Mac
Kirkpatrick purchased it on 1/4/89 from John & Rhonda McLaughlin, Palm
Harbor, FL for $4100 with 6000 miles on it.
With bags and mounts, electric outlet, dual horns
and flashers.
Over the
years, Mac Kirkpatrick added
-
Corbin
seat (blue piping to match BMW Roundel)
-
Used top
box.
-
K75 knee
pads on tank.
-
Heated
grips.
-
Rear
rack.
-
Stainless
steel front and rear brake lines.
-
Ferrodo
pads. (Later went to Dunlop pads.)
-
Fork
boots by Rancho suspension.
-
Fox
Shock. (replaced by DJE with a WIlbers shock)
-
SOS
Priority lights.
-
New
speedometer, adjusted odometer mileage to reflect true mileage.
-
Installed
ETM headlight modulator. (ETM ="Emergency Traffic Mover".
Basically a police car headlight modulator modified for use as a
headlight-modulator. This eliminated the need to have a DOT mandated
bulky device on the
handlebar to sense when dusk arrived.) (DJE
removed this and all remnants of the wiring for it - it was
replaced with a KisanTech modulator)
-
Modified
throttle switch. (Enriches sooner as throttle opens.)
-
Keyed,
newer style bag locks, match ignition.
-
Pin
stripes by Kent Holt. Blue color meant to match the blue color in the BMW roundel. (Holt also did all the paint on the bike)
-
Installed
dual horns again. Not sure why.
-
Front
and rear running lights.
-
K
& N air filter. (this was replaced with a stock filter by DJE)
-
Polished
stainless
nuts & bolts. Custom made valve and crankcase cover bolts and "washer" on front axle.
-
Big
valves, milled head, ported and polished head (at 35,335 miles).
-
Modified
center stand to clear wider rear rim. Powder coated center stand.
-
Grease
fittings on side and center stand. (Some parts from K1).
-
Installed
fuel and temperature gauges.
-
Muffler
heat shield repainted by Kent Holt.
-
100/60
headlight bulb.
-
Glass
beaded footpeg mounts to make all metal color, no paint.
-
(Polished
part of the footpeg brackets, alternating every other
"flat" . Made bike more symmetrical/even with polished rims.)
-
Added
ABS. BIG job.
-
Front
forks powder coated.
-
Jerry
Sullivan of Vacaville, CA polished the rims, including the insides of the wheel spokes (dirty intensive job.) The wider rims
are for a '91 K100RS 4 valve
-
Radial
steel Metzelers installed. 60 series on rear..
-
Installed
a 700 watt alternator from a K100RS before the KRS was sold.
-
Valve
and crankcase covers bead blasted. Ribs and logos polished.
Mac
sold it to
Klaus Hueneke on 10/12/00 with 44,300 miles on it. Included bags, bag
liners, tank bag and top box. Klaus sold it to me on 08/20/02 with
almost exactly 45,000
miles on it (300 of which were my miles on it in Canada)
So far
I've done, or ordered:
-
New
windshield - old one has star cracks around the mounting holes
-
Changed
all fluids
-
New
battery by Klaus (the old one went dead in Canada)
-
Installed
HeatTroller from Gerbing for electric jacket liner
-
Polish,
polish, polish by hand with 3M Mirror Glaze, followed by Simonize
-
Repair
of wiring - mechanics are awful when it comes to electronics
-
Rear
driveshaft lube. Looked fine, was dry but not worn
-
Clutch
adjustment - cured a rough shifting tranny
-
FuelPlus+
computer going in (it's here - will do in a week or so)
-
Reflective
thingies added to rear bags (photo) - no stickers on these bags.
-
Replaced
alternator drive rubbers (monkey nutz)
-
Coolant/thermostat
change and flush
-
WIlbers
shock installed
Update
10/11/2002
-
Replaced
radiator with no-miles spare (wasn't actually needed)
-
Added
Kisan-Tech headlight modulator to replace the one past owner had
installed
-
Did
spline lube - clutch and driveshaft. Splines in excellent condition
Update
11/28/2002
-
Miles
on it now 47,200 +
-
Adjusted
steering head bearings - they were close, but not quite right
-
Installed
CC Products cover over the fuel rail (keeps it clean and makes it look
clean)
-
Installed
the Fuel Plus+ a while back (Brian Curry came over, and he loves doing
this job)
-
Replaced
coolant temp sensor (was reading wacky)
-
Installed headlight relays
- was getting 1.0V drop between the headlight high-beam (60/55w) and
the battery. Am now getting 0.10V drop and lots more light.
