Setting Off and Meeting Up With the Group

There were 4 of us going on the first section and we were meeting another 2 from the US in Landeck, Austria.  It was to be an early start as the train was booked for just after 7:00 am and we needed to complete about 450 miles from  Calais to Karlsruhe in Germany where we were booked into the Novotel.

 

I kept up with the crew and enjoyed the motorway blast.

The next day we set off for Landeck in Austria. We had booked into a motor cycle hotel there called the Hotel Enzian.

Windshield On and Final Test Drives Before the Trip

After the suspension servicing, I took the bike for another high speed spin.  And the wallowing was still there, although with the thicker fork oil, it was reduced.  I came back and added another 25cc of oil mixture to each fork leg and took off again.  This time the wallowing was almost gone.  Much better.

My touring windscreen arrived and went straight on:

It has an adjustable section with about 5 inches of up and down movement so you can tune it to your preference.

And the new thicker fork oil is staying inside the forks.  I did do the seal cleaning trick with a piece of plastic.

Getting Ready to Ride

Only 2 days to go now before I set off for my 2,500 mile trip to France, Germany, Austria, Italy and home.  I'm just hoping that I will not have any failures that will hold up the rest of the group on their modern BMWs.  So a few more things to do.  First off was to drain the fork oil and replace it.

I was surprised to discover varying amounts of oil in the 2 legs.  One side had 290 cc and the other had 325 cc. But one side has always appeared slightly oilier on the stanchion, which may account for it.  New seals are clearly needed.

Firstly I replaced the oil with standard 10W fork oil.  I took the bike for a ride and nearly ended up with a serious tank slapper.  The handing had deteriorated considerably.  With some helpful advice I decided to change out the 10W oil for a mix of 50/50 10W-40W and ATF.  

This is what this concoction looks like:

I made absolutely sure the correct amount was in each leg.  It doesn't taste very good:

I also checked the springs against some others I had and they look good.  Still up to length:

I then also swopped over the rear suspension with a newly refurbished set of air shocks off a latter model GS1100G.