Alfa Buys a BMW; Loses Two Wheels

[AHTOXA]

Cos, I think a 250 would be a great starter bike for you. I saw a guy the other day on a Honda 250 RR. He was about your size, and it didn't look comical - was proportionally correct - you could say. Me, however, that would be a different story.

I still want a bike as well. Very much so.

[Rope-Pusher]

He was about your size, and it didn't look comical - was proportionally correct - you could say. Me, however, that would be a different story.
I still want a bike as well. Very much so.

Hay, if you can turn a bicycle frame up-side down, you can do it with a motorcycle, right?



...or just buy a bigon'

[Standardshifter]

Enjoy the two wheeled mechanized transport.

Mine is in winter hibernation mode... A bit jealous.

[1974Alfa5spd]

So remember the short rant I had about the stealership "fixing" the headlight? Well, I finally fixed their blunder last Saturday. Really easy to do...



...one you take the entire goddamn bike apart.

[RITmusic2k]

Congrats on the sick Beemer! Cop bikes are rad as hell.

[94Corolla5Speed]

Cos, I think a 250 would be a great starter bike for you. I saw a guy the other day on a Honda 250 RR. He was about your size, and it didn't look comical - was proportionally correct - you could say. Me, however, that would be a different story.

I still want a bike as well. Very much so.

Yea, I rode a buddy's 250 Nighthawk a year or two ago. It was a blast, I would definitely love one.

[Squint]

Nice bike! Side note, and the reason why I'm reviving this thread because it reminded me..

Someone at my dealership took in a probably 20+ year old Mercedes 300 diesel! I think it was a 300, I only got a quick glance at it as it drove past. Traded it in on a new FJ Cruiser of all things...

[1974Alfa5spd]

I don't remember if I mentioned it in this thread, but after I cleaned out the throttle bodies, the engine ended up running really unevenly, although it did idle at the prescribed 1150rpm instead of a very rough and chuggy 850. However, it began having the classic BMW boxer hunting/surging. I thought getting the two throttle bodies in sync would stop it, but of course it didn't, although it did benefit greatly from it. Some research online turned up some evidence that a bad O2 sensor could cause it, so I figured why not, a universal 4-wire is cheap enough (compared to the $130-150 everyone wanted for the original BMW).

I did learn however, that BMW decided to put the sensor in quite possibly the least accessible place on the bike necessitating removal of the entire catalytic converter and muffler, which once I got the clamp undone and the one mount bolt off wasn't hard at all. The accessibility problem led me to believe the sensor hadn't seen the light of day for about ten years, so what could it hurt? They also typically give up the ghost around 30-35k, and the bike has 48k on it, so the odds are all against it.

This is the one that came out, which, predictably, looks exactly like the factory one the guy who wrote the guide I was following pulled out of an R1150GS.



I'd imagine the little tit on the end of it couldn't possibly measure very well anyway, so I went for the cheaper, universal replacement with the fluting in it that probably could get a better sniff of the exhaust. BMW also decided to make it just that much more difficult to replace it by putting the sensor on the end of a 30-ish inch lead and the connector up underneath the gas tank, which is a big operation to remove.

Bosch was so kind to provide a really cool little splicing box for the universal sensors that made this operation a breeze. Literally the hardest part of installation was stripping the wires.

[RITmusic2k]

Did the new O2 sensor solve the problem?

[1974Alfa5spd]

Did the new O2 sensor solve the problem?

Whoops, after all that I forgot to mention whether it worked or not.
Yes, just idling after it warmed up it had eliminated 95% of the surging. I can only attribute the rest to the fact that the Motronic is a learning EMS and in all of this the system did get reset a couple of times. And I can't yet ride it so it can re-learn all the sensor attributes or whatever it does.