O U R
At this point all of the main maintenance had
been done, so it was time for a test ride. Mick
went out on his test route and came back happy
with the way it was running. We didn’t have a huge
amount of time left at this point, but Mick thought
we could get the rear shock bearings replaced
ready for the gravel road adventure that was to
come. It wasn’t to be that simple…
It turns out that the WP rear shock fitted to this
bike (which was an optional performance extra
from new) doesn’t have the same rubber bushes
as the standard BMW shock unit. Instead, the
WP shock comes with spherical bearings, which…
we didn’t have. With a selection of shocks in the
garage, Mick set about measuring the bushes and
bearings in all of them. Mick’s loaner shock had the
same bearings, so he pressed those out and put
them into The Baron’s WP shock, with instructions
for me to find out where to get replacements.
After a lot of research I found out from Ray Clee,
a WP agent, that the bearings in that 29-year-
old shock are the same as those still used in WP
shocks today. That’s a result and it means I can get
some ordered and sent down to Mick.
100 KIWI RIDER
B I K E S
As I said earlier, I need to head back down to get
the output shaft seal replaced, and at 120,000km
the cam-chain could do with being replaced too
so that can be done at the same time.
So with a mostly clean bill of health from Herr
Two Cats, The Baron and I made our merry way
down to the BMW Club’s annual rally in Blenheim,
which you can read about that in the link at the
start of this story.
My list of things to fix on the bike include
having the baffle in the exhaust repaired as it’s
come loose and rattles around annoyingly. The
righthand exhaust centre gasket needs replacing.
While I’m doing that I’d like to get a Y-piece to
replace the centre collector box to save a little
weight and help it breath a little better. Also, the
rear lightbulb connection is intermittent, so I’d
like to replace it with an LED unit and be done
with it once and for all.