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First Trip

 
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CaptainBalrog
Brick Rider


Joined: 14 Jul 2018
Posts: 38

PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:25 am    Post subject: First Trip Reply with quote

Yo!

So some may have noticed i got a K1100LT recently.

Me and the missus loaded it up the weekend before last and headed for Rewind North festival.

It was about 480 miles total.

The bike was really good. Comfortable for a good hour and forty down to Dublin and then another hour and forty-ish to the festival. So almost three and a half hours in one day and i didn't end up walking like John Wayne.

Upsides are:
- Loads of luggage space for tent, cooking gear, clothes ect
- Comfortable for to fairly large people over long distance
- Plenty of overtaking power
- not too loud at motorway speeds
- lots of wind protection
- no sitting in traffic. would have missed our ferry if we'd been in the car. i just wouldn't drive a car if i lived in England!

Downsides are:
- Toasted left leg
- indicator cancel button very irritating
- not a vast amount of knee room and I'm only just six feet tall
- high fuel consumption? (Not totally sure because i've never owned a big bike like this. But 140 miles or so to a tank that costs £20 to fill? Get much better fuel economy out of my octavia!)
- related to previous - seems a gear short. Revving high at 80-90 mph!
- gearbox is incredibly clunky. Like a car gearbox on a bike. Got used to it but it's weird. Never been on a motorcycle forum that had a thread on how to make the thing change gear properly before.

It looks like a lot of downsides but actually i love the bike. It's really unique. Never been on anything remotely similar. When i started looking for a bike for me and the wife to take to Europe i was thinking old 1990s ZX10 maybe so this is a radical departure.

Sadly i don't think we'll be doing the touring on the bike. We thought it would be considerably cheaper than taking the car but given the unexpectedly high fuel costs the car is probably cheaper overall. I put £80 in the bike over the whole trip and we did 480 odd miles. My car does about that to a single tank and it costs less than £60 to fill it!

So in the end what i have is a large, strange toy that i absolutely love but don't quite know what to do with. And if anyone knows how to improve the fuel economy please do let me know.
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Flying Duck
PsyKotic Waterfowl


Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Posts: 10082
Location: Bumf***, WA

PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, the mileage falls off of a cliff when you get up around 80 MPH and above.

Run 75-140 gear oil with some moly additive and it will shift more smoothly.
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Mike d
Mad Brick Rider


Joined: 19 Feb 2010
Posts: 130
Location: Daventry UK

PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
We thought it would be considerably cheaper than taking the car but given the unexpectedly high fuel costs the car is probably cheaper overall. I put £80 in the bike over the whole trip and we did 480 odd miles.



But you will have to factor in all those tickets for the missed ferries. Razz

My K1100LT gearbox is the best BMW box I have used. If you think they are clunky, try an airhead boxer. Use the oil Duck has suggested (even without the Moly additive it should make a difference). I used that grade to improve the box on my R1150RT.

Mike
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Corkboy
Mad Brick Rider


Joined: 26 Aug 2013
Posts: 81
Location: Cork, Ireland

PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And you missed us all in Stradbally on Saturday. Crying or Very sad John was down from Belfast, myself and Olaf up from Cork, and Ringfad and two others from Dublin. Will came from Waterford.

Breakfast in Stradbally then 11's in Mountmellek.

As Duck said, keep it under 80 and you will get 200 from a tank. They do like to rev (it isn't a car), and changing up at higher revs (around 4000+ ) smoothens out the box.

Have a look over at the k100 forum, we are organising a weekend Up North at the end of September.
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CaptainBalrog
Brick Rider


Joined: 14 Jul 2018
Posts: 38

PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 7:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Roger that!

I'll keep an eye out.

I got the oil so i'll change that at the weekend. Cheers for that Duck
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