-
Added
GS style handguards for winter riding
-
Added
bubble mirrors (1.5"D) to mirrors - cured the lane visibility
problem on the slab
-
Added
3M StoneGard to the leading edge of the belly pan - this is an area
where rock chips love to form. It is really hard to see the 3M stuff
once it's installed right (cost was $10.. way cheaper than a repaint
and pinstriping, and since the paint was redone not long ago - it's
currently perfect). Took about 10 minutes to apply
once I made a pattern and cut them out.
Planning
to do (two weeks in January)
-
Rear
wheel has a slight wobble - send to get straightened.
-
Figure
out which front rotor has a warp in it - straighten or replace
( UPDATE: have checked the rotors and 'adjusted' them - they are now
perfect, but pulsing remains. I've ordered new stock pads, and will
try to expose a new surface on the rotors before installing the new
pads. I believe there are some hard-spot deposits on the rotors
causing the pulsing feeling - which can't be felt in the brake lever
itself.)
-
Get
tank bag rebuild (again) by Bob Weis
-
Replace
pad on bars - have a slightly longer one which will fill a 1/2"
gap at each end (for refinishing these pads)
-
Check
timing - it is supposed to advanced, but given the dyno
runs done vs. Brian Curry's bike - I suspect it isn't.
Done
by 01/31/03
-
Installed
a new version (actually a retro-mod done for me by Dave W) of the
Fuel+. Apparently the Iron-Butt people (who love Dave's projects)
wanted an average mileage indication that took into account the time
from when the engine is first started during a 24 hour period, and the
last time it is shut off. This average includes non-running time (for
fuel stops, food breaks).
This made it useless for checking on the Ev value (37.5MPH
average speed = 1 Eilenvector). I liked the older design where it only
averaged the speed during engine running interval. Dave made me up a
new Fuel+ that did this like the older ones did.
-
Ordered
new Braking rotors for the front. Nothing else I tried has worked.
Will be installing them next week. (See below)
-
Sent
tankbag to Bob Weis for a rework and custom modification. When I get
it back, I'll post details on the modification.
-
The pad
for the bars is ready to go on - but haven't had time to pull the tank
to disconnect all the switches. Soon..
-
Bought a
used Garmin GPS III+ and made a mount for it. See details here
Done by
02/16/03
-
Tankbag
is back from Bob Weis - as usual, an excellent job. It was modified so
I can fill the tank by flipping the bag back on the seat, instead of
having it hang off a zipper to the side. Will post photos if it ever
stops snowing (I hate snow! 3 weeks without a ride, and 1-2' of the
stuff coming tonight) UPDATE - see link to right on
the modification results.
-
Next
week came - and ended with a snow-day, so what to do?
I replaced the brake rotors with the Braking semi-floating rotors.
After lots of tries to fix the old rotors (including several visits to
local machinists who are at least willing to try) - I gave up and
replaced them. See LINK here with
Braking rotors. I also replaced the stock pads
(almost new) with Braking pads - which seem to give a bit more 'bite'
on initial use, and there is no more pulsing.
Update as of 04/18/03
-
Installed a Philips Vision-Plus headlight bulb. Had
to order it from England since it isn't sold in the US. It is
noticeably brighter than the stock bulb, but still rated at 55/60W. A
big improvement in nighttime vision.
-
Replaced the entire wiring harness. The old harness
has been damaged by a faulty electrical installation done by the
past-owners mechanic. Although I repaired it at the time, on a K
harness, without complete disassembly, you never can be certain you've
found all the problems. I had noticed some odd electrical 'glitches' -
making me not trust the old harness, so it got replaced.
A used harness was found via a posting to the IBMWR list - cost was
very reasonable compared to new. The work, from start to finish -
including some Lily Gilding took about 16 hours. The new harness
seems to work just fine.
-
New seat - a rebuilt Corbin seat is being made by
Sargent. No extreme modifications, but hopefully it will be more
comfortable than the Corbin on the bike now. (See below - it was MUCH
MUCH WORSE) The current one has
hardened up with age and makes itself known after about 3 hours of
riding.
