Vario Madness - Review, Repair, and Modifications

Vario Madness - Review, Repair, and Modifications
Or, Everything you ever wanted to know about Vario cases, but were afraid to ask.

One of the beautiful things about BMW's Vario cases is that they can be repaired part by part. My case was recently damaged while parked. I ordered the one part that broke and replaced it. It wasn't easy, i made a bunch of mistakes, but I now know how to take apart the entire case and put it back together. On top of that, I also added Bungie Buddies to the top of them. This post is going in to good detail on how to repair them, and touch on modifications you can add to them.

Read More

Sena Prism - Suction Cup Test

Very solid. Impressive mount.

Sunken Mine Road + New riding buddies

Great day riding. Mixed and matched two of my buddies and even added a new one today. The four of us met at a cafe in Dumbo. Had a cup and started up north. We followed a track I found online. Unfortunately the track took us through the Bronx local streets to get up to cold spring harbor. Wasted time. Lesson learned.Once we got up there it was awesome. We hit some dirt roads and some winding smooth roads. Great mix. It was freezing and I'm pretty sure I convinced my buddies to invest in heated gear. It even flurried on us a bit. Looking forward to the next ride with the same crew.

Edit: I realized this is very close to where i camped this past summer. Looking forward to camping here again now that i know about these dirt roads.

BMW Half Cover

My last bike got pretty dusty over night in its usual parking spot (under a concrete porch). I found this great bmw cover that fits with side and top cases on, and just covers the top of the bike. image

Click on for more photos and description….

I got it from A&S BMW, and its inexpensive to start. They have an nice chart showing you different bmw models, and if you have top/side cases or not to figure out what size to get.

It comes in a nice little flat pouch. I didn’t realize at first that the pouch it comes in is actually the cover. You open the pouch up and the cover unfolds from it. When you are done, you fold it back in to itself. I actually took the lazy sleeping bag packing method when packing it back up. I just kept shoving it back in to itself… so now the pouch isn’t so flat anymore.. it gots a little belly now.

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

image

Break In, and Cruising Speed

I’m still in my first few hundred miles. around 250. I’m trying to keep it under 5000 rpm for now, and not accelerating hard. I’m also trying to vary the speed of the engine, as the manual says to not let the engine stay at the same speeds during break in….

I’m going to take it for the 600 mile check up soon, and after that I’m going to start breaking it in my way. slowly but surely raising the rpm higher and higher over time. slow steady progression, letting the engine open up and breathe. i actually do this every time i ride or drive anything, i slowly run through all the gears, and with each time going through, ill pull higher in to the rpm’s then letting it wind down naturally. after a few times doing it the engine is more prepared to run through all the way, while being quicker to respond to the throttle.

on that note, since I’m staying under 5k rpm, i wanted to talk about cruising speeds. when researching the bike I read some people say that the bikes vibration gets more intense over 5000 rpm. to me that sounded fine, if I’m on the streets running through the gears i don’t mind extra vibration, but i was nervous about cruising speeds on the highway and vibration. 

on the 650, 5000 rpm in top gear (5th) would have me at 70mph. my ideal cruising speed is 75/80. it turns out that on the F700, cruising at 5000 rpm in top gear (6th), we are at 85 mph. thats above where i need to be, meaning that my ideal cruising speed turns out to be lower then 5000 rpm.

im not sure what the vibrations like above 5000 rpms yet, but i will within a week or so.

one more thing i have to add in here, i LOVE this bike : )

Leaving Thumper Town: A Great Ride

tumblr_n1ps68esur1sj2sgqo2_1280.jpg

Well… The time has come. Thumper is sold. A little less then a year and I loved every day of it. I couldn’t have asked for a better *first year riding. The little asterisk is because I actually rode for 6 months when I was 17 but we won’t count that.

This bike has been perfect in NYC. Perfectly light weight to learn how to properly maneuver Manhattans craziness. Perfect suspension for it. Great for Sunday rides. Loved every minute.

Thanks so much for being so reliable and fun. So happy we documented so much of this together. Hope you enjoy your new owner. He seems like a cool dude. Tune in next week for some potentially exciting news on the city gs front.