BM Motorcycles - 3

Well the two weeks wait went pretty quickly. I took my bike down Wednesday afternoon and rode the loan bike (BMW F650) home.

Thursday I rode back on the loan bike and made absolutely splendid time up Springvale Road and Whitehorse Road at 5:00 pm. The last time took me three times as long.

And now for the results, drum roll Maestro.

Although not quite so obvious in this picture, the circled area was turning black with the edge in rainbow colours.

A look inside the pipe of the same area reveals a hole in the innner pipe.

A slightly different view shows the inner pipe with an egg shaped deformation opposite the hole.

This a view of the damaged areas on the bearing inner race - the dark spots either side of the bearing.
They weren't all the way around and there were a few similar spots on the outer race.
Spinning the bearing by hand you could feel a tightening of the bearing in a few places.
However if you gave the inner race a quick flick, in a few turns the bearing was so tight that it stopped the bearing from turning.
Seems to be a combination of race surface and ball position. Maybe the balls are damaged too?

I was told that the oil was black, as if it was burnt.

I have to take the bike back in 1,500 km to have the oil changed. Hopefully there won't be too much metal in it. Thankfully this can be done on a Saturday. This mid week stuff is hard work when you have a job.

I'm still not sure the vibration problem has been sorted out, but certainly the bearings and the pipe needed attention. Top marks for finding out when real BMW workshops didn't.

Cost: About $1,500.00

P.S. Regarding the vibration, I may have become a little too sensitive to the issue. As I powered down Whitehorse Rd towards Springvale Rd I was rather happy that the vibration seemed to be gone. However, halfway home sitting on 100 kph I thought the vibration was still there. Maybe it was the rain on the way home. I don't know. But I will follow the issue up.