-
I've also purchased a set of fork-mount light
brackets used from someone on the IBMWR list. These were made by
Martin Fabrication, mount using the reflector/fender mounting bolts,
and are made to take PIAA lights. With some quality time spent on the
polishing wheel - they are fairly attractive. I'm going shopping for
some PIAA clone lights to give them a try. Photos of the result can be
seen here.
UPDATE - 09/10/03
-
As of right now - it
has 52,000 some miles on it. Roughly 7,000 since I got it a year ago.
-
I have made a few more changes:
-
Before going to Charleston, I had Tim
Bond (Bondo) straighten a slight wobble that was in the back rim.
This wobble (about 1/8") was the cause of a hands-off wobble that
started at about 50MPH and continued up to about 70MPH. Tim did a
great job (highly recommended - and he is an IBMWR member and BMW
rider.)
Tim's
website <- click here. Tim managed to work around an odd schedule
I had (I was going to England for 2 weeks and sent the wheel the day
before I left, and had it back at a friends shop to put new rubber on
it - they day before I returned - NO downtime at all), plus his work
was terrific and price was great.
-
I installed new Metzeler MZ4's on front
and rear. Nice confidence inspiring tire - worked well in the rain
going to Charleston, and never have given me any reason to regret
buying them.
-
After riding about 800 miles total from NJ
to Charleston WV and back - I decided the stock bars are a tad painful
for me. So I swapped in a set of C bars. You can click on the photo on
the right for how it looks.
-
At Charleston I had the pin-striping
touched up. Looks great now.
-
I've added a LaminarLIP to the screen on
the fairing to help with buffeting - a common S complaint. This
appears to have totally solved the buffeting, plus reduces the noise
level in my helmet greatly. More details can be found by click on
THIS LINK or by clicking on
the photo on the right. This was the "prototype" K75S lip, I sent them
my old windshield - they sent it back with the LaminarLIP. Turnaround
was less than a week!
Update on the Laminar Lip - love it. It has smoothed the
airflow that gets to my helmet so it doesn't buffet me, while still
giving airflow to the face area so I'm not hot. It also makes the bike
feel more stable at higher (for me - 80MPH indicated) speeds. Great
improvement. It may or may not work as well on your K75S depending on
your body height and riding position. While I'm short of leg - I'm not
that short of body, and the position for me works just fine. I can
feel turbulent flow just over the top of my helmet. As a bonus - it's
quieter riding now - less noise from the Shuberth helmet.
UPDATE - 12/21/03
-
Installed a new BMW "Comfort" seat. The
Corbin seat worked for me somewhat (good for about 3 hours before I
was popping ibuprofen. The custom seat I had Sargent make for me
didn't work at all (even after they tried 3 times), but I found the
BMW "Comfort" seat does work, and isn't priced too badly if you get it
from Hammersley BMW.
Cost was about $275 including shipping and it was brand new from
Germany. So far - I'm very happy with the Comfort seat - it sits well
and isn't as ugly as some other solutions, plus it fits like it was
made for the bike (which it obviously was :-)
-
I'm also expecting for Christmas - a
Garmin GPS-V, to replace the GPS III+. The increased memory will be
welcome since then I should be able to download ALL of NJ to it :-)
Since it's the same identical size as the GPS III+ no changes to the
GPS mount will be necessary.
-
Cleaned the ignition switch - which cured
an intermittent start problem I had..
Go here for details
2004 Spring
-
The brake shudder has returned. Damn. I
tried having the Braking rotor disks Blanchard ground to fix it - but
no dice - parallelism was a problem, and more important apparently
than the surface finish. I did determine that the problem is NOT
warping, but surface friction variations.
I finally did fix it with a set of used rotors (after trying 4
different used ones).. and measurements of all the rotors in question
show them well within BMW's specifications..
I suspect the cause was that after a winter ride this year - the bike
was salty, so I washed it off in the driveway. When I next went to
take it out - the pads were rusted to the rotors, requiring some force
to break free. I think the rusted area - which even after cleaning up
shows pitting is the cause of the shudder.
From now on - I'll be taking the bike for a ride after washing it so
the disks and pads are nice and dry before pushing it into the garage.
-
Changed the oil and decided to have an oil
analysis done just for the heck of it. The results were good - and
show that a K engine can easily go 6,000 miles on synthetic oil, and
perhaps even further. The analysis results can be seen
here (Adobe Acrobat required..) The
change was at 55,555 miles (I purposely waited for that mileage -
figured it would be easy to remember. Once again - Mobil 1 was used.
