Daves Blog

Sorry for being so quiet lately (again). Work took over my life for a few weeks which is just as well really as you’ll see when you read the following sorry tale…

Four weeks ago to the day I took my K1300S to North Oxford Garage and I haven’t seen it since. No, it wasn’t stolen, they still have it. The previous Wednesday we’d gone to the Oliver Cromwell with Roundway Riders as usual. It was one of the quietest nights of the year so far and when we got there, there was only one other bike in the car park. He’d parked under the trees which I don’t like doing because of the tree sap, and so I chose to park in an open area of the car park where we usually park all the bikes, and where I could keep an eye on it. I was a good 8 to 10 feet behind a parked car and had of course looked to make sure I wasn’t going to block him. As it was the car was parked, I assumed deliberately, in such a way that he could leave when he wanted to by simply driving forwards. So, we sat outside with our friends having a natter as you do.

Later in the evening I saw a guy that we all know from the pub walking towards the parked car to leave. As I noticed it was the car in front of my bike, it was on the tip of my tongue to say “Hey, you’ve seen my bike right?”. But I also thought, don’t be stupid, of course he has. It’s bright orange, it’s not hidden, it’s off set to the right of his car and basically couldn’t be missed. So I thought no more of it. 1 minute later I hear a sharp intake of breath and an “Oh my God” from one of my friends, only to look up and see numpty of the year, pushing my bike backwards with his car. What the hell? I guess he felt something because after he’d pushed it backwards for about a foot he stopped and got out. Apart from the profuse apologising, I’ll never forget what he said next. “I don’t understand. I always check in my mirrors before reversing and I didn’t this time. I didn’t even look.”!!!! I think I may have questioned the quality of his eye sight in no uncertain terms before taking a look at the bike. The front mudguard had a gouge in it but my biggest concern was the alignment. I’d parked it with the steering on the left lock, and so of course any force he’d just exerted on it, would have to be taken up by something, so I took it for a ride.

Much to my dismay, of course, something was very evidently bent with the bars now 2 to 3 degrees right when travelling straight - very noticeable. After my experience with my first K1200S I couldn’t believe it of course. Anyway, he gave me his insurance details and so that evening I set about registering the claim etc. I’m insured with BMW Motorrad insurance, who are actually Devitts, a brokers and so my insurance is with NIG. I can’t fault the service they’ve given me so far, although it was harder than it needed to be getting them to agree to allow North Oxford to do the repairs. They’ve already written to me letting me know that under the circumstances of the accident, I am blameless, I will not have to pay any excess and my NCB will not be affected. They will be seeking 100% settlement of any claim from numpty’s insurance company.

Providing he sticks to the same “I didn’t even look” story this will be no problem of course, however if in the cold light of day he decides to try and change his story, he’ll come seriously unstuck. I have at least 4 independent witnesses who not only saw him reverse into my bike when he had no need to reverse, but also saw him drink at least a pint and a half in the pub before getting into his car!!!!!

So, the bike went into North Oxford for repairs on the Saturday. Now, you have to remember this has BMW’s Duolever suspension so the following might only make sense to those who understand this…

The steering was on the left lock, and amazingly the steering stop is right up on the handlebar carrier, this means that absolutely any of the components downwards from the handlebars could have been bent and maybe not just one, but probably a combination.

To date, NOG have replaced:

1. The steering shaft.

2. The upper wishbone.

3. The steering/wheel carrier connector hinged bracket.

It’s still bent!

They now have the front wheel carrier (the forks) on order and we expect them to arrive any day. I’m hopeful, but not optimistic this will fix it. Firstly because there’s not a lot left after them and secondly because BMW made much of the fact they’re made from much lighter (does that mean weaker?) material on the K13’s. If these don’t fix it, then it’s most likely they’ll have to start looking at the frame and even though the bill is currently around the £2000 mark, NOG reckon they still have about £8000 available before the insurance company will look to write it off.

