10-Year Anniversary Freshen-up

Mr Brown said:

That is unacceptable .

I was kinda surprised
you went with another
Bavarian Motor Wreck too ,
and I hope you do not
regret the decision .

All companies have recalls ,
but this has gotta be
starting to annoy you .









:poke:
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www.hayabusa.org

Projekt's Great American Adventure | Random Thoughts

So as you all may be aware, I have been given a great opportunity to catch up with the things I missed out on over the past 10-15 years during my stint in the USAF and former marriage to the hot jealous Hungarian brunette. Now that I have no-one to answer to but myself and Johnny Law I figured...
www.hayabusa.org www.hayabusa.org
 
So the BMW got it's first service. I must say I am super happy with this bike, it is a really fun and friendly bike. My buddies say I am really fast on it. Maybe I will post something talking about handling but this bike is so easy to go fast on. You don't even realize how fast you are going it's so effortless. It's cool though because you ride by cops and they don't even look up. On the Busa they stare at you like you're a criminal.

I had the engine protection added when they did the initial service. Yes these are easy to put on but I'm getting old & lazy. They are BMW OEM bars. You would not believe the options and arguments over what is best on these - it's like asking what is the best pipe for a Busa! Just so you all will believe me, here you go, Lol!
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I also added a headlight shield. BMW headlights cost more than gold, really crazy $$$. Also if you are off road and break the light, you are essentially stranded. Anyway I mounted this one myself, you wanted to see it? Here it tis:

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BMW's are amazingly good bikes when they work. They are also amazingly bad when they don't work. Anyway, in the saddle you feel like you are armed with Batman's utility belt. This is the only bike I have ridden where looking behind you is as easy as it is in a car. Just glance left or right mirrors give a full view, no elbows or shoulders right where you want to look. The amount of information you get on these bikes is crazy, but the brilliant TFT dash sums it up so its a one glance gesture. You can shuffle through all the screens for just about anything you want to know, or just let the TFT let you know should something like gas get low, temp get high, or any number of warnings. It's cool when you start the bike the redline is 6K but as it heats up the redline slides over to the max of 9K and you're ready to go.

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With the BMW Garmin Navigator 6 setup, you get even more telemetry. All really interesting but makes those "what I did on my ride" tall tales a bit harder to brag on! I think 0 is straight up and + lean is to the left and - lean to the right. 31 degrees is pretty good as this bike isn't going much more than 45 or so with those cylinders in the way. It has a lot more telemetry data too, like average throttle position. The Garmin is developed with BMW and it records data from the bike's ECU. It's all pretty amazing and super fun to play with. But in classic BMW fashion, you can't get it to hook to your headset so you can't hear nav commands! Lol.

I have been riding close to home because I don't want to take rest stops on the road. But I found a couple roads right in my back yard that are super fun to ride. The bike feels much smoother now that the service is done. I was itching to get to the top end of the powerband as you have to stay below 6K until the first service. Sometime I ride the Busa in the leisurely 4-6K range and sometime I ride it to redline. 2 different bikes, lol! This bike is pretty laid back even out at redline. Very fun but not a screamer by any stretch.
 
When I bought my Busa back in 09 handling meant dealing with the brake dive. It was pretty bad and I was not at all confident in my braking ability. I remember reading how raising the rear of the bike by an inch made it more stable. I ordered the 1" raising dog bones and was amazed at how this made the bike track so much better. Over the years I have read tons of information on motorcycle handling from the theoretical side to the applied side and it is a source of fascination to me.

When I talked the wife into allowing me to buy the Ohlins suspension, my first rides left me a little disappointed. The suspension felt more supple but certainly not $4K better. So I took the bike to a certified Ohlins suspension specialist to setup. First he set everything to a neutral setting. Then he had me sit on the bike and adjusted the sag on both ends. Next he told me to hop off and come back tomorrow, which was a disappointment. He had to go into the forks and adjust the oil based on what he had observed. He also asked me a lot of questions about my riding style, many of which I couldn't answer. When I got back the next day, he started by adjusting the ride height. Then the sag again. He told me that I would have to commit to faster turns (hang half my butt cheeks of the seat), "otherwise this is going to be a bit stiff" was his direction.

He then showed me how to adjust things to various conditions. "This is 5 clicks out, I think for road stuff you can do +/- 3 clicks". Suddenly he stopped and looked at me, "you might want to write this down, these ranges I'm giving you were good enough for some really fast pros". He gave me recommendations for different tire temps, air temps, rain, and even tire wear levels!

When I pulled out of the shop the bike was simply amazing. Suddenly my Busa was a magic carpet. Not only was the bike smooth as glass it had better turn in, and very controlled dive when breaking/accelerating. It was like a new, much more capable motorcycle-truly astonishing.

