{"id":9035,"date":"2026-01-02T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/?p=9035"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:08:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:08:59","slug":"bonus-nice-day-in-early-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/bonus-nice-day-in-early-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonus nice day in early January"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ride end @ 64,530 (18 miles)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve officially ridden over 100 miles on the R 90\/6! Today I was just running errands. Had to take three packages to the post office and return an Amazon purchase at Kohl\u2019s. The return was a total shit show. After that I picked up lunch from our favorite Asian fusion place before coming home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bike ran well, temp maxed out at 40\u00b0 F today. The first start on a cold morning seems tough; I need to ask George if I\u2019m doing anything wrong or could be doing something better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(FOOTNOTE: George is George Mangicaro, owner of Gridlock Motors, an independent BMW motorcycle repair shop. He is my mentor and has been for a number of years. I worked in the front office of the shop for about three years before I moved away from Northern Virginia and most of the work you&#8217;ll read about in this blog took place at his shop, under his expert tutelage and often with his blessings. George is an incredibly important character in the story of my year with the 1976 R 90\/6.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being slower to accelerate is providing more opportunities to discover assholes on the road. I\u2019m finding all of them, it seems, and there are more of them than I realized when I was riding a modern bike with vastly better acceleration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The turn signal button baffles me. It\u2019s on the right control unit, operated by the thumb. Press it up for the left turn signal, down for the right. George says to think of it as pressing down on the switch to indicate a right turn mimics countersteering by pressing on the right grip to initiate a right turn. Then the other direction (up) has to be the other indicator (left). Logical and simple, but still baffling. I haven\u2019t hit the starter button (which is right next to the turn signal switch) with the bike running yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_right_buttons.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9037 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"735\" height=\"735\" src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_right_buttons.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9037 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_right_buttons.jpg 735w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_right_buttons-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_right_buttons-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><I>All the buttons on the right hand controls. The red switch is the &#8220;kill switch,&#8221; the rocker switch next to it is for the starter. The rocker on the bottom is for the turn signals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I think the front suspension needs tweaked. It\u2019s coming back up too fast after a hard bump. I think that\u2019s the rebound damping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I really need to install the Brown side stand. Almost dropped the bike in the slightly slanted Kohl\u2019s parking lot. The design of the stock side stand\u2014the so-called \u201cride off\u201d unit\u2014is just abysmal. Unsafe at any speed! The dude who thought this thing up should be dug up from his grave and forced to help Airhead riders pick up their fallen bikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_left_buttons.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9036 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"735\" height=\"735\" src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_left_buttons.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9036 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_left_buttons.jpg 735w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_left_buttons-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_left_buttons-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><I>The buttons on the left hand controls. The yellow rocker switch is broken and swings freely; normally it would allow you to turn the headline on and off. My headlight appears to be hard-wired into the on position. The rocker switch next to it beeps the horn. The rocker at the bottom is for the high\/low beam on the headlight; pressing in on the top flashes the high beam. The red and silver stickers have replaced the &#8220;high\/low&#8221; markings, which wore off no doubt years ago.<\/I><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Expecting shit weather for the next 10 days to two weeks, so I\u2019m probably done riding for a while. I\u2019ll be looking at heated glove liners, battery-powered ones, in the meantime. I can handle a cold torso, but cold hands and fingers are just dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just realized I forgot to check the oil before I got on the road. Whoops!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_jan2-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9034 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_jan2-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9034 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_jan2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_jan2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_jan2-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_jan2-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wes_r90_jan2-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><i>Some of my gear as I stopped to pick up Chinese and Thai food for my wife and myself. <a href=\"https:\/\/schuberth.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/schuberth.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Schuberth<\/a> C5 helmet, <a href=\"https:\/\/firstgear-usa.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/firstgear-usa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">First Gear<\/a> D3O winter gloves and one custom-molded ear plug.<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve officially ridden over 100 miles on the R 90\/6!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-riding-without-cruise-control"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bmwmoa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}