sprocket i/o

Me on the Dakar (thanks Dallas!)

After five days of having my bike, I almost feel like I’ve spent more time babying it than riding it. After taking delivery of the bike on Friday, I really had trouble getting it started without stalling the bike out. The BMW F650GS seems to be a lot more sensitive about clutch and throttle control when starting than the little 234cc Honda Nighthawk I took the MSF class with. I think part of me is afraid of the extra torque on the F650GS, and I don’t want to pop a wheelie so I end up not giving it enough throttle and then it stalls.

Repairs.. already?

When you stall and start the engine up enough times, it tends to tax your battery, as you are not leaving it on long enough to recharge it. Sure enough, after enough starts and stalls, I could tell the battery was dead. Sixteen screws later, I managed to take the fairings off so that I could inspect the battery. The poor thing had probably never been serviced before, and it’s one of the older types that requires you to put distilled water in it every once in a while. It was pretty dried up. Rather than trying to heal the abused battery, I just bought a new one at Advance Autoparts. I wanted to get a maintenance-free battery, but it seems that most of them are just a tad larger than the tight fit in the F650GS, and I did not want to have to modify the brackets to hold it. After installing the battery, I gave it a much needed wash, and proceeded to take some photos of my new BMW F650GS Dakar.

Since then, I’ve also installed the Kisan PathBlazer Headlight Modulator on the Dakar. Installation is as easy as changing your headlights on a bike. In the case of the F650GS, it’s a nightmare to do this the first time. There is plenty of waterproofing and shock protection around the back of the light bulb to drive you nuts. It took so much brute force that my biceps ached afterwards. When I finally did yank the bulb out to put the PathBlazer behind it, it flew across the garage, but did stay intact. The PathBlazer seems to do the trick, and appears to be extremely annoying, but noticeable. I do need to find a good place to hide the light sensor though.

Learning Difficulties

Most motorcyclists recommend getting a smaller engined bike such as a 250cc to begin with. The only reason you need to go up to a 650cc is if you want to hit the interstate (not a good thing for a beginner), or if you want ABS brakes. I can now see exactly why people make this recommendation. The 234cc Nighthawk I rode on only weighs 320lbs (wet), whereas the Dakar is 55% heavier at 496lbs. This difference in a weight really does affect the handling of the bike around turns, and I find myself a bit more scared to drop it. The Nighthawk felt a lot more “flickable”, and I felt a lot more confident making turns and emergency swerves on it, and it also felt a lot more stable at slow speeds. This just means that I have to practice more around the neighborhood. Thankfully, the engine on the Dakar is much smoother than the Nighthawk, especially in 1st gear.

I no longer stall on starts from our driveway, but I seem to stall a whole lot at stop signs that I have to make turns at. I think most of this problem is due to me being gun-shy and not wanting to over-accellerate into the opposite curb white making a turn. My up-shifts while riding are getting much better as I get faster with the clutch/shifter interaction. This morning I practiced my tight turns, with the end goal of being able to make a U-Turn in a 20′x70′ box, which I was not able to do in the MSF. I simply found a cul-de-sac and went in circles until it got tighter and tighter. While there seems to be other opinions online that include brake feathering, I’m using the technique described in Proficient Motorcycling, which seems to follow the MSF. The basic gist is to turn around to look at your destination, begin the turn, get your butt off the bike, put all your weight on the outer peg, give some throttle but pull the clutch in slightly (but not all the way!) to control speed. It seems to work, but I’m not there yet.

At the moment, I don’t have a proper motorcycle jacket, so I’ve been sticking to the streets within my housing development. My jacket was supposed to come in next week, but yesterday I did change my order around because I saw the Hit-Air MX Breathable Mesh jacket is now sold here, so I got that instead of the MS. Perhaps it will still come next week?

Final Thoughts

Riding the F650GS has been an exhilarating experience. I ride it before work every day for a little bit, and it’s like getting on a roller coaster that you control the speed and direction on. When in a straight line, the sitting position of the Dakar really reminds me of just sitting on a normal bicycle. While the Dakar is not the optimum “beginners” bike, it’s not that intimidating once you get on it either. I’m very happy with my purchase so far. I am very eager to get it into 4th gear, and even more eager to take it off-road.