Day of Rest – sort of

You guessed it, laundry day 😉 as well as a rest day with some restocking errands around Boise. Traffic in the middle of the day was ferocious. Also did some route planning around the 6000 miles tune-up for Diane’s F650GS which is due in 400 miles. BMW motorcycle dealers are not as frequent as Honda or Kawasaki dealers so we try to ‘plan ahead’. Hah.I called the BMW dealership in Missoula, MT, they can get us in on Saturday (18th) at 1PM for a valve check which is really all the bike needs since we changed the oil before we left. That works well, giving us plenty of time to get up to Missoula. Great, I think we are all set.

Later in the day I did a walk around on both bikes doing a visual inspection, looking for loose/missing screws or anything else that seems ‘off’. Oh oh, what do I see on Diane’s left fork tube, tell tale oil rings. Crap. First signs of a defective fork seal. That’s really unusual not only because of the low mileage on the bike but also because the previous owner installed fork protectors to protect the sensitive slider tubes from rocks and debris which can cause small dings in the metal which will rub against the seal causing it to fail.

Swell. Back on the phone calling the dealer in Missoula again – they cannot fit a fork seal replacement in on Saturday – not until the 22nd can they do both :-(. Time to call the Boise dealer. They can replace the fork seal on Thursday (today’s Tuesday) but cannot do the 6k inspection. Swell. There’s another dealer in Clarkston, WA that was already closed. I’ll call them tomorrow to see what they can do.