BMW Airheads on Memorial Day

Memorial Day 2010. Had a huge load of spare BMW parts...and a spare BMW hulk to drop off in Yuma AZ. I had packed all my spare parts with me while I was building the R100S/6 so wanted to lighten my load a bit. Stuffed about 5 big boxes of spare BMW parts in the shed in Yuma. Also dropped the small trailer and R75/5 chassis in the lot. I have buyers for quite a few of the spare parts but just don't want to mess around with the task right now. The parts sales will have to be a winter project...Since Yuma is only 2 1/2 hours from San Diego we decided to run over to Escondido CA. to visit our niece Julie and her husband. Also hooked up with a bunch of our Airhead BMW Club friends...


Some shuffle board games were taken on during the day...man ...shuffle board...is that a sign of age? Darian shown here with a serious looking shot...

Our friends, Kevin & Scott acquired a huge stainless steel "Burn Patient Tub" a few years ago and turned it into a Koy Pond. The toilet tank contains charcoal filtering and the water circulates through the bowl...the fish definitely look healthy.
Left to right: Steve, Niece Julie, Debbie...

Debbie's Husband Kelly...he is the master chef extraordinaire...we will meet up with them next weekend in Las Vegas.

Bill.... Retired So. Cal. Airmarshall

.
Sitting at the BBQ / Bar...Great food was on the grill all day long...

Catching up...haven't seen any of these folks for a year and a half...

New Surroundings........Nevada Desert

Lake Mohave at Cottonwood Cove...our new location for the next few weeks......

After nearly a year in the Texas Panhandle we are very pleased to have a new view. I will not miss the Texas unpredictable weather, constant wind and the infamous tornado alley......
Desert views from my window......

Our RV site is outside town on the deserts edge. We are the only inhabitants of the RV Park right now...got the prime end spot with pine trees on our patio side.

Sunsets are nice every night....

Arrived here on Sunday. Got settled in right away and took a 40 mile motorcycle ride down to the lake. Temperature was in the high 90's. The road down to lame mohave drops about 2500 feet in 14 miles. Temperature is usually 10-15 degrees warmer than Searchlight.

Pulled the bike out tonight and went for a quick 30 minute ride down the Joshua Tree highway. Bike is working good but believe I'll need to add an oil cooler of some sort. Engine oil temp was pretty high when we ran up from the lake at 97 degrees....

Have nearly everything done...might add a small /2 luggage rack to the rear fender. Still need to fine tune the sidecar toe-in settings.

BMW R100S/6 Break-in Time....Hydraulic Steering Damper....1000 mile solo seat

Ran the bike 50 or so miles this weekend just tooling around the area. Not ready to venture too far from home yet. So far the engine sounds real good and everything is working as it should. I'm seeing a little oil weepage at the right cylinder base. The R100S engine is very powerful and 75 mph is easy to attain. The oil temperature runs a little higher than the /5. Might end up installing a 4 quart oil pan as I did on the /5.

Swapped the seats from the /5 to the R100S/6. The dual 1000 mile solo seats went back onto the /5, along with the large luggage rack. Also installed some smaller bar-end mirrors as I wanted the larger pair on the sidecar rig.

Completed the brake component rebuilds last weekend. Rebuilt the master cylinder and both the brake calipers. The disc brake front is much better than the old /5's drum brake set up.

. The newly covered black seat looks like it belongs there.....

Removed the large luggage rack which aslo doubled as a grab point for dragging the hack in "Reverse".....by chance I had a /5 front fork brace which lined right up with the holes in my saddle bag mounting frame.....the loop at the back of the bike is the new "reverse" grab.

I received a Volkswagon hydraulic steering damping cylinder a week or so ago...was able to put together a mounting assembly with spare stuff I had laying around. The cylinder sits at an angle but works just fine. The Heim joint joint does not bottom out so I can't see any issues with this mounting. The lower mounting point rotates as the forks turn. Steering is much more effortless than the previous /5 set up. I run the friction damper snug and with the hydraulic damper cylinder I should never see a low speed wobble again......

Have not yet fine tuned in the sidecar to the bike...I'm feeling a little "yaw", especially with a passenger. Think it needs to be toed-in a bit more. I'll need to find a level chunk on pavement to finalize the set up.....now if i could just find the damned horn I so carefully put away.....

Next Stop........

Received my "new" Tokico Suzuki brake calipers and found them as stuck as the ones they are to replace.....went on line and found seal kits to rebuild them. First step was to free the stuck caliper pistons......Proceeded to give them a shot of WD 40 on a daily basis. This went on for 10 days. Researched techniques for freeing up the pistons...air pressure, grease injection, or using the master cylinder to pump them out......decided on the latter.....

Proceeded to rebuild the master cylinder upon receipt of the rebuild kit. Everything looked pretty good in the old cylinder bore....some rust which was carefully removed with crocus cloth....completed the master cylinder rebuild and installed it. Spent hours attempting to get the cylinder to pump oil...no luck...took a nap instead.
Finally used a syringe to force fluid through the cylinder pistons. That removed the air lock in the cylinder. Once that was achieved the caliper pistons pumped right out. Cleaned up the pistons and bores and reassembled. Rebled the system and now we have brakes!...Finally!

Today I take another shake down run and figure out how to mount the new hydraulic steering damper cylinder.