All down the line, from the legal protection company, my insurance and now even NOG I’ve been offered loan bikes, but of course I’ve felt and said I didn’t need one because I can always ride Meike’s Divvy. The truth is, because I’ve been so busy, I’ve not really missed riding, but I am missing having my bike. Don’t know if that makes sense, but I’d like it back sooner rather than later now. If the repairs are going to take longer and NOG offer me a K1300S I’ll most likely take them up on it now.

The one thing that has and still amazes me in this experience is the apparent lack of help for NOG from BMW UK. You’d think that there would be a deliberate week spot built into the front suspension arrangement somewhere, but apparently there isn’t. From what I’ve heard, BMW UK are as much in the dark as anyone with suggestions on what to change next. I do find this amazing.

Anyway, that’s where I’ve been and what’s been happening and why I’ve missed some of the best biking weather we’ve had for ages. No amount of screaming can change the situation of course and it is what it is, but I wish it wasn’t.

I’ll update when I know more.

The MRA double bubble screen for the K1300S arrived yesterday morning as expected and took me all of about 5 minutes to fit. At first I thought it’s not that much different to the stock screen, and while the curvature of it isn’t it’s about 2 inches longer in the middle and looked as though it should raise the air flow. I am a little disappointed it doesn’t have more of a bubble to direct the air flow around me though as is implicit in the double bubble design. I think MRA are stretching the point a little here because as far as I can see it’s a single bubble screen.

Anyway, I got the chance to try it last night on our weekly trip to the Oliver Cromwell with Roundway Riders and while it’s not eliminated the drumming turbulent noise in my helmet it is a definite improvement. This at least shows me I’m on the right track.

This morning I contacted Sportouring to order Meike a Schuberth C3 Lady and SRC collar as it’s her birthday on Monday and she’d like the rider/pillion comms back. I was chatting to Mike there and mentioned I was disappointed so far with my C3 because of the noise. It just so happened he had a Puig double bubble screen there for a K1200S (same fitment) and he offered to send it to me to look at before deciding if I want to buy it. How fair is that? I’ve dealt with them a couple of times now and quite honestly couldn’t recommend them highly enough. Chances are that screen will arrive tomorrow and it’ll be interesting to see how, if at all, it’s any different to the MRA one.

Anyway, back to last night when on the way home I had the chance to try the K1300S brakes in a real life emergency stop. It was dark and we were following a car along the A342. Single carriageway road with no street lights. We were doing 50mph when all of a sudden and without any warning he slammed on his brakes and swerved across the carriageway. Full emergency stop. I’d seen a shaddow of something on the left and as he was braking there were what appeared to be feathers flying out from under and around the left of his car. It never ceases to amaze me how fast ones brain works in such circumstances. As I was braking as hard as I dare I considered swerving round him on the right, but as that’s the direction he was going in, ruled it out. I also considered the same on the left, but as that’s where the ‘feathers’ were flying from, ruled that out too. Leaving me with the only option to stop as quickly as possible. I was of course also conscious of Meike on the back and hoped she was holding on hard. She was, the brakes were superb, and we stopped about 8 to 10 feet short of the back of the car.

Once stopped we then saw the poor injured deer struggle round from the car with it’s back or back legs broken and of course it was obvious what had happened. Obviously it wasn’t feathers we’d seen but rather fur from the deer. I know we eat them, but I really hate to see a life injured in such a way. Poor animal.

Fortunately the next vehicle along was the local farmer who offered to deal with the deer and so after a short pause, we were able to continue home. I must admit I was then very conscious of all the hedge and tree lined dark roads we had to ride along and grateful that firstly the deer hadn’t jumped out in front of us and secondly that the brakes had worked so well. Even while I was breaking I was preparing for the impact of us hitting the back of the car. The odd thing is, I’m pretty certain the ABS didn’t kick in at all, which probably means I could have braked even harder. Probably without Meike on the back, I would have but who knows?

