me what he found after I'd returned it. Great guy.

One more bit of advice about LEDs: while the bulb-replacement-units aren't so hot, there are a lot of LED auxiliary lights/driving lights/conspicuity lights/etc. on the market now and they seem to be a good mature technology. I had Motolights on my R, but now there are some really good LED lights that really do the job and demand much less of your electrical system. Do a little web-research here if it interests you; there are many great options available.

Engine bars: Maybe. My R went down on the bars a couple of times and they didn't cause any additional problems. The R bars, as you probably noticed, are not really all that rigidly-mounted anyway. I noticed in the later pics that you did remove them, and I also noticed that you don't have the stock side-stand. The stock stand cannot be used without the bar, so lucky you for having that ease. You probably have the stand from an R100 Mystic (an even rarer variant of the R, which didn't come with engine-bars, necessitating a different side-stand design). A Mystic stand came with my R, but I didn't like it because it interfered with my big foot around the shift-lever.

I'm enjoying your posts; they remind me of when I was a beginner less than 15 years ago (although the R was my second bike and my second BMW but that's another story). Keep up the fun riding and learning, and of course the great posts about it all!

Thanks for the great pics, Souljer.
You were very lucky to get back to base, and the experience is valuable.
Having been stuck once, 350kms from home with a loaded bike and a broken clutch cable taught me a good lesson. Luckily I was able to phone a friend, who bought and delivered a new cable.

Interestingly, the cable was an OE BMW one (cost $82) and broke within one month. So, and this is the important bit, I always carry a spare, and always buy aftermarket cables (around $40).

Hi,

Thanks guys. I appreciate your input.

The $40. cable is from a BMW dealer.
I called two locals and they both are the same; it's $36. -something plus tax, which is $39. -something. $40. One is not too far but they have to order it. The other one is an hour drive one way but they have it and would ship for +$10. So that's about $50, but I'd probably get it in time for working on it (or even riding by) this weekend and I don't have to go anywhere. It will come to my front door. If I can get two for the same shipping I might buy a back-up. I was just asking who else has these parts? Is there some knock-off brand from China that's just as good and only $20.? $40. does not seem that bad. Do you guys recommend original BMW parts when available or only if no one else makes the thing?

I thought it was going to come as a cable and jacket.
Are you saying that the steel cable will be removed from the sheath and I'll feed a new steel cable up through the old sheath? I was almost going to cut the zip ties tonight! I'll wait until I hear back on procedure.
Thanks again.

Always good to have a spare as well....get two.

I've just replaced my clutch cable with the 33 yo original that I took off two years ago.
Geez it feels nice.
I thought I'd better renew the original just in case, but ended up with a shite feeling new thing.
The Venhill?? was a crappy grabby thing.

When replacing cable be sure to put lube on the barrels as Bamboo suggested. Failure to rotate when the lever is pulled causes the cable to flex and eventually break.
Bob

Souljer, the new cable will come with the "jacket", rubber bellows etc already installed. Check out EUBMW for some great deals on various parts: http://www.eubmw.com/ FREE shipping on orders over $25 !