With the bike under control I improved the brakes in both power and feel (RCS master cylinder & M4's). I had reached the first level of good handling that I call obedient. That's when the bike feels like it will do exactly what you tell it to and you feel like Rossi (only a lot slower obviously).

The more I learned about motorcycle performance the more I came to realize that it's basically all about weight. A light bike will be easier to control than a heavy bike. A light bike will be faster than a heavy bike given the same HP. But where the bike is light is actually more important than the weight itself. This is where mass centralization comes in. A heavy weight placed close to the bike's CG will be less impactful than a light weight placed far away from the CG. Also rotating weight will magnify it's impact as a gyroscopic effect (resistance to turning). Even the bike's crankshaft turning at 11K rpm will have a gyroscopic effect on turning a bike. So if you want to improve the quickness of a bike, first get lighter wheels and then get rid of weight that is away from the CG.

I added a lot of light parts to the Busa but it was the lighter wheels that really transformed the bike into a nimble handler. Turning the bike is now effortless even at speed. So, this was the second level of good handling which I refer to as dynamic. You don't realize how much effort it takes to turn a Busa at relatively high speeds. What that means is that you have to hit turns with well planned lines and changing that line is a bear once you are committed. With the light wheels you have line options, and breaking off your commitment can be done easily and with confidence. Interestingly, because the bike retains the stock rake, trail & wheelbase, it still has the legendary Busa stability.

So I'm quite pleased with the obedience and dynamics of my modified motorcycle, it's a long way from it's agricultural roots. Riding it is weird, because you feel like the road is holding you back from being as aggressive as you and the bike are now capable of. It's not frustrating, just that you are riding at 40% of where I used to ride these same roads slower but was at 80% of my safe limit.

Anyway, in steps the BMW (the second BMW that is!). 2 bikes could not be more different. They weigh about the same at 540-550 lbs. The BMW is tall, the Busa low. The BMW is upright, the Busa is laid down and aggressive. The Busa is formidable, the BMW playful. The Busa is honest, the BMW is smarter than my laptop. And yet, my riding buddies say I'm much faster on the BMW. The 1250 has some really interesting characteristics. The bike is tall and the bars are huge so your leverage over the front end is huge. But it is the boxer engine with the cylinders low and the crank spinning on the bike's longitudinal axis that makes it one of the easiest turning bikes I have ever ridden. The bike also has a mono shock front suspension which makes braking and turning very easy with absolutely no front-end dive. Of course the electronics on the BMW are beyond refined they feel invisible. So this bike hits a third level of good handling I call easy. It is just incredibly easy to ride fast.

So it's amazing having these two bikes. I feel like they have elevated my understanding of motorcycles and I just need to figure out how to get more time with them.
 
I'm glad I don't get to ride a bike like that because I find my bike handles very good in all conditions and if I rode a bike like that, I'd probably be disappointed in my bike.

I do find the suspension a bit stiff but it stays planted at the trivial speeds I ride. It handles much better than my Bandit although the wider bars on the Bandit made it easy to manoeuvre.

I know my brother's RT with the tele lever front suspension is very planted as well, it is an effortless bike to ride even though it weighs around 650lbs.
 
c10 said:
Thanks for the information Willie . My racing buddy commented how easily RJ turns in as if it were his R6 race bike . The wheels , and Super bike bend handle bars sure make it possible.
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Well most of this I have discussed at one post or another and it's not news for guys like yourself. But I was getting a little tired of debating politics. For me my hobby is motorcycle technology, not just riding. So getting to understand some of this exotic kit is a life long dream come true. I wish I had started serious street riding earlier in life so I could have built a real race bike and done more track days. But then I would be divorced and broke now!
 
The way I see it, all the connectivity with digital devices on a motorcycle is completely getting away from the whole reason for riding a motorcycle. . . To ISOLATE ones self from the world and all the worries and crap we deal with on a day to day basis, and to be alone with your own thoughts.
Who the hell wants to answer a phone call while riding . . Just another distraction ya don’t need!!
Hey, that’s just me though.
Personally I think a phone should be there for emergencies and tucked away while your hands on the throttle!
 
Kiwi Rider said:
The way I see it, all the connectivity with digital devices on a motorcycle is completely getting away from the whole reason for riding a motorcycle. . . To ISOLATE ones self from the world and all the worries and crap we deal with on a day to day basis, and to be alone with your own thoughts.
Who the hell wants to answer a phone call while riding . . Just another distraction ya don’t need!!
Hey, that’s just me though.
Personally I think a phone should be there for emergencies and tucked away while your hands on the throttle!
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I don't have the luxury of isolating myself with 2 parents who are almost 90 and lots of work responsibilities. It's emergency contact or no ride. But I very rarely get a call on the bike. Mostly it's nav directions, radar warnings and/or music. Getting into the zone for me requires music to eat up some of the brain power that causes distractions, without it I would constantly be thinking about something other than the ride. Having all this stuff working right is pretty major, feels like you are Iron Man talking to Jarvis or something. The Cardo uses voice commands for most of the music stuff.