Back to Meikes new helmet… they didn’t have her size in stock but it’s on order and so as soon as it arrives I’ll be able to report on the SRC comms which are supposed to work up to about 300 yards. I doubt this to be honest, but we’ll see.

At least for me. The new owner has just been to collect it and I hope they have as much enjoyment from it as I have. He’s got a fairly long ride home and so it will give him plenty of time to find out of course and play with that wonderful torque. I hope he’s not disappointed and gets miles of fun from it.

I took this picture literally seconds before he rode it away and apart from the, to be expected and unavoidable discolouring of the exhaust pipes, I think it looks almost as good as the day it was delivered, nearly 3 years ago.

So now we’re back to a ‘normal’ two bike family and I must admit while I know I’m going to miss the Bandit I am looking forward to the extra space in the garage. It’ll be much easier now to work on the K and the Divvy as well as other garage based chores. Now to update the blog home page.

Yesterday I ordered an MRA Double Bubble screen for the K and I’m hoping this is going to move the turbulence away from my neck when riding. Hopefully it will arrive on Wednesday so I can try it Wednesday evening.

Got up at 6.30am yesterday… That’s right, 6.30am on a Saturday - madness! Had to in order to have the K1300S to NOG for its first service by 8.00am. Meike came with me on pillion and sure enough we arrived at 8.00am on the dot. Bike was straight into the service bay. Unfortunately it had rained a lot the night before and so while we didn’t get wet from rain, we got splashed with all the muck and spray from other vehicles. By the time we got there the bike looked like I’d ridden across country.

While we were there, waiting the one and half hours for the service to be completed, I noticed their K1300S demo bike was fitted with a Remus Hexacone and so of course I had to have a listen. Then of course I had to go and ask the price and then to top it all they just had to tell me they had one in stock lol. Consequently the bikes now fitted with one and I have to say it does look and sound much better for it. There’s no question the K1300 exhaust can is a great advancement on the water cannon fitted as standard to the K1200’s, but even so I still found it a little too quiet for my liking. As I’ve said before I don’t like seriously loud exhausts at all but I do like them to sound, well, sporty and this certainly does.

By the time we left to come home the sun was out and the roads had dried a lot and so I deliberately took the back roads home. I must admit the sun shining, the dry roads, the freshly serviced bike and the great sound from the exhaust all led me to ride in a somewhat spirited manner and I think I may end up paying for it. Coming down into a small village where the speed limit dropped from 60 to 30, I saw a police camera van, but way too late. I know I was reducing speed at the time but I’m really not convinced I’d shaved enough off at the point I imagine the camera was pointing at. If I’m really lucky, he’ll have got the car in front of me or he won’t have had any means to get my registration number (eg no forward facing cameras). So far in my motorcycling I’ve never been caught for speeding and it would be a real shame if I have now as I’m usually very observant and respectful of the limits, especially the lower ones, but with so many cameras and speed traps around it really must be only a matter of time I guess. Fingers crossed, he didn’t get me, and I’ll take it as a lesson to be more careful, but only time will tell. Guess I’ll be dreading the post for the next week or two.

I know why my C3 helmet is so noisy! It’s turbulence from the top of the K’s screen. I can’t explain why it doesn’t affect my C2 as much, but there’s no question in my mind now. From the stock screen I can feel the wind, and turbulent wind at that, hitting my shoulders and this is just the right height to be just under the helmet. This explains why if I move my head up or down a couple of inches, or put my hand on my chest just below the helmet it becomes significantly quieter. There’s a number of after market screens available for the K1300S and I think I’ll try a double bubble one as this worked well on my Bandit, directing the air around me rather than into me. More on this of course as I decide and progress.

Speaking of the Bandit I’ve spent some time today getting it ready for its new owner who’s coming to collect it tomorrow. I have very mixed feelings about this as I love riding it. Not quite as much as I love riding my K1300 though. I’m satisfied its going to a good home where it will continue to be well looked after and so that makes me feel better about it. I’m also looking forward to the increased space it will give me in my garage. As I’ve said before, I can always take Meike’s Divvy for a blast when I want to and so I won’t be without my second bike.

