Karmahootie's back!

For the past week and a half, I've been buzzing around on a BMW F650
loaner bike with no storage.

It all started when a carb float bowl fell off my bike last December.
I noticed that the pin was bent that holds the floats. I replaced the
floats, which were a bit soggy, straightened the pin, noticed one of my
throttle cables was frayed, replaced that.

The bike started farting and quit idling. I adjusted the throttle cables
and flushed the carbs. That seemed to help, but I don't really know what
I'm doing. If only there were an Idiot's Guide to R series Airheads!

Also, the rear main seal leak kept getting worse, so I finally took the
bike in last week to get that fixed. Turns out the points were fried,
and they also said the oil leak had ruined the clutch. OUCH.

Well, they replaced the points, balanced the carbs (one of the floats
was sticking, maybe I shoulda bought a new pin rather than straighten
the old one) and one of the float needles had lost the clip that
connects it to the float assembly. They did this before breaking in to
fix the oil leak.

Since the 1979 R65 is the only one which has clutch parts particular to
that model, they ordered the wrong parts twice before deciding that the
clutch was still within spec and a good cleanup and reassembly would
solve the problem. Without the new clutch parts, my final bill wasn't as
much as they'd calculated, and I got the bike back yesterday. After
riding that F650 around, my bike seems sluggish and mushy. Acceleration
and brakes aren't nearly as snappy as the F650. Acceleration in
particular seems sluggish, but if you watch the speedometer, it seems
that the bike only FEELS like a slug. 60 feels like 75 on the F650. 75
feels like 60 on the R65. I guess it's a design thing. The boys at the
BMW shop did a good job, but I'm thinking they could have saved
themselves a lot of trouble by just cleaning up the clutch in the first
place. I'm happy to have my bike back. The loaner was a lot of fun to
ride, but my stolid old German can carry my fishing tackle and
groceries, plus it's a lot of fun to ride too. With the Spitfire tires,
it's as nimble as the F650, plus I can reach the ground with both feet.

--
Barb
Chaplain, ARSCC (wdne)

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to
have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous,
ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can
produce."

--Molly Ivins

On Feb 28, 6:56 am, barbz wrote:

> and they also said the oil leak had ruined the clutch. OUCH.

> Since the 1979 R65 is the only one which has clutch parts particular to
> that model, they ordered the wrong parts twice before deciding that the
> clutch was still within spec and a good cleanup and reassembly would
> solve the problem.

> The boys at the
> BMW shop did a good job, but I'm thinking they could have saved
> themselves a lot of trouble by just cleaning up the clutch in the first
> place.

Maybe I'm too picky but that doesn't sound exactly like a good job
to me.

I can believe that the clutch could probably be cleaned up, but
then why try unsuccessfully to order clutch parts twice before
they decide this ?

I guess I'm getting spoiled by my recent dealings with Beemershop
but these guys sound kinda iffy.