Well it's Monday morning here in Oz, I'm back at work at my regular job, and my big motorcycle adventure is all over. (sigh......)
I had an interesting episode on Friday night in Sydney, I'd decided to refuel it that night so I could head straight for the freeway to Canberra on Saturday morning, anyway, I'd been thinking that the front brake problem was somehow linked to the ABS, (mine has ABS1 Fuzzy, whatever dealership bulletins or other associated info you can find for me will be much appreciated mate) so before I started it up, I switched the ABS switch to "off". I hit the button, the bike started normally, but only ran for a minute, then cut out and refused to start again. Hmmmmnnn.......
I pulled the sidecover off (in the dark by now) and with my little solar torch, found the fuses. I pulled them all out and checked them, sadly they're not marked with their function, just numbered from 1 to 10, what a dumb idea, Bloody Germans, no wonder they lost the war! Anyway, they were all good, but the last one was really hard to get out, and when I finally released it, I managed to flick it into the battery cage, where it deposited itself under the battery! Bugger.........
I replaced it with a new one, and hit the button, and it fired right up. I replaced the sidecover, put my helmet and gloves on, and was just about to hop on, when it cut out again! Fcuk! At this stage, it was less than 12 hours before I was gonna ride back home, and I could guarantee that there would be no BMW dealers along the route I'd planned! I pulled everything off again, checked that fuse, and it was fine. Oh dear..............
I thought about the ABS switch, so I switched it back to the "on" position, and hit the button again, it started ok and so I just jumped on and hoped for the best, (bit like my sex life, when I think of it........) and I had no problems with it. I purposely rode it for about an hour, parked it at a pub, left it for an hour or two (all for the purpose of testing it, of course) and jumped back on, rode it to the gas station, filled it up, and rode back to the barracks, all without incident, which helped my flagging confidence somewhat.
Saturday was a beautiful fine sunny day, almost a spring day, in the middle of winter, much appreciated! I left Sydney around 0930, my route took me through New South Wales' "High Country" which was probably a bit of a mistake since I came close to the snow line, and even though I didn't see any snow, at 3300 feet above sea level, it was a tad chilly, even behind my big fairing with all my cold weather gear on. The "Bavarian Murder Weapon" just purred along, and at 100 MPH the engine was just buzzing along at 6000 RPM, and still returning around 50 MPG on average.
I did the return trip in two legs, on Saturday I knocked over 450 miles in 8 hours riding from Sydney to my folks place in country Victoria via Canberra, Cooma, Bombala, Cann River, and Lakes Entrance, (all nice places to visit if you guys ever get over here, just bring a sweater, brrr!) then on Sunday the last 200 miles from Bairnsdale to Melbourne, via Tynong, where I visited my mate Fred Russell who has just finished restoring his CB750K1 and was keen to have me drop in and check it out.
For a guy who's not "computer savvy" and relies on bike shops (and me) for all his replacement parts he's done a great job, and it's a credit to him. Fred's place is around 150 miles from my folks place, so it was nice to stop and have a cup of coffee (and a big chunk of fruit cake) and shoot the breeze with him for a while.
The last 50 miles as I came closer to the city became a tad more hectic than the previous 600, but all in all my return trip was pretty uneventful, and a real pleasure. No drama's with my brakes at all, so I'm guessing that there is an electrical fault linked to the ABS somewhere, maybe a bad earth, or a dodgy switch, but I'll do some internet research and see if that is a fault that someone else has experienced. It was just weird, but I'm glad the brakes worked ok, pulling the big blue barge up from 100 Mph in some corners in the hills would certainly have overwhelmed the rear brake alone, and would have increased my "saddle time", as I wouldn't have been game to "give it the berries" with just the back brake working.
All in all, it really was a great adventure, and the longest ride I have done in almost 20 years, the last big one was when I rode the 2000+ miles to Brisbane and back in 1991. Nowadays, a couple of hundred miles in a day is a big ride for me, so it was nice to get some big miles under my tires.
My big brother has a 2007 Triumph Rocket 3 with only 10 miles on the odometer (long story..........) and is keen to "do a deal" with me which will involve me handing over the keys to the BMW (and a schitload of cash) and most likely delivering it to him in Townsville, in Far Northern Queensland, a 2000 mile ride each way. If the deal comes off, it'll be a shame to lose the BMW, but it'll be a great ride, for sure! Cheers, Terry.
