{"id":592,"date":"2019-05-14T19:55:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T19:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bmwmotorcycles.local\/news_rss\/dont-let-neglect-sting-you\/"},"modified":"2025-03-30T21:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T01:16:11","slug":"dont-let-neglect-sting-you-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/dont-let-neglect-sting-you-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t let neglect sting you"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife isn\u2019t that into motorcycles. She doesn\u2019t mind going for a ride every now and again, and I\u2019ve even gotten her to go on a few weekend trips. It\u2019s OK, because it gives us something to talk about that I\u2019m excited about and she can nod and mutter \u201cYes, that\u2019s nice,\u201d and we both feel like there\u2019s been a conversation.\n<\/p>\n

At breakfast one morning in October, she said, \u201cWe should go for a ride. Maybe even go away for the weekend in the sidecar.\u201d My mind filled with options, plans, routes and ideas. We talked about it for 15 minutes before she had to leave for work, and I resolved to move my rig out from under the tree where it slumbered all summer, go put some fresh gas in it, and get it ready for a weekend jaunt.\n<\/p>\n

Imagine my surprise and dismay when, at the stop sign at the end of my street, I discovered my front brakes were completely non-functional. Gone. One hundred percent useless. Luckily, I live in a rural neighborhood, so nobody cared (or hit me) when I blew past the stop sign while relying solely on the rear brake to halt my forward progress.\n<\/p>\n

Disappointment was the word of the day, but we\u2019re both glad I discovered the defect before hitting the highway. When I got safely back to my driveway, I scolded myself for not doing TCLOCKS or SCMODS or whatever it\u2019s called when you give your bike the once-over before riding off. You can go ahead and scold me for it, too, but I have a bad habit–as I suspect many of you do as well\u2014of just getting on the bike, starting the engine and riding off. Lesson learned.\n<\/p>\n

Back in the driveway, in the harsh light of day and without the covers on the rig, I could clearly see the telltale signs of leaked brake fluid on the right side panel. Not just a few drops, either, but a lot of it. Just to be sure, I took the cover off the master cylinder and sure enough, there wasn\u2019t any brake fluid left in there at all. I pumped the lever a few times and\u2026nothing. Dollar signs flashed before my eyes as I wondered what a new master cylinder would cost (p\/n 32 72 7 650 773, $536.89), and I shed a single tear at the prospect of all that brake fluid ruining my beautiful paint.\n<\/p>\n

First things first, though. A call to the number on the back of my MOA Membership Card triggered my Roadside Assistance plan, and I remain grateful for the 100-mile towing aspect of the MOA\u2019s Roadside Assistance program. After the 87-mile tow to the shop\u2014which, by the way, we have renamed from Beemers Uber Alles to Gridlock Motors for a variety of reasons\u2014my boss, George Mangicaro, seemed nonplussed. \u201cYeah, this happens,\u201d he said. \u201cHow long was the bike sitting?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Shamefully, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d was all I could answer.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen\u2019s the last time you flushed the brake fluid?\u201d was his follow-up question.\n<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t even make eye contact with him at that point. It\u2019s that old adage about seeing doctors smoking at a hospital: we always tend to take better care of our clients, customers or patients than we do of ourselves. I would never let a customer leave the shop without reminding them to \u201chave that brake fluid flushed in a year!\u201d but apparently, I don\u2019t follow my own advice. Looking back through my maintenance log, I discovered the last time the brake fluid got flushed my 1998 K 1200 RS was in April 2015, when George modified the bike so I could use the handlebars from a K 1200 GT to get a little more steering leverage for the heavy rig. I didn\u2019t need to look at a calendar to know I\u2019d blown past even BMW\u2019s recommended brake fluid service interval of two years by a year and a half.\n<\/p>\n

It was no surprise to discover that the reason my brake fluid leaked out was because the rubber rotted out of my master cylinder. My apologies for the wretched photo, but even in a blurry photo you can see the damage done internally by the old, crusty brake fluid.\n<\/p>\n

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Lucky for me, we\u2019d taken in a number of parts bikes in the last year before moving the shop, so we happened to have a clean used master cylinder in a bin. (Luckier for me, George organized everything from the old shop before he moved, so he knew exactly which bin to look in to find it!) In just a couple of hours, my rig had functional front brakes again, and I\u2019ve learned an important lesson all over again.\n<\/p>\n

You see, this isn\u2019t my first battle with motorcycle neglect. You may remember a column not long ago in which I encouraged all of you to avoid using cheap parts. I was specifically referring to the KTM shop that put low-pressure fuel lines on my fuel-injected 2007 990 Adventure, something that ended with me stranded on the side of the road due to a burst fuel line. The reason the shop put those low-pressure fuel lines on in the first place was because that bike had been seriously neglected; its previous owner, a friend of mine who unfortunately passed away not long after we made the deal, left that poor KTM outside in Iowa under a cover for about two and half years. When I got the bike home, I quickly discovered a dozen or more things needing attention to deal with rot, cracking, rust and more.\n<\/p>\n

That lesson didn\u2019t even sink in fully, which is why my poor K 12 RS sidecar rig suffered such an ignominious fate. Fortunately, you can learn from my mistake and make it one of your New Year\u2019s Resolutions not to neglect your motorcycle(s). You can achieve that goal (and make a habit of it) by using some of these pointers.\n<\/p>\n