Unfortunately the weather yesterday afternoon and today has been pretty awful and so I haven’t got out on either bike. Tomorrow’s a bank holiday but as usual, as it isn’t in the USA I’m not likely to get much chance to enjoy it. Still, the weather is supposed to improve again this week and so I’m already looking forward to Wednesday evening with Roundway Riders and The Oliver Cromwell.

Just got back from a long weekend in Wales with Roundway Riders and once again it was really enjoyable. We stayed in the same huge house as the last time with its 11 bedrooms and full size snooker table and went on some fantastic rides including the ones there and back. The weather was good too. Sunny on the first and second days, overcast on the third and ending sunny on the fourth. Great company, great roads, great weather… what more could you ask for?

Meike rode her own bike there and back and thoroughly enjoyed it and it gave me the chance to get the K1300S run in which I’m pleased to say it now is.

Here we all are at a ‘rest’ stop on the way to the house. Blue skies!

I rode back marker on the way there which was perfect for allowing me to keep varying my speed etc. while running in the K1300S. That’s Meike’s bike to front left in the pic.

Just setting out from the house on the second day to lead the ride out. First stop, M&P in Swansea and then over the Black Mountains to New Quay (the Welsh one) and finally back home. We rode on some truly fantastic roads. Smooth and well maintained with plenty of bends and fortunately not much other traffic around.

Here’s the full crew at the top of the Black Mountains on the A4069 prior to tackling the descent. From left to right… Ro, Nkosi, KJ, Ade, Frenchie, Rinksy, JD, Nelly, Lou, me, Meike and Sue. Thanks for a great weekend peeps… you’re great.

The K1300S behaved impeccably and is a real pleasure to ride. It feels so much more sure footed than the K1200S did. I don’t know what that’s down to, perhaps the ESA2 or the tyres but whatever it is, I can already tell there’s a very very long way to go to find its limits. There was one ‘incident’ that I’m not sure I understand yet in that on one stretch of road, the quick shifter simply wouldn’t. Shift, change gear that is. I was accelerating at the time so that’s when it really should work, but it just wouldn’t. At all other times it’s worked perfectly and so I don’t know what caused this. Even later in the same journey, without stopping and restarting the bike, it worked perfectly. Perhaps as I live with it more, I may realise why. It’s booked in for it’s first service this coming Saturday morning, and so I will ask about it then too.

During the course of last week I’d fitted the rack and the pannier mounting frames which of course were straight bolt ons from the K1200. Previously I’d bought the BMW large soft bag for the rack but I found with the panniers on the bottom of this bag would have rubbed on the top of them. To be honest I wouldn’t have needed the capacity anyway and so last week I also bought the small soft bag which fitted perfectly. That meant I could take all the luggage for us both easily leaving Meike to ride her bike without additional weight or unbalance.

The only real cause for concern on this trip, apart from a driver of a black van and another driver of a Citroen C4, who both decided to overtake, on separate occasions when I was already over-taking them, has been the Bluetooth connection between the Zumo 660 and the Schuberth collar. When it works it’s great but twice, and at the most inconvenient times, it simply stopped. Of course I didn’t realise until I’d missed a turn and then it seemed no amount of switching on and off would get them to communicate again, until we got back to the house. When of course, everything then worked perfectly.

Looking at the Zumo forums it appears there are issues with Garmins Bluetooth implementation, particularly on the 660 and so I hope they get it fixed soon. I do have the option to hard wire the headset and so will do so if I’m leading any rides soon. I’ll also be keeping a close eye out for the fix.

The Bandit is sold! To a very nice chap who’s coming to pick it up next week. I’ll be really sorry to see it go as it’s a great bike, but with the K1300 and now Meikes Divvy I really can’t see the point of keeping it. It will be much better with someone who’s going to use it much more.

