From: leung@sp1.csrd.uiuc.edu (Bruce Leung)
Subject: R100GS/PD ramblings
Summary: 4 months with the PD
Organization: Center for Supercomputing R&D, U. of Ill.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 06:49:14 GMT

After 4 months and just under 4000 miles I thought I'd give my
impressions on my '92 R100GS/PD (the pretty white/red kind, not
the ugly green variety).  Along the way I'll discuss:

Parabellum windscreen, Widder electric vest, R bike electrics are
weak, 9+ gal gas tank, BMW tank bag, BMW tire repair kit, riding
my Seca550 after the PD, trip to MN.  Not necessarily in that order.

If none of that interests you, don't complain to me if you keep reading.

When I first started thinking about a new bike I was sure I wanted the
K75S.  After putting on over 30K miles and visiting 29 states on my
Seca 550, I was ready for shaft drive, hard bags and a more capable
engine.  I had drooled on John's K at the 1st Annual Ride 'n Feed
with hardly a second glance at bob's GS.  I eventually came to my
senses.  If it had come down to a choice between the regular GS and
the K, I probably would have opted for the K w/ABS.  Ah, but the PD.
Now there's a bike with character.  There are 2 primary reasons that
I chose the PD, its bizarre (some say ugly) looks (call me a poseur)
and its 9.25 gallon gas tank.  Of course those heated handgrips
aren't too shabby either. :-) I occasionally tell people its dirt road
capabilities were a reason but I'm not a dirt (road) rider (yet) and
I just replaced the Saharas with regular street rubber.  When I move
to CO and go fishing with Ron I'll be able to claim that, but here in
central IL it isn't a good reason.  In any case I haven't regretted
my choice and if something were to happen to this one I'd buy another
in an instant.  It certainly isn't perfect but if I could only have
one bike, this would be it.

The stock windshield doesn't do a whole lot so I bought a Parabellum
replacement.  The folks at Parabellum recommend a screen that allows
you to look about 1.5-2" over it.  After riding through a steady rain
from north of Chicago to Minneapolis I'd have to agree since I couldn't
see through the windshield at all.  I got the short which is 16" tall
(4" taller than stock, they also have 18" and 20") and extends as wide
as the turn signals.  It also goes a couple inches below the turn
signals (there are cut outs for the turn signals) though I can't tell
that that helps any.  It mounts with two brackets in the existing holes
but you lose the angle adjustment of the stock screen.  The fit is good
and it took about 10 min. to put on.  Overall I like the screen and it
provides good wind protection.  The only problem I have with it is that
it deflects air over the top of the hand guards onto my wrists.  With
the stock screen the hand guards did a good job of keeping wind and
rain (to some extent) off my hands and wrists.  I'll probably call
Parabellum one of these days and let them know about this and see if
they'll sell/give(ha!) me some `wings' to solve this.

The second week in Oct. I took a trip from Champaign,IL->Minneapolis,MN->
Rochester,MN->Champaign.  If it weren't for the Widder vest and heated
grips I would have died of hypothermia.  When I left Champaign around
10am it was in the 50's and threatening rain.  There was also a stiff
wind in which I was able to test Flash's knee in the wind trick.  It
works.  I must admit to being skeptical about how well it would work
but it worked better than I expected.  The rain held off until just
north of Chicago and then it steadily increased until it was a major
downpour somewhere in WI.  It eventually slowed to a drizzle in MN but
by then it was in the upper 30's.  I love my heated vest/grips.  Heated
vest/grips are my friends.  At my gas stop in Wisconsin Dells a driver
of a Geo Metro couldn't believe I was still riding.  He had pulled off
the highway because he couldn't keep his car in his lane.  (Granted
a Metro isn't exactly a big car.)  The PD felt rock solid the whole time.

The next morning the bike was a bit weak in starting.  I attributed
this to the cold and my 20w50 oil.  I then rode about 6 miles to a
friend's house on the west side of Minneapolis.  When I tried to
start the bike to move it off the street into the garage, it wouldn't
start (cranked weakly).  I pushed it in and left it to warm up (sort of)
for most of the day and did manage to start it.  By now the battery
was pretty weak and the charge light would come on at idle speeds.
The point of this is that the charging system is pretty weak on the PD.
(Not a huge revelation I guess.)  I had driven over 550 miles at highway
speeds (>4000 rpm) with only one stop until the hotel parking lot and
the charging system couldn't keep up with the vest and grips.  I did
start the bike to move it from the check-in area to my room but that
was it.  I don't know how much a single start draws from the battery.
The Widder literature says the vest draws 33W after being on for 5 mins.
I wonder how much it draws when it is first turned on.  I ended up
going to St Paul Honda/BMW and plugging into their charger for a few
hours.  (Which still didn't fully charge the battery but was enough.)
No doubt the oil contributed to the hard starting but I'm still wary
of using any electric accessories.

