Final Drive: 3000

This past weekend was a weekend for barriers to be broken, records to be set, new territory to be gained. Yes, Derek Jeter hit and surpassed 3000 career hits lifetime, all as a Yankee. He's the first Yankee to hit 3000 or more hits as Yankee and only a Yankee. Ruth didn't do it, Mantle didn't do it, Gehrig didn't do it, no one else had done it. On top of that, Derek Jeter did it. The captain of baseball's most storied and prestigious team, a Mr Clean in an era of steroid abusers, womanizers, alcoholics, drug addicts, gambling addicts and all around derelicts. He deserves all the kudos he receives and more. Bravo.

Another milestone is that My RT crossed 3000 miles. Hardly notable for a BMW or any motorcycle really, but I usually like to keep track of these milestones and where they happened. In this case, I was on route 141 and 170th street at the time, going somewhere north of 75 mph. Right now I have something like 3072 miles on the bike. I'll be changing all the fluids soon in preparation for a trip I plan to take in late August to Crescent City California for the KawaNOW West Coast Rally. I used to own a Kawasaki Nomad prior to the BMW, so I still keep in touch and I am part of that group. A great bunch of people. Anyway, I plan to change the oil, transmission and final drive fluid, in the next couple weeks. All this was supposed to be done with the 600 mile service I had done at 450 miles, but in my paranoid head, I wonder if all of it was done, and so it will be. On the return, it will be past the 6000 mile service and at that time, I will do that too. This includes oil change, transmission and final drive fluid change, valve clearance check and adjustment and throttle sync adjustment. On this oil change, I plan to switch to synthetic as it will have over 8000 miles at that point, which is beyond the 6000 miles recommendation by BMW to switch to synthetic engine oil. At that point I will probably need tires too.

If the RT makes it through this without a hitch, I have no reason not to foresee a long relationship. I've only owned Kawasaki's before the RT and I never had any issues with motorcycles bought new, where I broke it in myself and maintained it thoroughly. I have to admit that I have my doubts, reading about broken final drives, fuel strips, ESA shocks and ABS units. All very expensive to fix out of warranty, and a still a pain when in warranty. So, the question remains, at least for me, will I have a Derek Jeter, a Mickey Mantle, or Bob Uecker? Some days I have my doubts, but so far they have been unfounded. Every ride confirms my previous experiences with the motorcycle and that is, it's the best bike I have owned to date. Why I have these doubts, I am not sure other than the perception of how costly it is to maintain and repair these machines. On the other hand, my Kawasakis were very easy to own. So, you may ask, why did I switch? That's a subject for another column.

Thank you for reading this blog.