R1200RTBlog

BMW1200RT Update

Life with the RT has been great - few real problems once I managed to get the bike registered in the UK. I havent done a huge amount of miles as I built a Caterham 7 last year and its a toss up which one I go out and play on.

One problem I have had is wigth the fuel gauge - a known problem apparently on RT's. Last year the fuel guage was stuck on zero no matter how much fuel I put in it. I took it along to Sawbridgeworth BMW who fixed it, but as it was an imported bike it wasnt covered by the BMW manufacturers warrenty apparently. So I ended up with a bill for just over £200 (£80 parts and the rest labour) which was annoying.

Anyway last week I was heading back from a trip to Northampton to pick some leather up and the bike died on the motorway. I hadnt used the bike for a couple of weeks but the fuel guage was showing 3/4 full so I thought everything was OK. Well apparently not. The nice RAC man happened to have some fuel on board whjich was enough to get me to the next service station - what a fool I felt!!!

The bike is going back into Sawbridgeworth to have the fuel sender tape replaced under warrenty this time - apparently BMW parts have a 2 year warrenty - so we will see how long this lasts!!

PIAA 1100x Driving lights - R1200RT

I finally got round to installing the PIAA 1100x driving lights this weekend and I have to say they look good. I used the EZ-Mount kit from Cyclgadgets which locates the lights under the fairing on small brackets that attach to the side panels. This means, however, that if you take the lower side panels off you have to deal with the lights which may be a little difficult - I will let you know.

For now I have run the wires down the right hand side of the bike and fastened them to the frame - running the cables from the lights back to meet them where the auxiliarry horn socket is. I have bought the Autoswitch but haven't got round to installing that yet so for now I have connected the lights to the battery direct and am using the supplied switch rather than the Autoswitch - maybe a project for a Sunday morning tinker in the garage!

There are a couple of potential problems with this installation. Firstly the lights can, apparently, interfere with the suspension and if you hit a pothole or curb too hard the lights will make contact with the front fender. Secondly once installed it is nearly impossible to adjyst them as one ofthe adjusting screws is behind the light up against the plastic side panel.

They do give a good light and hopefully will make the bike a little more visible which was the idea of installing them!

Update on the problems with Autocom and the J&M Elite headset

Well I don't seem to be any closer to a resolution to this problem. I have emailed both J&M and Autocom and they both blame the other. I rode in to the office this morning and at exactly 50 miles per hour I get an incessant hissing through the headset - obviously the vox cuts in and I am getting road noise through the headset.

So I am going to take the J&M Headset out of the helmet tonight and install the Autocom unit with the axillary mic and see if that makes a difference - according to Autocom that should solve all my problems. I have also been reading a few blog entries about using different ear pieces with the Autocom headset as the supplied ones appear to be less than great - I have used them before and was disappointed. So if the Autocom headset does take the problem away I am considering using the J&M earpieces with and just wire them in instead of the Autocom units.

I will let you know how I get on.

An update on the PIAA driving lamps - I am just waiting for some PosiLock connectors so I can wire the lights in and make the wiring look tidy. Hopefully they should be here in the next few days so I will post about the installation and put some pictures on the Blog.

Update on Autocom and J&M Elite Headsets - WARNING

A coupel of weeks ago I posted on the installation of an Autocom unit and the J&M Elite Headsets which I said gave a superb sound - much better than the Autocom units - which was tru. However I have now changed my mind. After doing a couple of hundered miles yesterday with my wife on the back of the bike the noise above 50mph was unbearable - from the headset not my wife!

The noise concelling corcuitry in the Autocom isn't properly enabled with the J&M headset and you get a very loud hissing once your speed gets up.

I contacted Autocom to see if there was something I could do with the set-up and there response was to install the Autocom units as they had a noise filtering microphone that fitted in the side cheeks of the helmet and monitored the ambient noise. The J&M headset shuold be OK for my wife on the back but I am now relegated to the Autocom unit for my helmet.

I am going to investigate using the better ear speakers from the J&M headset and see if they will work with the Autocom helmet kit. I have contacted J&M to see if they can come up with an answer.

I will keep you posted.