BTW: Riding in groups is 1000 X safer with communication. Can't beat it unless one of your riding buddies can't shut up!

This industry is interesting. SENA wants to build the ultimate helmet, so they would not give helmet companies their best tech for built in systems. BMW wants the helmet to be a part of the bike with full integration, so they make sure connecting to their TFT with systems other than BMW is difficult. If these guys would work together a helmet would be as important to stopping a crash as protecting your head when one happens.
 
fallenarch said:
I don't have the luxury of isolating myself with 2 parents who are almost 90 and lots of work responsibilities. It's emergency contact or no ride. But I very rarely get a call on the bike. Mostly it's nav directions, radar warnings and/or music. Getting into the zone for me requires music to eat up some of the brain power that causes distractions, without it I would constantly be thinking about something other than the ride. Having all this stuff working right is pretty major, feels like you are Iron Man talking to Jarvis or something. The Cardo uses voice commands for most of the music stuff.

BTW: Riding in groups is 1000 X safer with communication. Can't beat it unless one of your riding buddies can't shut up!

This industry is interesting. SENA wants to build the ultimate helmet, so they would not give helmet companies their best tech for built in systems. BMW wants the helmet to be a part of the bike with full integration, so they make sure connecting to their TFT with systems other than BMW is difficult. If these guys would work together a helmet would be as important to stopping a crash as protecting your head when one happens.
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Fair enough, everyone has different circumstances.
 
Ive had experience and comparisons with light wheels myself, when i had a GSX1400 a great friend had fitted some Hi Points to his 1400 and i took it for a couple of spins over the same places i normally rode, i couldnt believe the feedback and ease of the ride, what felt like my usual speed was actually about 15-20kph higher around the same corners and hills everything felt light and easier. Id thought about getting some myself till i saw the price :shocked:... my friends rims were 2nd hand and about a third of normal.

Im with Kiwi i dont need or want distractions when i ride so no music, nav or coms for me either, i know some peeps who do ride with music but i prefer not to ride with them.

I guess for us down here pretty much all our roads are one lane in either direction so need our full attention, NZ is a tourist destination (not atm tho) so we get tons of people who are used to driving on the opp side,problems happen when they pull out of a rest/picnic/gas stops and they forget which side to go and often theres been head ons.

Looks like your've made a great decision in swapping to the 1250 Arch , seems an awesome bike and you've gotten to grips with it real quick :thumbsup:
 
Well it didn't take long! Been taking the 1250 apart and getting to know more about how she is put together. This bike is much more accessible than the K1600 was, although nothing is as easy to get as the Busa. The 1250 is very well built, as you would expect from a BMW. It also seems like this bike is really a refined tool down to the last bolt. Unlike the K1600 which is built like a car (meaning stay out from under the hood and let the dealer handle the maintenance) and more like something the rider might have to fix in the middle of the Gobi desert. So good there.

I flashed the ECU with a handheld flasher from Bren Tuning. Added some ponies, made the engine smoother and added a nice growl to the exhaust note. The 1250 has an exhaust valve so it must open it up earlier. The flasher is cool. You can put the OEM map back in before sending the bike to the dealer for maintenance. The dealer hooks the bike up to the mothership so we wouldn't want them seeing anything out of normal. Not a big change but something to do while I'm isolated. To be honest I'm finding it difficult to find stuff to do to this bike, it pretty much has everything. I'm thinking of moving back to the Busa for some stuff I never got to. I've given up on finding a full TI Akrapovic exhaust so I'll just find something else to do. But the plan is to ride the Busa in the summer more so maybe I'll just ride them and stop molesting them!

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So I'm starting to get pretty bored. Most of my riding is on two of the routes I use. These are fast but relatively short. One is a 25 mile round trip, the other is about 45 miles round trip. I have been doing these routes because I don't need toilet breaks or any other stops. It's usually in the saddle for 3-4 hours with one gas stop if any. With the Beemer I take snacks and water in the saddle bags. My favorite route is Route 14 which winds from the Gloucester area almost to Richmond. It is a really fun combination of curves and straights with some elevation changes. But it is a 6 hour round trip. We used to ride up to Charlottesville on Saturday morning and ride all day, get a hotel, then ride some more on Sunday and head home Sunday afternoon. Those were pretty awesome Busa trips - the Busa loves the mountains. I can't wait to get the modded one up there. The way she handles now it's going to be a blast.

