I Think I’m Finally Done

I think I have arrived at the point where I can spend more time riding it than planning or installing modifications . In fact I am planning to ride to the Palm Springs area over my Christmas/New Years break to visit my folks. I have routes planned for SS1000s or BB1500s in both directions. Of course that assumes the weather and road conditions will cooperate. With the exception of the Hella Micro DE lights and the Touratech Sump Guard, both of which were on the bike when I bought it, the following is the list of accessories I have added over the last year.

I also purchased some specialty equipment for maintenance such as a BMW maintenance CD ROM, a JVB Maintenance DVD, an oil filter wrench, a GS-911 code reader, a Twinmax carb syncronizer, XL peg mounts for my Big Blue Lift, and miscellaneous metric tools I didn’t already have.

The GS was on my Big Blue lift for almost six weeks. I wasn’t working on it all that time. I primarily worked just the weekends.  I ordered parts for the GSA gas tank conversion a little while before I started the maintenance and modification work. I did my 18k service and then installed the Autocom Active Plus, TPS 15, the seat heater switch and relay, and the Stebel horn.  Then I did the canisterectomy and installed the McCruise cruise control.   I completed all this over about three weekends.  No speed records broken here but some of this was uncharted territory for me.

Then I waited for the GSA gas tank conversion parts .  Some of the parts had to come from Germany so that slowed things down. I went ahead and did the Gas Cap Reversal Modification seeing as how I needed to take it all apart to do the tank conversion anyway.  The parts finally came in a couple of weeks later.  I finished up with the gas tank conversion last weekend.

All of this went pretty smoothly with the exception of the GSA gas tank. I consider myself an average backyard mechanic. I wouldn’t recommend installing the cruise control or doing the GSA tank modification if you are mechanically disadvantaged.

You need to do a couple of electrical splices and break into a front brake line for the cruise control installation. So you need to be handy with cutting and soldering wires and also be set up to do the power assisted ABS brake bleed. But the instructions are very good so if you are comfortable in doing your own scheduled maintenance and a soldering iron doesn’t give you nightmares it is not that challenging of a project.

The instructions for the GSA tank conversion lack some of the finer details and there were a couple of things I found were incorrect. Not that I am complaining any because I am thankful that the author pioneered the way and then posted instructions on how he did it. This is something I would probably not risk doing without some guidance and his efforts provided it.

It’s a good thing I have a good hardware store near home .  I think I made seven or eight trips to complete this project. Part of the complication was the Hella Micro DE lights that were already installed.  They interfered with the installation of the GSA gas tank and the new fairing.  I had to fabricate some extension brackets to move the lights forward 2.75” inches. Even then I had to cut notches in the fairing to accommodate the light brackets.

I had a scare after I got the GS back together. I filled the tank with gas and my gas gauge was still reading almost empty.  It acted like I was on the final reserve and the miles to empty kept moving towards zero.  One day it finally got to zero while I was riding it.  I had to park the bike for an appointment and when I came out and started it up the gas gauge read full.  I don’t know if the electronics were confused , the float just came unstuck or what.  It seems to be working correctly now.  At least I didn’t need to pull everything apart to fix it .

I will likely add any other modifications as they are implemented to the table on this page rather then start another list somewhere else. 

JD