Early Oct. 2000 Fuel Consumption notes: In Athens with 80% in light to heavy traffic use, the BMW R1100GS consumed… 27lt for 391km. That is one of the worst fuel consumptions I have noticed so far, meaning 14.5 km / lt! Do you know what this means in €? At 0.85€/lt unleaded fuel the cost is 0.0586 €/km. Quite high.

12/10/2002 this morning was ‘wet’ again; you see, it had rained last weekend also and grounded me in Athens. In the morning the rain was coming down like a waterfall, at noon the same T-storms continued and at 14:00 hrs when my friend John came over it was still drizzling. We got into the Internet and checked out once more the weather over the area we wanted to travel / visit. It showed a clear path to us between 14:30 and 22:00hrs for the small journey we wanted to make. The schedule was to visit Lake Yliki and its East side all the way to the seashore. It was the first time that John and I would visit this specific area. So we started with the drizzle and the wet roads to get to the Nat. Road Athens – Lamia. Until Ag. Stefanos (St. Stefan) area the drizzle had stopped but the road was wet (we needed to clean our helmet visors several times by hand). We turned into the Old Nat. Road where the speeds are lower and the sightseeing has more… ‘visibility’! By the time we traveled another 5km the roads were dry and clean. The weather site in the Internet was accurate once more. Please advise it when you visit/travel in Greece: http://forecast.uoa.gr/forecastnew.html

My two months experience with it shows that the site is very good. It will also make your life much easier and assist you with better traveling weather conditions schedule.

Lets go back to my story now. At the 85^th km of Athens – Lamia Nat. Road (+/- 500m.) watch out for the exit of Thiva. You get out this exit and DO NOT GO towards Thiva but the opposite way to Mouriki. Actually at the exit you will also see a small sign that has Mouriki written on it. You will reach Mouriki in 6km. At Mouriki follow the signs for Skroponeria (NOT the signs for Loukisia).

It is a beautiful drive next to the Yliki Lake while on your right hand you will see and smell the plantation fields along with the green short hills that fill the picture on the horizon. This is a drive of aprox. 10-12 km from Mouriki. At the end of this drive (when you start seeing the sea front) make a left at the intersection for Skroponeria. The sea view is unbelievable on your right hand side. Once you reach Skroponeria (aprox. 6km) you can eat at the taverna near the main road, or go first for a nice swim at the clean waters of this village. Enjoy your time there. The waters are clean and the good food at very reasonable prices. The taverna during the winter (Oct.-April) is open only on weekends. Also for our ON-OFF friends there is a dirt road from Skroponeria that goes to Kastro (Kastro is aprox. at the 107km Athens – Lamia). The drive is ~14km of dirt road first and 10km of pavement road to Kastro.

On the way back you can either go the way you originally followed or at the intersection of Skroponeria make a LEFT and follow the seashore road back to the old bridge of Chalkida and then on to the Nat. Road to Athens. You will find more great tavernas on the way to Chalkida (which is only 16km away).

14/10/2002 Got a flat front tire! Got the road assistance to pump up air into the front tubeless tire (30 psi.) and drove the GS immediately to the tire shop. By the time I reached the tire shop – 4 km away- the tire pressure was down to 15 psi. I strongly suggest not loading the bike on the ramp of the road assistance truck (if you can avoid it). The GS weights over 250 kg., does not roll up the ramp easily with a flat tire and last but NOT LEAST you have to double check that the bike is securely strapped onto the ramp and the GSs’ side stand. Remember some GS have a short side stand! Also, always remember to place the engine in first gear.

15/10/2002 At 58,400 km changed the rear break shoe pads although they had a minimum of another 1,500 km to get to the… metal rear disk. I also got the chance to change the break fluid with BOSH DOT 4 front and back break linings. Noticed that the rear break fluid in the reservoir was a little off color (in comparison with the color of the new break fluid). The front reservoir break fluid was not in a necessary state to change, but did it anyway. Note: Keep in mind that one way of telling the wear of the break pads is reading the level (min.-max.) of the break fluid. When you install new break pads the level of the break fluid should always reach / refill to the maximum reading on the reservoir.

If you decide to change / replace your break fluid without changing the break pads, then mark (with a small paper tab or a post-it note) on the round little glass (plastic reservoir for the rear GS break) the fluid level you had originally in and make sure you refill to the exact same level again.

I believe this is one way where you do not have to become a… monkey every time you want to see the status of the break shoe pad wear. Just look at the min. and max. levels on the break fluid reservoirs. Look down at the actual pad wear once the break fluid level starts reaching the min. on the break fluid reservoir. Any additional comments you might have on this subject would be appreciated. Is the thought right?