Think that’s about it for now.

Yesterday I got chance to try out my new Schuberth SRC bluetooth collar for my new Schuberth C3 helmet. The SRC is a complete collar that replaces the standard collar in the helmet. It’s a doddle to fit and is by a million miles the neatest bluetooth solution I’ve seen yet.

As you can see in this picture the collar is delivered with all the components pre-assembled. All you have to do is charge it, remove the original collar from the helmet and then fit this one. It’s a bit thicker and heavier than the standard collar and not as flexible. I’m sure this is because on one side, as you can see, there are the controls, and on the other side there’s the battery. However, it’s not a bad fit at all, although I do wonder if it’s this ’stiffness’ that’s letting more air into my helmet and making it a little noisier than I expected it to be.

The sound from the speakers is amazingly full although not as good as the sound from the J&M speakers I had in my C2 helmet. This isn’t surprising because they’re much smaller but I’m relieved they don’t sound as empty and tinny as I thought they would. On the move of course, all hint of bass disappears, but the resulting sound isn’t terrible. Music and the navigation system are both clearly audible.

When I first paired the Zumo 660 with it I was very disappointed with the sound quality of the music, which was mono and dreadful quality. A quick search on the Zumo forums though pointed me in the right direction. I’d paired it as a GPS when in fact I should have paired it as a music source. That way it uses the ADP2 bluetooth protocol which passes stereo sound at much higher quality.

Unfortunately while on the Zumo forums I also read of another issue which I can confirm. When the 660 is connected via bluetooth and playing music, if you receive a phone call, when the call is terminated the music will not resume. No amount of poking and prodding will get it to either… the ONLY solution is to reboot the 660. I really don’t like talking on the phone when riding, so I don’t see this being an issue, but it’s a shame to find there’s yet another bug with the 660.

The intercom function is supposed to work over 300 metres and so we’ll get to try that out when we buy a new helmet and collar for Meike.

We only went on a short ride, me on the K1300S and Meike on her Divvy, but I was generally pleased with the sound although a little disappointed the C3 isn’t quieter. I think I might try removing the SRC and re-fitting the original collar just to see if that could be responsible. One problem I had when riding was that most of the sound was in my left ear. This was because I’d not fitted the speakers properly mainly because I was trying it out. They’re supplied with velcro pads to stick into the ear recesses in the helmet, I hadn’t fitted these and the right speaker had slipped out of place. Once home, I fitted the velcro pads and speakers correctly and on re-trying the sound found it to be the same in both ears.

I’ll report more on the helmet when I’ve had a chance to try the standard collar on it.

Today I received the clear tank protection I ordered for the K1300S from Nippy Normans. In readiness for this, last night I polished the tank to get rid of any buff marks my leathers had already left on it. Right now I’m heating the garage as it’s not supposed to be applied below 15 deg C, and I’ll have a crack at fitting it tonight.

Went for a short ride on the new K1300S today… usual haunt on a Saturday, George Whites. I could have gone much further and wanted to, but I’m actually trying to keep the miles down on it lol. The reason for this is that in less than two weeks time we’re off on the Roundway Riders annual Wales trip, and that’ll be an ideal time to really get it run in. NOG have confirmed that although the first service is stated as 600 miles, it will be OK to put say 800 on it. I reckon we’ll do around 600 on the Wales trip, so I don’t want to put too many on right now.

So, what’s it like? Well, let me tell you, I thought the K1200S was a great bike and indeed it is, but the K1300S is simply better. It’s not just a matter of 100cc’s either. It handles better with quicker turn in response and appears much more responsive and lighter to rider input. There’s little to no clunkiness to the gear box. The difference between the ESA on the K12 and the ESA2 on the K13 is very noticeable and the fueling issues of the K12 especially at low speed seem to be completely eliminated on the K13. It rides smoothly at all speeds even down to 20/30mph. At these speeds the K12 was notorious for hunting and providing a pretty jerky ride but there’s none of that on the K13.

