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What did you do to your BMW GS/GSA Today?

Changed my warn-out tire after an oil change. The tire was as bad as the picture.


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Got it washed too, but all that was yesterday. Today the bike's resting.


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  • Bought bike
  • Annual service
  • New tires
  • Installed Clearwater Sevinas from GS
  • Changed a leaky fork seal
  • Rode it
 
Let's see -- today is Friday, what did I do to the Iron Donkey? Nothing. Wednesday, I ordered the rest of the parts, which will arrive next week. Tuesday evening, I overruled my typical aversion to following instructions and spent 30 minutes in the Clymer manual reading the process for clutch replacement, leading to the (in hindsight obvious) conclusion that when one tears a GS in half, more than a clutch and slave cylinder will be required to make it whole again. Monday, I ordered a rear tire because the current one is not long for this world. Last week I ordered the clutch and slave cylinder.

Tomorrow I will not be tearing the bike apart as planned, since I won't have all the parts I need. I also won't be riding, because when I went riding a couple weekends back I realized the clutch slave cylinder is done being ignored and is preparing to fail completely.

15 or 20 years ago I would have spent this weekend berating myself for the failure in discipline and preparation that led to the postponement of the planned repair. Fortunately for me, a few years back I fired the cranky insufferable asshole that dished out that torment. Now I'm just a chill sufferable asshole.
 
It really is not that big of a job to replace a clutch on an 1150. I have done several, once in a gravel parking lot in a bit over a couple of hours. A heckler to help lift the rear frame and a ratchet strap are a bonus.

The plastic wrapped bikes take longer to get them undressed and then to make them pretty again.

Get out of your chair and get to work. It is not going to fix itself.
 
End of day 1...

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While I did encounter some bolts, clearly the GS is held together with zip ties.

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As ever, I found parts I really need that I did not order. The o-ring where the right TB seals to the intake pipe was split. And the pivot bearings for the swingarm are junk. The bearings by the final drive are barely worn, so of course that's what I planned to replace...

It really is not that big of a job to replace a clutch on an 1150.

Yep. Piece of piss. Barely more work than changing spark plugs.
 
Well now...

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I believe that is known as "getting yer money's worth."

The good news is the transmission input splines are barely worn at almost 50k miles, so I dodged that bullet. The less good news is I need a complete clutch assembly, not just a new disc. I put the outer plate on the lathe at the shop on the off chance it just needed a few thou skimmed off to clean it up. Eh, no.
 
^^Yeah, I don't think that made it home without a trailer!
 
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Did a service on my BMW R1250GSA today and added a couple of farkles...
Yellow Covers for OEM LED driving lights.
Barkbusters w/Storm Hoods.
 

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^^Yeah, I don't think that made it home without a trailer!

Nope, it was still moving under its own power, I rode it 1/4 mile down the driveway to the shop before I tore in. I did a 60 mile ride about 3 weeks ago. I thought the reason the clutch didn't want to disengage was the weak slave.

Euro MotoElectrics delivered all the parts I needed last week, so today I'm in assembly mode. Turns out the clutch alignment tool I have is for 5 speed bikes, so it is useless. I tightened the cover plate enough to hold everything stable, then spent about 10 minutes eyeballing the friction disc alignment. Using a small flat screwdriver blade, I was able to "measure" the distance from the edge of the PP to the edge of the friction disc all the way around, carefully tapping until it looks even. Stuck the clutch rod in, seems to be centered. Took a break for some lunch, now I'm headed back to poke the transmission on and see how I did.
 
Transmission is back on the engine. Went to the shop this morning and pressed in new swingarm bearings and Nushings for the final drive. Also spent some time on the right side crash bar. It got a pretty good bend in it a couple years back when I hit some frozen ground and went down. Was able to re-shape it with the press, I think it's pretty close to original again. Took off as much rust as I could with the media blaster, and hit them with some primer sealer. Need to put paint or bedliner or something on the bars before they go back on.
 
I bolted up an AliExpress tool box under the left rear rack, y'all know what it looks like so not pics but it was amusing that the instructions were a Xerox of Touratech's!
 
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Only got a couple hours on the bike today, had to put in some time on a Sprinter cylinder head job that has to go tomorrow. Airbox and fuse box back together, frame down and bolts in loosely in case I need to flip it back up when I find something I forgot to route. The frame put up a fight on the front engine support bolts, odd because it pivots on a second bolt just above, it should just pivot back to the same spot but, well, no.

Of course the bleeder for the clutch was seized, not even heat helped. Even more special, the bleeder from my parts stash was f'd too. EME is back ordered, so I have a new one coming from Bob's. Need to get a replacement fuel filter, the current one is a Wix the seems to have been discontinued.

I doubt I'll get to touch it again before the weekend. All the people in the shop with disease vectors... er, children, keep testing positive and I have to pick up the slack. It's been a month of long days. I wish I could call out sick for a couple weeks.
 
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