Prats on Forums and New Tyres

I tend to read forums and facebook group pages for exchange of advice interspersed with light hearted banter etc. As I have some Greek blood in me I passionately believe that prolonged debate and indecisiveness are normal. I mostly mean no harm.

In forums staffed by Little Englanders I  therefore wind people up - take this comment made against my theme that if BMW recommend tyres for their motorcycles it would be sensible to follow that advice (and in Germany a bike will not pass an MoT equivalent test) with non-approved tyres. In particular someone wanted to fit "pure road tyres", whatever those are....., to a BMW R1200GS. I certainly would not take advice from Gary Someprickonaforum without due diligence.

Here was the response from "Stu" a probable Wigan Atheletic supporter and UKIIP voter:

Nick, that's why here in the UK we fiercely rejected the "type approval" style of super MOT that Brussels tried to inflict upon us, my answer to that is, it's my bike and I'll use whatever tyres I like, as long as they're of legal tread depth and the correct size for the bike it simply should not be an issue...

So Stu what about speed and load ratings?  Profile and the resultant cornering characteristics? I hope for his safety that no tyre manufacturer inadvertantly make pure road tyres in the sizes required for his GS.

Last weekend I spent £221 on some  Tourance NEXT tyres, and these are not on the BMW recommended list for my year and model (yet) but Metzeler approve their use on my bike - this is good enough for the German TUV testing people and so I'm happy.

I chose these tyres with the expectation that the rear will not "square off" after 3000 miles - this appeared to be an issue with the original Tourance model.  The "NEXT" was best all round tyre in this class in a magazine test (hopefully non-biased - excuse the pun). The "NEXT" has a harder rubber compound in the centre of the tyre and should resist wear under long motorway drags.

Advantage shaft drive - 5 bolts and the rear wheel is off

Note to self - change rear pads soon and clean up slider pin

Don't try this at home

Some of these old tyres were worn to the cords - amazing what risks people take

Removal of front wheel is conventional

Metzeler Tourance NEXT - funny looking tread pattern.

Banish Buffeting

No, this is not a blog about the memorable cinematic misrepesentation of who made a sonic boom first as depicted in The Sound Barrier, but rather it describes an attempt to improve the sound quality of my BMW R1200GS motorcycle whilst sitting behind the screen.

This bike already had the Advenure screen and winglets fitted when I purchased it.  This provides some protection from wind blast but I hear quite a lot of noise spilling over the top of the screen - it is evident that if I lower my head a fraction this reduces substantially. The noise is produced by turbulent air flow - essentailly little eddies of air that are unstable.

I fitted a Wunderlich wind deflector - this does not really work and is fiddly to adjust - it is simply to narrow.

I have now fitted a GIVI Air Flow screen - this additional top screen (part number AF49) sits on top of the existing screen and its scoop should direct air at upwards and in a more stable flow over the rider's head. This promises to produce a quieter ride through reduced turbulence.  It is possible to fit a complete GIVI Air Flow screen but this would have involved additional work in moving my GPS mounting (and expense!).

This is how I fitted it:

The GIVI mounting blocks need to be attached to the existing screen - here I am holding the AirFlow in position and marking out the positions for drilling.  I used a paper template too.

Each mounting block requires a 20mm and 2off 4mm holes.  Here i'm using a standard wood drill bit  runa t slow speed to avoid melting the acrylic. I drilled 22mm holes to allow for positiong errors.

Mounting block in place - one each side. The lever latch operates a cam arrangement that engage with an external block - this grips onto the moulded in runners on the Air Flow screen and locks it in place and allows easy re-positioning.

The mounting block viewed from the front. This needs to be finally tightened with the Air Flow in situ so as to adjust the friction on the screen runner.  A thin 10mm spanner does the job.

Air Flow in low position - it slides up and down when both latches have been released (even on the move).  It can also be removed entirely.

Air Flow in high position

This is the Wunderlich flap - I arranged for the Air Flow low position to be the same height as this.

Principle of adjustment

Parts list:

Givi Airflow AF49 Replacement Sliding Screen Part (Z1997R)

Givi Z1963R Spare Replacement Latch Kit as used on e.g.Airflow Screens AF330

 

The Useless BMW Vario Top Box - the Revenge

BMW sell a vario top box made by Shad.  It incorporates a mechanism for changing its size but at maximum volume the box is not large enough to take a modern full face helmet as previously reported..  The mechanism is not well designed from a mechanical standpoint and jams easily.

I have therefore removed 1 kg of useless gubbins and bolted the box together in its maximum size configuration.

The vario mechanism - a real bind at the best of times.  The box has a sliding top hat incororating the lid assembly and a rubber seal

Over complicated and mechanically dubious in action - this little lot adds almost 1kg of weight and wastes space

With vario mechanism removed and the box bolted together more volume is available (although only  a little extra height is gained).  I could trim the screws I suppose.  The lid cords are attached to the rear most boss using ring crimps (not shown here).

I used dome headed 4mm stainless fasteners  - looks reasonably neat.

Shower Improvements

What to do with a strong mains pressure cold water feed and a weak gravity fed hot supply?

A pressure regulating valve maintains 3 bar pressure for the cold feed and a pump boosts the hot supply by 2 bar or so.

Works a treat now!

Stitching a Panorama using Microsoft ICE

This had started as a full 360 panorama at Greenwich but it's not so easy to maintain the level plane.

Canary Wharf: This is a more modest attempt using just 5 shots - shame about the sloping river but at least it's declining the correct way!

A Right Grind

After 90,000 miles the grinding noise from the back of the car merited investigation:

The benefrit of asbestos free brake pads is that the discs appear to suffer somewhat.

£75 later a new set of discs and pads are fitted.

The trick with this job is to use a piston pusher to push the piston back into the calliper - it needs to rotate too:-

Banish the Blind Spot

Why are motorcycle mirrors so inadequate compared to the average car door mirror where blind spots are virtually eliminated?  The ideal mirror would have a wide angle and a deep view too to capture more of the road behind.  A failing with many mirrors is that they give a view through a letter box effect. 

Here at NW Lab I have tried various improvements:

 Riderscan:

First, the Riderscan.

The Riderscan is a hemispherical segment of mirror that provides a near 180 degree coverage.  Unfortunately as mounted on the GS screen it provides an excellent view of mostly me and as it sits in the middle does not provide a logical scan sequence.

SAENG stick ons:

The SAENG rabbit's ears Quick Scans.

These resemble those stick-on blind spot eliminators but have a mounting system that allows them to be stuck independently on a fairing or windscreen.

Quite good when positioned correctly  as they completely cover the blind spot.  They do tend to wobble around a lot. Quite useful on dense motorways and for overtakes as they cover the shoulder check view without losing forward vision.

Finally I have tried to reposition the standard mirrors forward on crank arms (available from Wunderlich, Hornig etc.).

Crank Arms (extenders) - This has been the best - the mirrors are positioned forward and slightly outwards and give a wider effective view.