BMW R1100s - 2001 (30250 miles)

My second bike was also a BMW r1100s. It is accurate to say that, I learn my love for motorcycling on this bike. I made my first tails of the dragon run in Tennessee. I also did my first cross country trip on the bike. The truth is, I love the bike, but I don't trust it. Too many different failure point that are catastrophic, irregardless if it is frequent or not. Parts are impossible to have on hand at the dealership. If it ever breaks on me, I'm stranded for a very long wait. On my first cross country trip, the transmission output shaft sheered and I was stranded in the middle of a field. The bike had exactly 30,000 miles. In town was a BMW dealership, not only did they not have the part, I had to wait 2 weeks for them to receive it from the motherland. It was impossible for me to wait so I shipped the bike back home.

I had quite a few spills on this bike, most of them just minor off at very low speed. The only notable crash was in the “Back of the Dragon” in Virginia on a left hand down hill turn. I hit some gravel and froze up and would not let go the handlebar and crashed into the ditch. I jump off the bike and incurred 0 physical injury.

When I bought the bike, the seller rode 4 hours south to show me the bike, if I did not want it, he was going to ride back home. The bike came with a ton of performance mod before I even owned it. Over the years, I did some mods for it. Here are the list of the ones that are on the bike and that are my mods. 

- Remus Exhaust (Full) - came with

- Ohlins front and rear - came with

- Kickstand enlarger - came with

- Uprated rear Ohlin springs and rebuild shocks - I did at 20,000

- Corbin Smuggler Seat - came with - added usb charge cable in the hatch

- Tank Bag and Saddle Bag (silver) - came with

- City Lids  - purchase after back of the dragon crash

- Black saddle bags with bumpers - purchase after back of the dragon crash

- Engine Sliders - came with and replace once 

- HID headlight (DDM tuning) - self installed soon after

- Tool kit and feeler gauge - purchased

- Carbon Fiber rear hugger - purchased

- Rick Mayers double seat - purchased

- Tech Mount stem mount - purchased

- Garmin Zumo 550 - still using now on other bikes

- Spiegler Stainless Steel Brake line - replace after OEM failed at 30,000 

- Parabellum windscreen - replace after back of the dragon crash

Stainless Steel Brake Line

One of the last modification on this motorcycle was stainless steel brake line. There was a spongy feeling to the front line at 30,000 miles after my transmission rebuild. I then notice a small leak to the front line. I bought Spiegler lines all around. Installation is very easy, but again massive uncertainty fear from internet that air in the ABS unit could spell impossible troubles in bleeding the brakes. Turnout, it wasn’t that big of a deal. You just bleed it via the module first and then down to the caliper.

HID headlight

Second most important mod for this bike was the HID headlight. I bought HID kit from an online vendor. There are tons more misinformation online, about needing motorcycle specific HID for vibration dampening. Complete total nonsense. The more I start working on bikes the more it is not a black art. Holes were drill to insert the wiring harness with weather proof plug. It was a little bit time consuming but rather straight forward. You can see where I mounted the ballast. The light output and visibility is night and day. The HID worked flawlessly all the way until the day I sold the bike.

Transmission Rebuild

When the transmission output shaft rounded off in Spokane Washington, I had the bike ship back to Anton Lagardiar in Virginia to rebuild the transmission. At that point, I was not confident enough to rebuild a transmission much less work on the motor of any motorcycle other than adjusting the valves. Anton did an amazing job, except he took several month to get it fix and was basically missing in action until he was done fixing my bike. It wasn’t the greatest customer service, but the quality of work is definitely top notch. The transmission shifted butter smooth after I got the bike back. It has never shifted as good, but unfortunately every time I went to shift gear, the fear that it would fail never left me.