I took a short ride (~25 miles) this morning—haven't done much riding in a year or two, partly due to a persistent Bing problem (finally cured), partly for safety upgrades pending for a long time, and partly because the inactivity gave me a case of something like golfers' "Yips" and worked on my confidence (more about the latter, later). For the first time in months, I'm really glad I bought my bike!
My carbs were a mess! During the winter I admitted my bike for repair and storage to a local (20 miles one-way) BMW repair shop with a good reputation. (It ran so badly, I had to use my AAA RV endorsement to have it trucked to the shop.) The owner had trouble with one of the carbs, until he finally unplugged it in be spring by using a commercial ultrasonic cleaner. Then, time, weather, distance & my own inertia conspired to delay my picking it up until June.
While in the shop, the bike received (in addition to 10-K mile service) a tire resizing from the 90-mm front and 120-mm rear Metzelers to the original 3.25 in. front and 4.00 in. rear. The shop had trouble obtaining the English sizes, and then had to return the wrong sizes sent by the supplier and re-order the correct size. Finally was able to acquire Conti's in the proper sizes. Haven't worn the coating completely off them, so I haven't formed an opinion. (I know some riders don't like Conti.) Still, I'm a pleasure-horse rider rather than a race jockey, so performance and long wear are secondary to adhesion and ease of changing. Stay tuned.
One thing I note is the lower profile of the original tire sizes has lowered the bike overall about 0.5 inches. That's important to me, a small person whose high kick has become lower with age. I'm still considering shorter shocks to lower it some more. The repair shop owner suggests modest lowering, and lowering the front an equal amount by an equal amount by sliding the forks tubes triple clamp downs a bit on the fork tubes, thus maintaining the bike's geometric relationship with the pavement. I asked him about the limits to this kind of lowering. He said that the limit theoretically could be quite radical—the spouse of his former boss (a BMW dealer) is very small (< 5 feet tall), and her R65 was lowered significantly more than mine would be. He cautioned that if I got carried away with lowering, I could lose the effective use of my center stand, and I might have to have my Brown's sidestand shortened and reconfigured. I think I can avoid that problem, for I think I'll not need even an inch of lowering.
The safety upgrades were Photon Blaster LED fork-mounted running lights and LED modulating brake lights. Very please with them. Now I feel a little less like bait on the highway.
The inactivity has made my riding technique very rusty. and I have developed some bad habits. I think the worst problem is that my right wrist has become slightly twitchy, causing me difficulty maintaining a steady throttle in the middle stages of a low-speed turn (especially to the right). I had this problem years ago in the Basic Rider Course, and I passed the course in part because I taught myself to lock my right wrist in doing the linked U-turns. This morning I spend some time in remedial training on the upper deck of a large commuter rail station's parking garage near my home. (Really good surface—clean, textured concrete, no trash or oil residue, and no traffic on weekends.) I spent about 30 minutes on low-speed turns, and did considerably more right-turn practice than left. It built my confidence considerably. I know there are still other things I need to practice on other surfaces, but at least I'm on my way back.
