New rubber and Liqui Moly

My Metzeler Lasertec rear tire bit the dust on the BMW just shy of 5k. When I say bit the dust I mean the center tread was just about flattened, but there was still plenty of life left on the sides, I guess that's what I get for commuting on highways.

I wound up replacing it with a Heidenau K36. As the Lasertec front is only about 50% worn, that remains on the bike, not sure if I'll go with a K34 front like on my Macchi, or stick with another Lasertec.

I like the vintage look, and it's definitely a beefier tire than the Lasertec. I actually took it to a shop to get mounted because the sidewalls looked so thick I knew I would have a hard time. I'm glad I did though, because I found out that they now stock Liqui Moly products.

If you haven't heard of Liqui Moly, they're a small German oil company that makes some really great stuff. Mainly I buy their additives, but I use their fully synthetic 5w40 in my car (meets the VW 502.00/505.00 standard) and at one point I did use their Racing 4T 20w50 in my R90/6, until I read this BMWMOA thread. Where LM really shines is in their additives, though, I've been using the Molybdenum Disulfide additive in my gear oil for years now and found it to work brilliantly - no more fine sediment in the airhead transmission. Finally, I can drive down to a local shop to buy gear oil additive instead of having to order it online, and I'll finally get to test out the LM47 grease with MoS2 on the rear drive splines - up to this point I've been mixing Würth Sig3000 grease with Honda Moly 60 (50/50) for that application, along with the transmission input splines. We'll see how it holds up after the next tire change.

I also whipped out my Cycleworks Wheel Bearing Greaser tool that's been sitting unwrapped for months now.

As you can see, it has a zerk fitting on one side to feed the grease in, two holes in the body to let the grease out, and 2 o-rings to seal the tool inside the wheel hub. All you have to do is remove the axle, put the tool in (once on each side of the hub) and pump in new grease. I know most guys only give it a few pumps, I kept putting in new grease until I saw clean red grease coming out the other side. BMW oldtimers swear by this tool, I'm not so sure about it, but I guess in theory it's essentially the same as using a bearing packer tool, except your using the hub to contain the grease instead of a plastic cone... Again, we'll see how things look when I have to change the tire again.

Arrived fresh from Britain

new house, new (old) stuff

Finally moved, finally have decent workspace

the motorcycle bay/welding station, may even put a motorcycle lift in, all depends on my wife's '54 Chrysler. That'll occupy the space where I took this picture from, it's biggggg...

Also got a hold of one of these:

 BMW savvy people will identify this as a parts book for /5 models through about 1984. Did I NEED this? No. But I own one for every other vehicle and it saves me from having to go on the computer to MaxBMW every time I'm working in the garage and need a part number. This book will be full of greasy finger marks and oil stains in no time.

Then this:

That's right, vintage Harro race suit. Got it on Ebay so I had to go off the measurements the guy listed, which were my size, come arrival, pants are perfect, jacket sleeves and chest are perfect, length not so much. Going to have to get a piece of leather to extend the length of the jacket so I can actually bend when I'm on the bike. That being said, the suit feels good when it's not zipped together, even if the jacket turns into a belly shirt.

Still getting my bearings and setting things up, more to come soon, maybe even another build...