Hypelites and R1200RT

Well I got back on Saturday from two weeks of conference and vacation in California and Utah to a box from CycleGadgets with some new toys for my R1200RT - so Sunday afternoon saw me in the garage starting to install them

Firstly was 16 LED Hyperlites which are specifically for the BMW Canbus system. I was concerned that with the 49 litre top box installed the brake light was not visible to traffic and I 'needed' some more visibility - especially on the US Interstates.

Installation was pretty simple as I had already a power source available from the Canbus fuse panel I installed a couple of weeks ago. The lights themselves stick with double sided tape onto the red reflectors on the sides of the rear number plate and two small holes are then drilled in the real light mounting for the wires to pass through to connect to the flasher unit which mounts under the rear seat.

The kit comes with some amazing connectors called PosiTap and PosiTwist which made tapping into the existing wiring a dream. Basically you tap into two wires on the rear brake light using the posiTap connectors and then a single wire feeds into your switched power supply from the flaser unit and then it is just a matter of connecting the Hyper-lite units themselves to the flasher unit. the whole install took less than 30 minutes and the impact is great.

UPDATE: I have posted some pictures the Hyper-Lites installed on my bike in the Photo Album on this blog.

Highly recommended units!

Next up is installation of PIAA 1100x lights and an Autoswitch - I will post later this week when I get round to doing the install 

BMW R1200RT resources

I decided to pull together a whole load of links to do with the BMW R1200RT i hope you find it useful. if you have any that aren't on the list let me know and I will add them

Information

BMW Motorcycles US website

BMW Motorrad Website

Wikipedia entry

Jeff Deans BMW R1200RT Homepage

Calsci BMW R1200RT information and accessories page

BMW Motorcycle Owners of America

South African R1200RT Fan website\

How to change the oil filter website

BMW Luxury Touring Forum

BMW Sport Touring Forum

Marks R1200RT webpage

Iron Butt Association

Suppliers

A & S BMW Motorcycle US parts and accessories

Cyclegadets - US part and accessories

Nippy Normans UK parts and accessories

Twisted Throttle US parts and accessories

US RKA Luggage website

Suburban Machinery website - footpeg lowering kits

K&N Filters Wesbite

Reflective Decals for R1200RT saddlebags

Aeroflow windscreens

Touratech USA

BMR Products - US BMW parts and accessories

Max BMW Motorcycles parts fiche

Seeing the light

One of the problems I have found with the RT is that I have the 49 litre top box for the bike and when it is fitted it masks the brake light and anybody sitting high up i.e. trucks or cars that are sitting on your tail can't see the light.

I asked at the BMW dealer and because of the CanBus system on thebike, which is a single cable electrical system, I am told that I can' tadd extra brake lights to help me be seen.

I noticed that CycleGadets offered Hyperlights for the CanBus equipped BMW bikes and so I have ordered a set to see how they work. I will post some photos of them in operation when the arrive.

Whilst placing an order I also ordered some PIAA driving lights (1100x) along with to increase the lighting at the fron to of the bike and make me more noticable from the front. I have read in the BMW Owners Magazine that some research has been done that found that having a 3 light triangle, headlight plus two driving lights, makes you 60% more visible for some reason.

Again I will post some photos when I get them installed.

Garmin Zumo, Centech Fuse Panel & Autocom

Wow what a day - I finally get all my bits of lit connected on the bike. When I first bought the bike I had the Garmin Zumo fitted by the dealer and was using the Bluetooth capability to my BMW System 5 helmet I brought from the UK. It was sort of alright but the volume was pretty low and as it was a bluetooth connection it was only mono.

We bought some new Nolan N42 helmets and the J&R headsets to go with them a couple of weeks ago along with an Autocom unit and I have been dying to try it out. It worked OK with an Ipod plugged straight into the Unit but I wanted to get the MP3 capability of the Garmin Zumo working so I could control the music whilst I ride.

Anyway I drove up to Cliffs Cycle Revolution in Danbury this morning and picked up the required Interface lead (1299) which I ordered a couple of weeks ago and hey presto everything is great. The volume levels are a little lower than I would like and I may end up having to open the Autocom Unite and 'tweek' the level which I understand you can do from the instructions. However now I have music and phone, which is paired via Bluetooth with the Garmin Zumo unit.

This is a picture of the Centech and Autocom units installed on my R1200RT.

