Welcome Aboard !

In checking over your new ride, there's several Airhead specific and general safety tasks you'll want to complete...

• When you get the bike home you'll want to adjust the valves as one of your first tasks. This is certainly not to disallow any immediate "fun rides" to celebrate your new purchase, simply more of a precaution. These bikes run so long without maintenance that people simply get lax about this important step. And Airhead valves tend to tighten up over time.

• Another one of those out of sight, out of mind items is the air filter. This mainly because rodents tend to built nests inside the front engine cover and air filter cover during long storage. You'll find the bike runs strangely better without 10 lbs of nest material blocking the intake air path !

• While the oil levels in the engine, gearbox and final drive are easy to check, the drive shaft is not. Of course you'll want to check those 3 levels. But go ahead and simply change the drive shaft oil with 150cc of gear oil. I find a plastic baby bottle helps with this measurement task.

• These bikes are loved so much that they tend to stick around long after the owners quit riding them. This leads to the long storage periods mentioned above. This means the tires can be so old as to be unsafe to ride. Check the sidewalls for a circle with a 2 or 4 digit number signifying the year of manufacture. Tires older than 8 years should probably be retired. No pun intended.

• Lastly, use the highest grade of fuel available to you. BMW would like you to use a first rate fuel with a cleaner. Check out: www.toptiergas.com/ . You may also wish to add a cap full of StarTron fuel conditioner to help clean out the residues of long term storage.

Next time you post we want to see photos of you enjoying your new ride far, far from home !

All the best.

Thanks Wobbly - looking forward to getting the bike, getting the initial checks done, and getting a ride or two in before the snow flies!

Finished the deal on the bike, looks even better in person than in the photos. Runs like a Swiss watch, very impressed overall...am having the tires replaced, as the current ones are old and cheap. Somebody put some time, effort & money in the bike; for example the speedo/tach appears to be brand new, as do shocks and many other pieces. Conti Classic Attacks going on it. Once the tires are swapped out I'll have it, probably sometime next week. Got my Clymer's manual too...

Things are shaping up !

Well, good news, really...the bike has its new tires, running like a top, everything working perfectly...tech who rode it loved it...but...a thorough check showed the the rear drive splines are pretty well past it. They'd last a while longer, but not much. As I've learned, not an uncommon issue - so, that's being done as well. New splines (by Siebenrock) going in. Well worth the short delay in getting it home.

Just thinking, with a bike that old several of the greases are going to be oxidized and nearly worthless. If the grease on the splines was past due, then in the weeks ahead you might want to check the wheel bearings, swing arm bearings, and head post bearings too.

Just a thought.

Got the bike home yesterday. Final drive splines replaced, along with all gaskets and seals, new tires (Conti Classic Attacks) and tubes, new final drive fluids. Inspection of the ring gear and bearings was good, no issues there. Bike fires right up & idles well at about 800 rpm...now to get it registered and ridden. Of, course, since I am in Maine, there isn't much riding season left...

Sounds like wonderful progress. I know you're excited to hit the road as soon as the weather clears.

Just make sure to NOT let the bike sit with any ethanol fuel in the tank or carbs while it's idle this winter. The battery is best conserved by disconnecting the Negative lead at the battery post, then limited trickle charging for about 2 hours every month.

Hope this helps.

Will do...on my "modern" BMW's (R1200R and R1200RT) I filled the tank, used Sta-Bil in the gas, ran it for 5 minutes or so to distribute the product through the fuel system, and it worked well. In this case I could just run it dry...no concerns about gaskets, o-rings and seals in the carbs sitting dry all winter?

Great question !

Here's the difference between your 2 bikes....
► Oilhead: The R1200 has electronic fuel injection (EFI). If the fuel becomes of such an age that it is inclined to block small orifii or cause general mayhem, then the fuel pump will push any obstruction out of the way and the bike will crank. If an obstruction persists, the EFI will register the hotter temp due to the leaner condition and the mixture will automatically enrichen to compensate. Then, further running with pressurized name brand fuels will cleanse the remainder of the system during the first 2 rides of the new riding season. So EFI gives no indication of issues, and is basically a self-healing system.