I can get to Skyline Drive in a long day ride too, and the Back of the dragon is an easy weekend ride. The back of the Dragon is much like the Tail of the Dragon, but I think the tail is better for riding as the back is a bit less taken care of. It's a working road, meaning lots of trucks and farm equipment so you find dirt and gravel in many corners and even damaged asphalt. It's still fun but a bit more risky at speed. So all of my favorite rides are too far until it's safe to stop or get a cheap hotel. We always use Motels and sleep with one eye on the bike parked right outside the window. I once paid a guy in the room next to me $20 to move his car so I could get that spot. Lol!

I still have some general work to do on the Busa. I never finished the GPS install with the Amplink so I need to finish that. I also don't have the radar on either bike, need to do that and rig it up so I can quickly switch it between bikes. The big thing on the Busa is fixing the carbon fiber dash panels. The CF is beautiful but the fit was awful. I basically have to take the whole fairing off and trim and glue it so it doesn't look so bad up close. The CF pops off with movement in the plastic so I'm going to glue it in places, I don't think this will cause stress fractures of anything, it will just hold the plastic in place.

Looks like the BMW might be getting a seat. Been having some back spasms. Corbin it is!

Was thinking about doing a movie project. Man have I wasted a lot of money on this stuff! This doesn't even include the 2 GP8's I lost off the bike!

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fallenarch said:
So I'm starting to get pretty bored. Most of my riding is on two of the routes I use. These are fast but relatively short. One is a 25 mile round trip, the other is about 45 miles round trip. I have been doing these routes because I don't need toilet breaks or any other stops. It's usually in the saddle for 3-4 hours with one gas stop if any. With the Beemer I take snacks and water in the saddle bags. My favorite route is Route 14 which winds from the Gloucester area almost to Richmond. It is a really fun combination of curves and straights with some elevation changes. But it is a 6 hour round trip. We used to ride up to Charlottesville on Saturday morning and ride all day, get a hotel, then ride some more on Sunday and head home Sunday afternoon. Those were pretty awesome Busa trips - the Busa loves the mountains. I can't wait to get the modded one up there. The way she handles now it's going to be a blast.

I can get to Skyline Drive in a long day ride too, and the Back of the dragon is an easy weekend ride. The back of the Dragon is much like the Tail of the Dragon, but I think the tail is better for riding as the back is a bit less taken care of. It's a working road, meaning lots of trucks and farm equipment so you find dirt and gravel in many corners and even damaged asphalt. It's still fun but a bit more risky at speed. So all of my favorite rides are too far until it's safe to stop or get a cheap hotel. We always use Motels and sleep with one eye on the bike parked right outside the window. I once paid a guy in the room next to me $20 to move his car so I could get that spot. Lol!

I still have some general work to do on the Busa. I never finished the GPS install with the Amplink so I need to finish that. I also don't have the radar on either bike, need to do that and rig it up so I can quickly switch it between bikes. The big thing on the Busa is fixing the carbon fiber dash panels. The CF is beautiful but the fit was awful. I basically have to take the whole fairing off and trim and glue it so it doesn't look so bad up close. The CF pops off with movement in the plastic so I'm going to glue it in places, I don't think this will cause stress fractures of anything, it will just hold the plastic in place.

Looks like the BMW might be getting a seat. Been having some back spasms. Corbin it is!

Was thinking about doing a movie project. Man have I wasted a lot of money on this stuff! This doesn't even include the 2 GP8's I lost off the bike!

View attachment 1619356
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Im sure u could offer some of that stuff up for sale here and recoup a little bit of that money ;) :poke: :lol:
 
Dopey said:
Im sure u could offer some of that stuff up for sale here and recoup a little bit of that money ;) :poke: :lol:
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Some may or may not work (the really old ones) and if I go with the video project some of them will probably get destroyed. I'm trying to find out now if our office software can upconvert the older 1080P ones so they can be merged and upconverted to a 4K final product. Also when I ride with friends I put cameras on their bikes too. If I were to sell some of them I would have to either give them away or sell the better ones to avoid complaints. Sort of a no good deed goes unpunished sort of situation.

Anyway if things change, I'll offer them up here on the org for a great price.
 
fallenarch said:
Some may or may not work (the really old ones) and if I go with the video project some of them will probably get destroyed. I'm trying to find out now if our office software can upconvert the older 1080P ones so they can be merged and upconverted to a 4K final product. Also when I ride with friends I put cameras on their bikes too. If I were to sell some of them I would have to either give them away or sell the better ones to avoid complaints. Sort of a no good deed goes unpunished sort of situation.

Anyway if things change, I'll offer them up here on the org for a great price.
Click to expand...
Hi. We have put the bikes in the room with us. When I was part of the crew on an NHRA car team we rebuilt the motor in a motel room.
 
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