I also installed a wider/higher screen from Z-Technic which will hopefully stop a bit of the buffeting I have ben experiencing with the standard screen.

All I want now is the Coffee making attachment and I will be set!

Connecticut Motorcycle Test

Today after the bike being away at the dealers for week the bike is back from its first service. It ended up being a little more traumatic than I anticipated and a little more costly too at $420. I am now looking forward to getting serious miles on the clock as I passed my US motorbike test last week in Norwalk.
The US motorcycle test is, I feel, actually a bit of a joke in that it is all done on a car park and involves no road work at all. When I first decided to get the bike I went along to the DMV in Norwalk and did the 16 multiple choice questions on the computers (not sure why two of the questions involved seat belts though - I guess it must be a common test for cars and bikes). I walked out with my Motorcycle Permit and went along to the dealers and ordered my new bike and arranged insurance. A week later I picked the bike up - what was interesting was that no-one actually asked if I could ride a bike!

So the day of the test you have to arrive at 8:00 am and have all your paperwork and a helmet. I of course took the wrong piece of  paper and had to go back to the bike to fetch the right bit and then had to go to the back of the queue. So by 8:20 am I had been 'processed' and we had to ride to a car park 2 miles further up the road where we then had to hang around with no shade until the examiner turned up.
At 9:00 am the examiner arrived and started to lay the course out with orange cones. We then had to walk the course with him and he told us that he didn't ride a bike and never wanted to and that we shouldn't run into him as that would be a failure!

The course involved a left hand turn, a slalom through 4 cones, a right hand U turn between two lines and then an emergency stop and a swerve and that was it.

As I had been sent to the back of the queue I had to wait to nearly the end - boy was that a hot day. Anyway I managed to get round the course OK and got my piece of paper and then had to go back to the DMV to be processed again. After an further hour I finally got my new license - it was now 11:45. So the whole process took three and three quarter hours and I was actually riding the bike for less than 6 minutes.

I think this was more about testing my patience than my riding abilities.

What was interesting was that one guy turned up to do the test without a bike or a helmet. He managed to borrow them from someone else who was there and he passed. Secondly there was a guy who turned up with his bike on a trailor - did his bike test in the car park and then put the bike back on the trailor - apparently he had never ridden on the road yet.

The whole experience is very different to that of the UK where you are not allowed out on the road without taking a Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) course and then the test itself is all road based and lasts 30 - 40 minutes and is a mix of theory and practice. I must admit I do worry about biking in the US as certainly in Connecticut there is no helmet law so theoretically you can buy a powerful bike never ride on the road take your test and then launch yourself ion the road with no helmet or other protection.

BMW R1200RT three weeks in

Its now three weeks since I took delivery of my silver BMW R1200RT from Cliffs Cycles in Danbury and I have only managed to get 350 miles under my belt. With traveling for business and the inclement weather I just haven't had a chance to get out - however as the weather gets better and business life calms a little I am hoping to start to commute and see some of the Connecticut countryside over the coming weeks.

I do, however, have a few observations and comments about the bike. the first is that it is a great bike for touring - very comfortable and economical, I am currently getting 44 miles to the gallon and I understand it can only get better.

One problem I have found is with the electronic Suspension system. It is calibrated for a 187 pound rider and unfortunately after living in the US for 6 months I am now a 210 pound rider! the result is that the headlight is high and oncoming drivers aren't too happy with me. There doesn't appear to be anyway to adjust the suspension other than to tell it that I am a rider plus luggage! I will check with the dealer to see if they can make any adjustment when it goes in for a service in a few weeks time.

I have decided to fit the radio/cd to the bike so on Thursday I am going to pick up the various bits from the dealer and have a go at fitting it myself - I will post some photos and the results of my efforts in the next week or so.

The other modification I am going to make to the bike is to get a taller windscreen. The standard one is too short and doesn't give much protection for me - 6' 2" I get a huge amount of noise or buffeting wherever the screen is adjusted to. Not sure which one to go for but I will do some research and post me decision.

Overall I am really pleased with the bike and it is great to get out and about again - although the standard of driving is very questionable in the locale luckily the back-roads are pretty empty of traffic.

Further musings and pictures etc. in the coming weeks.