Log Book
3rd November 2008
This
is the log book of the BMW R1150Gs Adventure, Standard with no modifications.
I bought the bike new on the 24th of December 2002.
We left Cape Agulas (Southern most Point in Africa) in June 2004 with 39 000km on the clock, it was 18 months old then. We arrived in Dubai in Feb 2005 with 67 000km on the clock and left three years later (June2008) with 92,000km on. Before we left home (Cape Town) a few items went wrong and were repaired them under warrantee free of charge. This includes: Replacement of diff bearings, Swing arm bearings, front brake callipers and faulty crash bars.
On our journey
there has been a few fatal break downs. In Kenya the main wiring harness short
circuited and fused the entire harness, leaving us stranded in the Northern
Desert of Kenya. It got replaced with a new harness by BMW in Nairobi. (see
details in the Kenya section of the Website) The second big
disappointment was the failure of the Servo Assisted and ABS brake pump
resulting in no brakes on the rear wheel. BMW does not repair these pumps, and I
was told to replace it with a new one, which would have cost over R20 000
($3 000). Instead I removed the pump and linked the brakes direct. The braking
ability of the bike is just as good as with the Servo pump. (See details of this
modification later)
Then the biggest
disappointment so far is the fact that we had to replace the rear wheel bearing
5 times. It was done by a BMW dealer twice, and three times by myself. It is
caused by the fact that we ‘overload’ the bike a bit. This is known to be a
common problem with the 1150GS as well as the 1200LT (In USA). I’ve made a bold
step to experiment with a different type of bearing, and have done away with the
original Deep Groove Ball bearing. BMW supplies it’s customers a FAG – 6917
bearing which has 19 balls in the bearing. I’ve even tried to use a NSK – 6917
which has 17 balls in the bearing, because some BMW dealers here in the USA are
changing over to the ’17 ball’ bearing as an so called improvement to the
original FAG. Unfortunately I did not get to use the bearing to the end of its
life, as the small taper roller bearing failed on me while I had the NSK bearing
in. The taper roller failed due to too much play on the hub, as I did not have
any shims to my availability when I replaced the bearing in northern Canada
(Closets BMW dealer was 1200km away) and decide to drive the bike as is down to
Arkansas. In Arkansas I
decided to do the big modification and inserted a
Precision Angular Contact Bearing in, as well as I have replaced the small taper
roller. An Angular Contact Bearing does the same job as a Taper Roller Bearing,
and it makes more sense to me to have two taper roller bearings facing each
other, or in this case a taper roller and an angular contact. The original BMW
design only has a taper roller bearing as well as a crown and pinion gear
combination facing and forcing thrust load onto the inner ring of the standard
deep groove ball bearing, that is not designed to handle any thrust load. The
Angular Contact Bearing however is designed to take thrust load. This
modification is being done by my own design and against the approval of BMW, but
I have enough experience with machinery to think ‘out of the box’ and come up
with a solution to many GS and LT owner’s headache. As soon as I’m satisfied
with this modification, I will add the details and photos to the web, let me
first take the GS for the ultimate test ride. . . . ...........So the bike had
a few break downs on the way, some big and some small. Despite of that, I still
love my GS and would not choose another bike for the kind of trip we are doing..................................
40 100
Diens - Trefco, Bellvile
Nuwe buite bande: Michelin T66 agter en Continental voor Nuwe rem blokke
voorwiel
48 000 Ongeluk, slegs ligte skade en krappe aan bike.
51 200 Agterlig bracket breek af, weld -Malawi
53 900 Regter panier bracket gebuig agv ligte ongeluk met boomstomp
-Malawi
57 070 Bedrading smelt, Mashariki Motors vervang onder waarborg Nuwe
remblokke agter wiel -Kenia
58 000 Voorlig en 'cockpit' bracket breek af, sweis -Kenia
59 190 Regs panier bracket breek, boer maak 'n plan-fix - Etehopië
62 700 Regter voor shock lek olie (nog nie reg gemaak)
65 200 Agterwiel bearing #1 pak pak op, Batery lek Acid, vervang met nuwe
een. BMW Muscat vervang - Oman
76 500 Petrol pomp pak op, vervang met nuut. –UAE
82 000 Groot diens, vervang handle gribs(heated), Vervang voorste skokbreker met nuwe BMW skokbreker. Strip brackets wat in Afrika gesweis is en spuitverf nuut.
88 000 Groot diens en herstelwerk, vervang voor vurk seëls, Vervang agter skokbreker met nuwe BMW skokbreker. Strip agter raam, sweis en versterk gekraakte raam net onder sitplek, spuitverf nuut. Nuwe Altenator belt, vonk proppe, stel kleppe. Nuwe lug en olie filter en olie. Vervang remvloeistof. Nuwe voorband – Conti TKC. Diens by BMW.
88 800 Servo assisted brake pump pak op. Verwyder en koppel remme direk, sonder ABS en Servo assisted
91 500 Vervang agterwiel bearing #2 as deel van voorbereiding van toer wat voorle.
93 000 Agterwiel valve skeur oop, vervang by dorpie net voor Esfahan, Iran
103 500 Agterwiel bearing #3 pak op, vervang in Ripley, Engeland
115 000 Voorwiel kraak, vervang met nuwe rim in Fairbanks, Alaska
122 000 Agterwiel bearing #4 pak op, vervang met NSK (nie-BMW) bearing in Houston, British Colombia, Kanada
123 000 Vervang plug drade in Vancouver, Kanada
125 500 Vervang remblokke, voor en agter
131 000 Agterwiel bearing #5 pak op, vervang met ‘n ‘Precision Angular Contact Bearing’ as deel van eksperiment. (sien details op ‘n later stadium)