The recommended running in range is 0 to 7000rpm and as 6000rpm in top is 100mph I really don’t see that being an issue. I didn’t notice anything of the ABS or the anti skid control but I assume they would have done their jobs if required. However, the one thing that is simply sublime is the gear shift assist or to give it it’s racing name the quick shifter. It’s truly amazing, allowing clutchless up shifts in a fraction of the time it would take even a good rider to do it normally. I need to practice with the ideal conditions for it as some times it was a little jerky and yet other times, almost imperceptible. You have to have steady or positive throttle and it seemed to me to work best around 6000rpm. I’ll report more as I get used to it, but it really is a fantastic option.

I spent this afternoon putting a few bits from the K12 back on the K13… The rack, which was for a K13 anyway, the tank bag clips, the pannier mounting frames and of course my Zumo 660. I’ve used a ram ball straight through the slot in the bars for this and while I’m pretty sure it should work well and be secure, I will be keeping a close eye on it. The Zumo power plugged straight into the canbus socket near the battery that’s still provided on the 13, just as it was on the 12. I also moved the tax disc holder from the front wheel, to the pannier mounting frame, where it was on my K12. Much less noticeable and yet still clearly visible in this position.

I also got to try out my new Schuberth C3 today but without the GPS so I wasn’t able to try the SRC bluetooth collar. The helmet itself, which is a size smaller than my C2 is much lighter and a much better fit on my head. However, I was a little disappointed with the noise. I was expecting it to be at least as quiet as my C2 if not quieter and I reckon it was slightly noisier. Whether this was because I had the vents open on such a lovely day I don’t know, but will be listening closely as I try it with music etc.

Anyway, tomorrow (hm, today now) is supposed to be lovely again weather wise and as Meike needs to put more miles on her bike, I suspect we’ll be out again :)

I said I wasn’t going to say too much in my last post… and here’s why. I just didn’t want to tempt fate or jinx anything by saying I was expecting delivery of my new K1300S today, but as promised, it was delivered and here she is. This is the Lava Orange colour which to my eyes at least is the best colour on offer of the current crop.

I’m not sure it really is a pearlescent colour but it does change under different lights. In these pictures for example it is decidedly orange but in the short space of time I’ve had it I’ve also seen it looking more bronze.

I haven’t had chance to ride it yet thanks to work, but rest assured I’ll be out on it tomorrow for sure. The weather is supposed to stay good for the weekend… Perfect.

I’m not really sure how this all came about. Obviously it was deliberate but it all seems to have happened in a bit of a whirlwind.

On the Wootton Bassett ride we saw a lava orange one close up and I suppose that got me thinking about the K1300’s again. I then checked back through some old emails and found it was almost a year to the day I’d emailed NOG and asked for the price to change. At that time it was prohibitive as I’d only had the K1200 for 4 months, but I wondered what difference a year might have made. So, I sent an email off to NOG (Yes, yes, but as I’ve said a million times, far better the devil you know). Phil, the boss, replied almost immediately and with a much better offer than this time last year… so discussions pursued, and last Saturday I placed the order.

You can imagine my amazement and joy when he told me he had reserved one to my exact spec. Even so, I wasn’t promised delivery until next Monday, especially as this last weekend was Easter… but as it’s all worked out. Delivery was today and made personally by Phil. So, so far on this transaction, I honestly can’t fault them.

The day started well too and it’s been a bit like Christmas. Yesterday I ordered a new Schuberth C3 and the SRC Bluetooth collar and they were both delivered this morning. I’ll report more on both later but initial impressions are very positive.

Also today I’ve put the Bandit up for sale… £3,700 for an 07, GDF1250SA with less than 4000 miles on the clock. Bit of a bargain really, but worth every penny.

Anyway, more tomorrow I’m sure when I’ve ridden the K1300 :)