THE BIKES
On Jenny's bike we fitted/changed the following parts :- Heated Grips, Acerbis 27 litre tank, Scottoiler, Givi top box (42 litre), Stainless braided brake hoses, Acerbis hand guards, Touratech Panniers, Komfi seat.
Both bikes were given a major service and all the following items were changed as well :- Chain/Sprockets, Tyres, Head race bearings, Clutch, throttle and choke cables, Fork seals, Rear suspension rebuilt and re greased, Rear shock absorbers were both rebuilt with new springs and fitted with a remote reservoir from CBR 600
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Problem
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Solution
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Mileage
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Location |
| Leaking right hand front fork seal | new fork seal fitted at BMW dealer in Salzburg, also noticed slack in head race bearings (fitted by Lind BMW in Norwich), new bearings fitted despite them having done less than 2k miles | Approx 25,500, | Salzburg Austria |
| Speedo drive failed | Speedo failed as we entered Turkey, unable to get a new one until we get to Tehran | 27735 | Turkish Border |
| Service | Change oils and filters, clean air filters, check, adjust and lubricate as required | 27735 + approx. 2300 miles | Amman Jordan |
| Autocom bike to bike fails totally after on going intermittent problems | Return by courier to Autocom for repair, cost £ 50 | 27735 + approx. 2300 miles | Amman Jordan |
| Piece of Scottoiler stolen | Make a new joint using a piece of pipe and superglue | 27735 + approx. 2900 miles | Amman Jordan |
| Headlight bulb blown | fit new bulb | 27735 + approx. 3500 miles | Hama Syria |
| Speedo drive and weak rear spring | Fit new speedo drive and cable, fit spacer in to rear spring (using the centre of a Honda CG125 rear sprocket) , fit new horn (much louder) ** | 27735 + approx. 5000 miles | Nouriani BMW Tehran Iran |
| one Plug cap failed | Fit new plug cap and new plugs | 28625 + approx. 5000 miles | Kerman Iran |
| Rear light lens fell off | Superglue the mounting lugs back on and refit lens with longer screws | 31000 ish +5000 | Fort Munro Pakistan |
| Rear brake pads worn out | Fit new pads | 31500 +approx. 5000 miles | Besham Pakistan |
| GPS not working properly | modify Touratech mount to try and reduce vibration | 31970 + 5000 miles | Lahore Pakistan |
| Fit Autocom bike to bike radios | Autocom radios repaired and returned to us, but one PTT switch inoperative, fix made using card cover from owners hand book, Repairs cost £ 132, and they send new PTT that does not work properly | 31970 + 5000 | Lahore Pakistan |
| Major service & fit new tyres | Change oil & filter, clean air filter, check/adjust/top-up :-head-race bearings, coolant, clutch, battery, brakes, stands, lights, etc., As we fitted new tyres we had to adjust the chain for the first time since leaving UK | 32048 +5000 | Amritsar India |
| GPS not working properly | Swap the NGK plug fitted in Kerman for a BMW one, taken off of Jenny's bike, Now GPS works properly again | 32048 +5000 | Amritsar India |
| Air freight bikes from Kathmandu to Bangkok | remove front wheel, mudguard, luggage etc. and load into packing case. *** | 34400 ish +5000 | KTM Nepal |
| Collect bikes from Customs in Bangkok | Clear customs and then reassemble the bike before riding to petrol station | 34400 ish +5000 | Bangkok Thailand |
| Cambodian Roads | Clean air filter, clean dust and dirt from bike, check and tighten nuts and bolts, clean and adjust Chain | 35670 | Aranya pretet Thailand |
| No alarm fitted to bike !!! | Fit Chinese made alarm for £ 15 | 36142 + 5000 | Vientiene Laos |
| Flat battery | Voltage output low when lights and heated grips used, one connector corroded, changed, 0.5 volts gained but still 0.8 volts to low, will probably change regulator in NZ | 36525 +5000 | Vieng Vang Laos |
| Oil change needed | Change oil, adjust valve clearances, clean plugs, | 37198 + 5000 | Chiang Mai Thailand |
| Major service required | Change oil/filter, plugs,plug caps, fork oil, chain & sprockets, strip and clean carbs lube cables, stands,locks etc, fit new regulator and a headlight guard | 40058 +5000 | Auckland NZ |
| Autocom not working | Fit new PTT button | 42402 | Kiakora NZ |
On the road to Wadi Rum
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Jenny with the bikes at the Vietnam border (no we did not get in with the bikes)
Jenny's bike being crated up for the flight to Kathmandu
*** Many thanks to Sean and Adrian for their help after Cliff put his back out lifting the bike onto the pallet with Adrian, this rendered him pretty useless, but made him director of operations !!!
If you are ever in NZ then look up Experience BMW, they were very helpful, they even allowed us to service the bikes on their premises and kept us supplied with good fresh coffee, you can contact them by Email, sales@experiencebmw.co.nz or by phone at +09 529 1120
The vast majority of the work done on the bikes has been done by ourselves but where we have had help it has mainly been for sourcing parts and any help that we have had has been gratefully received
We are now back home, both the bikes were very reliable and put up with a lot of abuse, we would recommend them to anyone considering a similar trip, we averaged about 60mpg (or 4.5 lts per 100 kms in metric) We used Metzeler tourance tyres which coped well with most surfaces, we changed the first set having done about 13,000 miles, but they did still have about 3mm of tread left, we have recently changed the second set having done 17,000 miles. The bikes used about half a litre of engine oil between services (thats for both bikes) and we never had to top up the coolant