Frank,

I knew that BMW would get your attention. It started dripping oil from the valve
cover bolts near Farbanks so we took it to the local BMW/Honda/Victory/Harley
dealer where they "fixed it" by tightening the bolts. That stripped the threads
in four bolt holes. So now we got a gushing oil leak that didn't really get
going good until we were 100 miles south of Fairbanks. We decided to fix it
ourselves with a two part epoxy based thread healer. We laid it on its side
while we did the fix to make it easier to work on. Trouble is, it made it worse.
Now it was dripping oil just sitting there. We had it towed back up to Fairbanks
where they worked on it for the next four or five days. Bob, the owner of the
Beemer, stayed there while the rest of us continued the trip. We stayed in
contact with him via email and cell phone. The plan was to connect again after
it was repaired. After they were done with it he started riding back to Tok,
where we were by then, and got as far as the town, North Pole, where it began
leaking oil again. He turned around and went back to Fairbanks where he made
arrangements to have it shipped home to California. In another three weeks it
should arrive. The bolt holes that are stripped are in the cam caps, and as you
know, can't be replaced without replacing the head. Since it already has over
two hundred thousand miles on it, if he does have the head replaced, he would be
better off having the whole engine rebuilt. Or maybe even replace the entire
engine with one from a salvage yard. I hate to think about how much the bike has
cost him. Ed and I were trying to talk him into selling it for scrap and buying
a new Goldwing to finish the trip on. (He *must* have a bunch of money, right?)

Enjoy your trip Frank. I hope you don't get raind on as much as we did.

Jerry
Fremont, NE


--- In nebraskamotorcycleriders@yahoogroups.com, "Frank Tabor" <ftabor231@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi Jerry, was that a BMW laying on it's side? what happened to the bike?
>
> Did you use a car tire on this ride? How did it work out? Tire life and
Odometer limits can be annoying.
>
> FT
>
>
>
>
> > Nice video Jerry! I enjoyed watching it and recognizing some of the places
> > we stopped. I REALLY want to ride up there again! How many days of rain
> > did you have?
> >
> >
> >
> > Kathy
> >
> >
> >
> > From: nebraskamotorcycleriders@yahoogroups.com
> > [mailto:nebraskamotorcycleriders@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of cog1374
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 4:54 PM
> > To: nebraskamotorcycleriders@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [NE Riders] Alaska 2009
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Just got back in town. No wonder Frank prefers the KLR up there.
> >
> > See if you can access this short video I just posted...
> >
> > http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual
> > <http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=598380
> > 58> &videoid=598\
> > 38058
> > <http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual
> > <http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=598380
> > 58> &videoid=59\
> > 838058>
> >
> > Enjoy!
> >
> > Jerry - Fremont, NE
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>