► Airhead: All R-number Boxers have a gravity-fed float bowl. Any blockage or restriction in the filter, petcock, lines, or float mechanism which cannot be overcome by the shear weight of the fuel in the tank will remain exactly as it is: a blockage or restriction to fuel flow. Once in the float bowl, fuel is lifted into the carburetor throat through vacuum via tiny metering jets. The general engineering rule applies here, namely: "vacuum sucks!" The vacuum system works OK with clean jets, but cannot exert enough force on a blockage or restriction to push said impediment out of the way. Therefore, any restriction that occurs will remain a restriction until manually removed. Of course, the smallest jets become blocked first. The smallest jets are the choke and idle jets, the same 2 jets enlisted to crank the engine. Should the Airhead engine somehow crank with restricted flow or blocked jets , the carburetor will continue to run in a lean condition which can lead to engine damage, hard starting, poor performance, and/or elevated engine temps, etc., depending upon the degree of blockage. Again, gravity and vacuum are hardly ever enough to correct a carburetor with more than a 5-10% blockage, and manual cleaning must be employed.

Yes, there is a cost to emptying the entire fuel system for storage.... the float bowl gaskets will most likely need replacing. But this is something Bing gaskets do when the float bowl is removed for longer than 15 minutes at any time of the year. So this is hardly an "extra" cost and is 100% predictable.

In my professional experience, most of the rubber rot seen on intake hoses, diaphragms, and carb o-rings is not from lack of fuel, but rather the very existence of ethanol fuel and/or harsh fuel conditioners. So "No", emptying the fuel system is not going to lead to increased carb part damage.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, appreciate the insight. Haven't done much with carbs since before my military career started in the 70's...ethanol not much of an issue then.

I've got the tank run down to the reserve now. I'm planning to run it down till she dies for lack of fuel, then shut the petcocks and drain the carbs by removing and verifying empty the float bowls. I'll have new gaskets on standby.

Thanks, appreciate the insight. Haven't done much with carbs since before my military career started in the 70's... ethanol not much of an issue then.

You are not alone there ! Most of us had our knowledge base on fuels formed back in the 60's, 70's or 80's. That's why I'm waving the red flag as hard as I can. It's basically to say that due to ethanol, ALL your tricks, assumptions, standard procedures, tweaks, etc, etc for carburetors is now out the window. So you gotta go back to school and learn everything anew.

I've got the tank run down to the reserve now. I'm planning to run it down till she dies for lack of fuel, then shut the petcocks and drain the carbs by removing and verifying empty the float bowls. I'll have new gaskets on standby.

And here's your first lesson.... When you get ready to store the bike for the winter, simply ride the bike to use up as much fuel as you like. Once in the storage area, place a pan under each carb, snap off both float bowls, and turn both petcocks to Reserve. Once you've caught all the fuel in the pans, you can pour that into your car. Then leave the gas cap wide open, both petcocks on Reserve, and both float bowls off for at least a month. The point is, anywhere this fuel sits (tank, petcock, carb) you're going to have trouble. So you must empty it all ! That which you cannot empty, must be allowed to evaporate.

Then, when you're ready to ride again, replace the float bowls, pour in fresh fuel, and ride the bike to the closest good gas station for a fill-up. By "good gas" I mean Top Tier fuels. See: http://www.toptiergas.com/licensedbrands/

Hope this helps.

PS. My most recent customer, with this exact same issue, albeit a slightly exaggerated case, the bill came to $700. Most of this was 12 hours of labor, with less than $50 for plugs, fuel line and gaskets.

Welcome Aboard !

Thought I should post a follow up after the winter's sleep. As recommended last fall I siphoned all the fuel out, pulled the float bowls, and kept the bike dry of fuel and on a charger all winter. A week or so ago I replaced the float bowls with new gaskets, and this AM filled the tank with fresh 93 octane fuel. Disconnected the charger, turned on the petcocks, choke on - bike started virtually IMMEDIATELY and is purring like a kitten. Well worth the trouble to put it to sleep properly - thanks for the solid recommendations!