So.. What's new, here?
Report generated at Tuesday, May 27, 1997
Jan. 09, 1998: How bout some Bimmer jokes?!
Jan. 09, 1998: What's new of my Beemer? I installed an Ermax fairing screen and I crashed! :-))

After a thorough wash, in my garden...
The riding position is very comfortable in city use. Unfortunately, I have yet to see a road out of than the city limits!
The Nonfango 46 lt. topcase proved to be watertight and can easily hold two fullface helmets in it.
Not much really! As you remember, this bike was bought used with 14700 kms on it already. At 15000 kms, I bought an original oil filter and three liters of Bel-Ray 20W50 semi synthetic oil, and changed them on my own, using the bike's tools.
Thanks to the photos and instructions found at Mr. Jowitt's site, (and missing from the owner's manual!) the task ended flawlessly. After that, however, I bought ETAI's expensive (...at 9000 drs) service manual, and now I'm learning... French!

Some notes:

The owner's manual does not show how to change the oil and oil filter, leaving this to the service personnel! The hard task of cleaning the air filter element is also missing! The only bad thing is that while the bike needs only 2.1 lt. of oil, you actually have to buy 3 lt. for a change (with oil filter change) and have the rest of the 3rd lt. hanging around in the garage. Oil consumption so far is negligible, 1500 km after the oil change.

The crash protection bars made removing the oil filter cap a bit difficult! I had to remove the left footpeg and loosen almost all the bolts holding the bars in place, to make removing it easier...

During the oil change, I noticed a tiny oil leak just above the engine cases, on the right side. After cleaning the parts, a tiny oil drip started to show up at the same place after 3-4 days' worth hard running...

After all the hassle, I removed the crash bars, altogether. The oil and filter change, however where not the only reason that forced me to do it. When entering my narrow garage door with the BMW, the crash bars would scratch against the door's frame at either side! After getting the bike some times in and out of the garage, the crash bars had small scratch marks on both sides! But the most serious reason was that while the bars seemed perfectly suited to this bike, they had an initial design flaw: Their lowest mounting point was at the driver's footrests. This presented me with a peculiar problem: The bars forced my feet to touch the footrests on their outer third only. While trying to change gear or use the rear brake, these moves required my feet to reach strange and painful angles. I will not miss those cheap and small halogen lights the previous owner had mounted, since there was no place to mount them again without the bars. Anyway, they were of little use; they were lighting just the front wheel from either side!

Finding the air filter element required the removal of the battery, some electrical equipment from the air filter cover (the flasher unit etc) and finally the cover itself. The F650 air filter is the classic foam material and its service is as easy as cleaning it with some kitchen light soap, lettting it dry and then lightly oil it with motor oil (...from the 0.9 lt. that was left from the oil change!!!).

Some notes on performance...

There has been a change of the drive gears and chain, sometime in its life. The new chain has already used its first third of life, leaving me to use it for another 3-4000 kms, with easy use (no wheelies, no burnouts etc!). However, the front sprocket has been changed to a 15 tooth one, from the standard sized 16t. This has good effects and bad effects: It limits the top speed to around 160 km/h (100mph) at the redline (7500 rpm), while 120 km/h (75 mph) comes at a slightly buzzing 5200-5300 rpm. The good effect is in acceleration! It can do 0-150 better than many! How did I measure this? I had one night a small drag race with a (probably modified) yellow Punto GT. No, it wasn't my wife in my car but a fellow driver who wanted to see how fast it'd go! So, I left him standing there, outaccelerated him to 100 km/h and by reaching 150 km/h he finally started to come close! At that time we both let go...

Fuel consumption is lower than that of my previous bike, the 2-stroke Yamaha DT200R, when considering the oil for it. The tank holds 17.5 lt. of fuel, according to the manual, 2 of which are "reserve". Each time I hit "reserve", I immediately fill it up with around 13 to 14 lt. This usually lasts for 200-225 kms, according to use...

And the funny thing...

After 19 years riding motorcycles with only a kickstart and no electric starter, this happened, on my second or the third day with the BeeEm: I was at the front row, in one of the most crowded streets, in the center of Athens, waiting at a traffic light. The light turns green, I grab the clutch, push first gear into place, release the clutch, do not open the throttle the bike stalls! I quietly start searching with my right foot for the kick lever, but there's none! I think: "It has stuck, let's find it by hand". This happened often to the DT... While reaching for it, I realise there's NO kickstart! God! What will I do now? And the taxi driver behind is beeping! And then, it struck me: This one's got an electric starter! :-) Needless to say, I was laughing at me all the way home, inside my fullface helmet!

A few days later, the bike began to stall after a few minutes of hard riding... I reached for the spark plugs... They were rotten at their tops, outside. Inside, they were perfect... After changing them both, to normal NGK D8EA's, it never happened again, and the bike even feels easier to cold start every morning...

The tires, after 1800 kms, look like new, and they seem to have good handling, even in those ice-like slippery like roads of Athens! So far so good... The BMW has reached 16500 kms, and the only thing I really miss nowadays is a higher windscreen... Two candidates are there for it: The french Ermax and the italian Givi. One of these days, I'll let you know...
Let's go back to the BMW start...
my crash...
the Ermax screen
bimmer jokes anyone?!
...or to the bike start...
or... to the Summer 2000 trip preparation!