F700GS cross country road trip preparation

Hello everyone,

I am will take 16 days off vacation starts next weekend with F700GS for cross country road trip. I live in Hoboken, NJ, final destination is San Francisco, CA. A few major places I plan to visit are Bonneville salt flats, Monumental Valley, Death valley and CA route 1. Estimate about 4k miles

I bought my bike Sep last year, now it has 2.5k on it. done 600 miles service at dealer, plan to have 6k service at long beach BMW motorcycle in CA(Quote $205). I plan to take a can of BMW spray chain lube with me. probably apply a little bit every 1k. Is this necessary to carry this chain lube? What do you think?

Thanks in advance,

Jie

I think your but will be sore and you chain abused when you get back! GH

What is the 6K service for? Oil? Why not do it yourself, save money and time. If that's not an option though, while going from Bonneville to Death Valley, it might be worth it to stop in Vegas or Reno depending on your route for the service, Long Beach BMW is really expensive.
And are you planning on staying in San Francisco, or going back to NJ? If going back to NJ you might want to up your mileage estimate a bit. Going straight through on the freeway is about 3K one way, add in detours and fun roads and it'll be more.
Not trying to discourage or anything of the sort, just trying to help out.

Thanks Zeke. 6k service is impractical to do it by myself considering the amount of things I have to carry.

I thought $205 is really good price be because NJ dealer quote me $350-$400, which is totally rip off.

I am not going to ride back, will have it shipped back from San Francisco to Hoboken. You are right, maybe I should stop at Vegas for 6k service.

You got any suggestion on the chain maintenance on the road?

Thanks for your help

I use Dupont's Teflon Chain Saver aerosol (http://www.webbikeworld.com/t2/dupont-motorcycle-chain-lube-2012/) both at home and on the road. Typical travel day is 300 - 350 miles so I lube each day when the chain is warm. Can't keep a chain too lubed in my opinion.

Recently a can lasted 11 days & 3700 miles. This is clean stuff - doesn't fling off. Sometimes hard to find so in a pinch I'll get the Multi-Use Teflon at Lowe's or most hardware stores.

The little 4 ounce bottles are hard to use, wasteful & messy. Stick with the aerosol.

Laugh if you want ... but ...

While on the road and racking up high mileage days I lube the chain every evening. I found I always made a mess with the spray, so with bike on center stand I use a travel toothbrush to apply a modest amount of 90W gear oil to the tops of links on the bottom run of chain. I have one link painted with white-out so I know when I've gone full-way round. It only takes a few cc of oil and chains whisper my name with reverence

PS: synthetic gear oil doesn't have the nasty smell of the regular stuff.

I bought a 700GS 3 weeks ago and have already ridden it 1,342 miles. (My RT is having abandonment issues!)

I'm prepping my GS for a couple of summer rides, and wonder what you've done to yours to make it your home-on-wheels for 16 days.

Windscreen? Bar risers? Bags/rack?

I logged about 2000 miles on my baby in the first month after I bought it. Went down south to skyline drive and blue ridge parkway. Then winter came, sad.

I am still with original windshield, got my vario cases two month ago for 20% off with BMW coupon. I bought BMW roll bag for this trip(totally worth it, all my camping gears fit in there). One case for my electronic gadget and camera, the other one for my clothes.

I am not worry much about food beach because I have to stop for gas. But my friend convinced me to buy a water bladder. It is good because I am going to desert area.

The BMW Roll bag looks nice!

I've been thinking about one of these ecogear Granite Duffels

http://www.ecogear-products.com/category/travel.html

to set on my Pelican top case to hold the few extra things that never fit in the Vario side cases ... Water "resistant" have cinch straps since it would mostly be less than full, and hideaway backpack straps in case I needed to leave the bike in a less than secure area I could toss my tank bag and any other loose items in the thing and wear it like a backpack...

Any idea how much the service in Vegas? $205 isnt too bad for CA, especially for a little piece of mind. Most BMW dealers seem to give a bit more attention to those traveling and passing through. Where would you dispose of oil and filter?

jmrobyou, if you need a contact in SoCal shoot me a PM.