UPDATE 12/05/2004
I've been too busy riding the bike to post
my updates here. Sorry about that. (Not REALLY sorry..) But a few things
have been done which are somewhat significant:
-
Front Suspension: As I may or may not
have noted - when I got this bike I was really surprised at how little
dive the front end had in it on braking. It was almost non-existent. It
finally dawned on me that perhaps this was why my hands and arms would
start to really hurt after a few hours in the saddle, especially on rough
roads. The front suspension basically had no compliance.
I had asked the former owner if anything had been done to
the front suspension, and he replied that he thought there had been, but
he was unsure what it was. I finally decided I couldn't stand the beating
I was taking and something HAD to be done about it.
As luck would have it - at the New Sweden BMW Last-Chance
rally - Works Performance had given as door prizes gift certificates of
$100 off on any purchase or service by Works, and I managed to win one.
Since Works has fork-springs available for $109 - this seemed just idea.
New fork springs were ordered for $9 and shipping cost. THANKS MUCH TO
WORKS PERFORMANCE!
So - when the new springs arrived - I removed
the top caps off the forks and pulled out the springs that were in
it. They were - to say the least - a very odd combination. At the top were
two of the BMW ~4" long spacer tubes. Under these were a VERY stiff short
spring with a not very stiff progressively wound spring under it.
I calculated out
the total movement left after the two spacers were in place, and the caps
in place - and it appeared the forks might have 2" of travel left -
primarily from the very stiff short spring. This explained the lack of
dive on braking.
The Works springs are also a dual spring setup, consisting
of one short and SOFT spring, then one longer and stiffer spring. There
are also three different length tubes that go inside the short/soft spring
to set a "crossover" point from soft to stiffer. It also included a
plastic spacer 1.75" long.
Long story short - I installed the new springs and new fork
oil. I first used the shortest tube inside the short spring, but found
this resulted in a bit too soft an initial response - it got replaced with
the middle length crossover tube. I also used a slightly shorter
spacer 1.5" long since these were going on a lighter bike (the
springs are spec'd for an RT, not an S.) Going to the middle length
crossover tube gave an EXCELLENT ride. No sharp impulse shocks to my
hands and shoulders and a very nicely controlled ride. I did have to get
used to some compression and dive under braking, but it took only a short
while to get used to it. It's my belief the former owner saw a
"hot-race-setup" for the springs and had it reproduced on the bike. What's
hot on the track isn't necessarily what you want for everyday use. I'm
quite happy with the suspension now.
-
BRAKE SHUDDER AGAIN! If you've been following -
this is the third time I've experienced a very unnerving brake shudder
on the front end of this bike. The other times, I solved this by
replacing the rotors. The solution only seemed to last about 8,000
miles this time, and that was getting WAY too expensive.
I had email chats with a number of BMW wrenches. One -
Tom Cutter of the Rubber Chicken Garage - told me that it took him a
while to learn this lesson - but when you have repeated incidents of
this sort of shudder, replace the front wheel bearings.
I took Tom at his word - and Brian Curry
and I replaced the front wheel bearings. The old ones felt just fine when
spinning the wheel. They felt just fine when removed from the hub/wheel.
They had a very slight and hard to feel notch or hard spot when rotated on
the wheel by hand (finger in the center of the bearing, wheel off the
bike.) In this state - the bearings are preloaded by the spacer between
the two bearings. Apparently when removed with no preload - the bearings
feel just fine.
Again - long story short - the shudder
is gone. I'm still using the same rotors that gave the shudder before. Tom
was absolutely correct, and I thank him for the hint. I was attacking the
symptom not the cause, although the cause was a bit obscure and hard to
explain.
So - all is well again. The bike now has
~61,075 miles on it as of today, and is getting more and more enjoyable to
ride. Nice ride today - temps in the low 50's with bright sunshine.
Doesn't get any better for December!
Update 11/13/2006.
The K75S is now for sale on the
IBMWR marketplace. The reason for the sale is I bought an oilhead, and
haven't been riding it. Rather than have it sit in the garage gathering
dust - I'd like to see it on the road with a new owner.
Some people have asked what's happened since the last report on it in
2004.. Well - another 9,000 miles were put on it (it's now at 70,800+/-).
