Day before Thanksgiving

So with Thanksgiving around the corner and with pies and dressing to do, I get home early embraced with a laundry list of stuff with no guarantee of uninterrupted time in the house and decide that before I get down to chores I'd rather have a break. "Want to go out on a ride?" I ask expecting the "no, it's below 50°f and too cold", but instead it's "let's go for it" so off we go for a 45 mile jaunt and test the new suspension 2-up.


I'm loving it, and so is Mrs. RedTigre. A cool 45 minutes out and a nice glass of Port upon return, easy on the soul...



Now it time to get down to business and enjoy the smells of home kitchen cooking.

*UPDATE* New suspension

How do you improve an 850 lb. Sport Tourer?

Buy performance progressive springs (HyperPro) from Klaus (http://www.wilbersusa.com).

That, and add said springs to newer/used front and rear struts with 10k each off eBay. Find a place to do the spring swap and spend a day installing and learning this is the workout you've meant to get lately.

Holy shmoly... took the test ride today and cornering was usually 35mph in a 20-25 curve, hit the same curve at 35 mph and hmmm...there was no effort.  Went back and hit it at 40 mph... no effort.  Hit it again at 45 mph... no effort and no center stand dragging. This thing corners like it was on rails.

Not brave enough to hit it at 50... how low can you go?  Braking, tracking, bumps on bridge joints passing like they aren't there , talk about regaining control... never had Ohlins or Wilbers but for $600 total, I am pleased.

Now I just have to figure out why I failed to connect the fuel gauge... another tupperware party, there goes an hour I'll never get back.

*Update*

Yep, took apart the side tupperware and found the missing wire not connected. Had her apart, connected, and back together in 30 minutes.

I'm getting pretty good at this.  ;)

Shock and Ahhh...... *@&#^%!

Today was the day I swapped out the full front and rear suspension. Had my new HyperPro progressive springs mounted on my low milage eBay procured struts by Wenatchee Driveline (the ONLY place in Wenatchee that would take on the project- thanks Dave!) and picked today because daylights savings is ending and I get an extra hours to be sore from the continuous up, down, kneel, floor, up, croutch "where did I put that tool, part, coffee, part, tool, etc"floor, down... damn if I don't feel old after 11 hours of this.

Why BMW Technicians get paid so well...

First, off comes all the tupperware (plastic body trim and panels), mirrors, air wings, total of 15 pieces and 42 screws. Then disconnecting the fuel tank cage and removing the tank with the fork bridge, removing the rear tire and battery, all the front and rear suspension bolts, completely breaking apart the front fork bridge and letting the front flop around while working the front strut out, raising different parts and clearing space without doing damage throughout to the radiator... and then reversing the entire enchilada.

Minus what feels like 40,000 removed parts later..

While in there I found my fuel lines were beginning to crack in places and wanted brass fuel hose connectors instead of plastic to go with my $6 a foot nylon file line.

Learned a lot, realized I'm not that 30 year old I used to be near 20 years ago, but I got it done in 10 hours.

Rear spring and strut assembly

Anxious to feel the difference when I take her on her maiden voyage with the new springs tomorrow, no extra stuff at the end so we'll see.  ;)

Front spring and strut assembly

Oh... and the front line is the fuel injection rail and the rear line the return, which matches the fuel pump lines where gravity flow is the return line... don't ask me how I now know this.  :P