I hopped down to Rochester to catch a talk by Slider Gilmore at the
tail end of a motorcycle safety conference.  Slider is an EMT, pig
farmer (yes, he rides a hog) and motorcyclist and talked about what
to do when a motorcycle accident occurs.  After the talk as I was
putting on my jacket I was approached by 3 shady looking characters.
One of them stated, "You have a DoD pin."  Not wanting to start a
fight with a rival gang and having a quick wit I replied, "I do?  Oh
yeah."  Turns out they were rec.moto folks who came down from Minneapolis
for the talk.  Jason, Stacy, and ... I forgot his name - John? but
I remember he had a damn nice jacket (same as mine :-)).  Jason has
a transcript of the talk which I don't remember him posting but he
might be convinced to do so.  I didn't get a chance to talk with them
much since it was around 12:30 and I wanted to get on the road to
get back home.

I love the PD's gas tank.  The range is over 300 miles and I don't mind
using it.  On the way up to MN I only made one gas stop and that was
after 340 miles and ~5 hrs.  And my butt wasn't even sore. :-)  I
hardened my butt touring on my Seca 550, doing multiple 600+ mile
days on it.  The PD is an absolute luxury.  I'm no doubt helped by
the fact that I'm short and have gobs of leg room to stretch out.
I still haven't reached the status of Buck "Ironbuttman" Rogers but
it isn't the bike's fault.  I could see doing 1000 mile days on it.
In the recent (ongoing) "What would you ride..." thread someone
mentioned their ST1100 being good for a 300 mile day and probably a
500 mile day.  Puh.  (Monty Python outrageous French accent mode on)
I laugh at your soft bottom.  Your mother was a cotton ball and your
father smelled of goose down. (... mode off)  I've never ridden an
ST but I'm sure it is good for much more than a paltry 500 mile day.

But it isn't just eating up highway miles.  It is also riding around
Minneapolis for a couple days, down to Rochester, and then back on the
road to go home all without worrying about filling up.  I'm sure
Concours owners can do much of the same.

I have the BMW tank bag and give it a thumbs up.  It is expensive but
it has a solid harness and lots of room.  It also allows easy access
to the gas tank and tank storage compartment via a single zipper.
Since I actually use that little glove compartment, this was important
to me.

I got to try the tire repair kit the other day.  Luckily this wasn't
out of necessity.  I got a nail in the rear tire and decided to use
this as an excuse to put on regular street tires (ME88 rear, ME33 front).
The rear Sahara probably had another 1000 miles left in it, the front
is still good.  Before removing the rear I patched it with the
repair kit.  I'm glad I tried it in the comfort of my garage rather
than when I really needed it.  The kit comes with 3 plugs and I
managed to tear 2 of them before having success with the third.  My
problem was that I didn't enlarge the nail hole enough.  When I
tried to force the plug into too small a hole, all I succeeded in
doing was tearing the end of the plug with the insertion tool.  I
actually could have turned the plug around and used the other end
but since I was going to buy a new kit anyways I didn't bother.  I
did, however, save the cartridges for spares.  Now that I know what
I'm doing I hope I'll never have to use it!

You gotta love the single sided swing arm and shaft drive!  On my
Seca I have to loosen the chain adjusters, take off the axle nut,
disconnect the rear brake, take the chain off the rear sprocket,
remove right muffler, pull out the axle, catch all the pieces of the
chain adjusters and spacers and then roll the wheel out.  On the
BMW I remove the left saddlebag (1 latch, 2 seconds), remove 4
bolts (30 seconds) and roll the wheel out.  I like it!

This is not to say I don't like my Seca.  It's an old friend and
I'll never sell it.  The PD probably only makes about 10 more horses
(if that :-)) but it seems to be more usable power.  The Seca doesn't
like to make much power until about 6000 rpm which is where one thinks
about up-shifting on the PD.  The PD is much more comfortable cruising
at high speeds where the Seca feels strained even though their top
speeds are roughly the same.  No great revelations there I suppose.
Now that I've had my PD for a while I can't believe I ever went as
far as I did on my Seca.  The Seca is still fun and more manageable
around town, though I still tend to ride the PD since it has the hard
bags.

So what are my gripes with the bike?  (Notice how I hid these at the
end :-).)  The mirrors are next to useless on the highway.  They vibrate
too much and I don't think I'll ever get used to them.  I also didn't
like the stock windscreen, which is why I replaced it.  And of course
the weak electrical system.

It ain't perfect but I'll keep it!

Bruce
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles,sci.physics