In the spring of 2006 it got all fluids changed - including a complete
brake fluid flush. It got a new battery. It got new front rotors from EBC
and new pads from EBC. I believe the EBC rotors are the final solution to
the recurrent problems with shudder I experienced. These rotors are made
from steel, not stainless steel. They are full-floating rotors. The steel
is supposed to have better resistance to corrosion and better heat
transfer properties compared to the stainless steel. Surprisingly - they
don't really seem to rust. The brakes are excellent now - good bite and no
shudder.
What else was done? Ummm... new tank bag by RKA - better design for the K
bike and very useable with a bigger map window.
The engine got a new output shaft mainseal and the clutch-basket O ring,
did this right before a ride to Vermont for the MOA rally. The O ring had
done what it does on all K bikes and dried up and started leaking (not bad
for 20 years!), so while I had it apart, I also installed a new main-seal.
The clutch disk looked just fine as did all the other clutch components,
and all the splines were still in excellent condition.
What's on the K75S (as of
11/06):
-
Wider polished rims - 3
spoke 18" rims, fully polished, from a K100RS 4-valve.
-
Radial Tires - never
offered on the K75 - these transform the handling. Currently has Metzler
Z6 radials on it
-
Headlight modulator -
Kissan headlight modulator. Besides helping to wake up brain-dead-cagers -
it seems to deter deer just a bit. Much lower number of incidents of
deer-jumps since this was installed. I won't ride a bike without it
-
ABS - not offered for
the '87 K75 series - this was retrofitted by a former owner at quite a bit
of expense
-
C-Bars - give a bit more
relaxed riding position. The original S bars will come with the bike and
can be refitted easily
-
Stainless fasteners -
about every visible fastener on the bike has been replaced with polished
stainless steel fasteners
-
Custom engine/frame
polishing - see the pics for details.
-
Full bags - side bags,
top-case, all keyed to the ignition. Also come with the liners for each.
-
Gerbing Heat-Controller
Module - built in - this neatly and handily solves the too-much,
too-little heat problem when using Gerbing heated clothing.
-
Eastern-Beaver Headlight
Relays - a rather common problem with K bikes is failure of the
high-low switch for the headlight. There can also be low voltage reaching
the headlight due to the marginal wiring sizes BMW used - which reduces
headlight output and life. The relay kit solves the problem, and is a neat
- plug and play solution.
-
Osram Silverstar Headlight
bulb - which actually (by measurement) offers 50% more light than the
standard H4 bulb, and the same lifetime as a standard bulb while drawing
the same wattage.
-
PIAA clone lights -
mounted on the fork sliders these provide excellent fill-in lighting, plus
make the bike more visible to cars
-
Garmin GPS mount -
currently setup for the Garmin Quest (or Quest-2) - this custom mount is
easily adaptable to lots of different Garmin models, and the BMW -
Navigator II or III. It's designed to require minimum eye movement to view
the GPS, an important safety factor.
-
BMW fuel level and coolant
temp gauges - never standard on the S - these neatly integrate into
the stock fairing and look stock. The wiring harness for them is also
stock.
-
EBC full-floating rotors and
EBC pads - on the front. Good feel, excellent bite and no shudder.
-
Laminar Lip - moves the
wind envelope up about 2 inches.
-
BMW Comfort seat -
actually is comfortable.
-
Suspension - the best
Wilbers available for the rear, with the adjustable length option,
hydraulic preload adjuster, adjustable high-low speed compression damping,
adjustable rebound damping, remote oil reservoir. The front forks have the
sport forks, with Works-Performance springs and BMW 7W fork oil.
-
Fuel-Plus - on-board
computer system, gives miles remaining, daily mileage, average speed,
average MPG and lots more. Now out of production - rare and valuable
addition to a K bike.
-
700W alternator - off
later K bike. Provides ample power for lots of lights, heated clothing and
whatever else you want to power off the bike.
-
CC Products Fuel-Injector
cover - this area looks 'unfinished' on a stock K bike. The CC
products cover both gives a finished appearance and protection to the
fuel-injectors and wiring.
-
Heated Grips and R1150 grips
- optional BMW heated grips were added - and later model R1150 handgrips
replaced the square grips BMW used on the K75. If you want them - the
square ones are still kicking around somewhere.
-
Run-n-Lites - on all 4
turnsignals and brake light
-
Light-blazer - tail
light enhancement - frame for the plate with a modulated LED brake-light
cluster under it.
-
And probably a lot more I've
forgotten..
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