Last year bought my '12 F650GS then did some short 1 day trips to figure out what needed to make the bike comfortable for my cross USA trip late last summer. These were modification I did just for the trip:

- BMW Touring windshield which helped blocking the wind
- BWM Hand Guard which help blocking the wind to my hands
- Kaoko throttle lock to help relieve my right hand from gripping the throttle
- BMW Adventure Aluminum luggage panniers
- ALT rear rack
- Rotopax 1 gallon and lock mounted on the ALT rear rack, this is to carry the extra gas crossing the Nevada desert, I almost needed to use the extra gas when I rode 190 miles between gas stations.
- Extra electric output to charge the Iphone and run air compressor
- Tank bag and large map bag

I plan to ride to Alaska, for this I am getting:

- BMW Aluminum engine skid plate
- BMW SW Motech crash bar
- Pelican 1440 case mounting on the rear rack store my back back from element and thief.
- GPS mount and Garmin Montana
- Got the center stand which should help fixing flats if needs to and lubing the chain

Had lots fun crossing the county from San Francisco Bay Area to New York City and rode down Skyline/Blue Ridge Parkway to Atlanta on my motorcyle as it was an experience of a lifetime. Go for it!!!

A bag that can be used as a back pack is a good idea but zippers = leakage no matter what you do to them. Maybe a small Wolfman (waterproof - bombproof) might be a better bet. They have carry handles that would work as a back pack in a pinch.

Protect that very expensive headlight lens - not available separately so figure $400 - $500 for the whole assembly. I like this from ZTechnik: http://shop.nationalcycle.com/perl/cycle/Z5410 Light weight, inconspicuous, easy on & off if needed and durable. Mine has a few pits on it which means it is doing its job.

Even on pavement it's a good idea to have a bash plate that is large enough to protect that vulnerable oil filter and oil cooler.

If you are in Southern California with money jingling in your pocket, do a ride in to Bill Mayer and get a real seat made. http://billmayer-saddles.com/BMS/ After riding cross country on the OEM board you will really understand the need for this type of luxury.

No way, Jose! Had one on my GS Adventure, and for some reason -- probably because it fit so damn tight -- the headlamp lens cracked anyway, and not from impact. Rather have a stick-on from AeroFlow. Paige is a great guy, too!

One of my buddies drank the Mayer Kool-Aid and has been back numerous times for seat tweaks on his Concours. Another has 100,000 miles on his Mayer seat on his R1200GS Adventure.

I'm okay with stock seats plus Alaska Leather sheepskins when necessary. Did a Saddlesore 1,000 on a stock R1200GS Adventure seat so I guess I really do have an iron butt.

P.S. I'm one of those guys who downsized from an R1200GS Adventure to a BMW parallel twin. Sometimes bigger is simply bigger. Better for 500+ mile days, but who wants to do them anyway?

I'm not sure how much it would be in Vegas, but they are pretty fair. After what Long Beach quoted me for a clutch replacement, I won't go there.
What is the 6K other than an oil change?

Nice. how do you like the skyline and BRP? I went there last fall and just couldn't finish all BRP. After 120 miles on skyline in the morning, BPR was just too crowd. Had a bunch of RV ahead of me slow down the traffic a lot. So, I headed back to NJ after 300 miles on BRP. But the view in fall was totally worth it.

I think 6k they will change the brake fluid as well. I might actually need to have the service in Vegas based on my planning work today. So you recommend BMW motorcycle Las Vegas?

BMW brake flush is 2 year intervals.

Check a bunch of stuff, tighten, and adjust what needs to be adjusted. Being out on the open road it would be worth it to me. To each his own though, some guys will do a tire change on the side of the road. Thats not me!

Here's the official maint. schedules:

http://www.ascycles.com/bmw_motorcycle_service_and_maintenance_schedules.aspx

Originally the brake fluid was every 2-years, at some point they changed it to after one year, and then every two years.

I would recommend BMW of Las Vegas. When your there tell Kurt in sales I said hi if he's there. Looking at the checklist, that's all stuff you should be doing on a regular basis anyhow, except for the check fault codes and change oil. Maybe you could just have them do the oil and codes, save some money that way if you can't do it yourself. I mean really, check brake fluid?