Just getting broken in...

[Pittsdriverwes]

I haven't been out on any of the bikes for the last several weeks and today it's 75 degrees and partly cloudy. It wasn't much of a ride by Bill's standards and no animals were harmed in the roughly 100 miles on the bike. I don't think I even saw any critters. In fact there was very little traffic at all; all the stop lights were green; and anytime I came up on someone they either turned off very shortly or pulled over to let me by. Doesn't get much better than that.

My GS sat a lot for a couple of years while my attention was focused on other bikes but I've been back on it for some big trips lately. I swear that, at 23,000 miles on the clock, that it is still getting stronger. Maybe it is just now getting broken in?

[wildbears]

My choice if I ever get another BMW.

[EricM]

Glad she is getting to stretch her legs a little, my GSHey mainly takes me to work these days but I did manage to get in a 600km day two weekends ago.

[Loggiebone]

[802Mike]

He's the plow truck driver.. !

[Spanky]

After almost twenty years of RT ownership I segued to the GS world in late December of '21 when I picked up a new '22 GSA. The RT was my reentry bike in 2002 when I decided to end my 17 year absence from riding (stopped riding and skiing while I worked full time while pursuing an undergraduate degree at night).

I test rode a GS and the RT but opted for the RT because of its superior wind protection despite the fact that my heart was with the GS model line. A side story is the GSA is a pre-retirement gift to myself and I wanted it early so I could get used to its quirks and add farkles.

Retirement will happen sometime next year pending the timing of the sale of my business. Last month I took my first big trip to see my sister in Texas.

The GSA performed flawlessly. The weatherman's forecast performed less than adequate. Here's a photo of the bike on the return leg that had me riding in <40 temps and rain as my Gerbings jacket liner sat in my closet. Thank God for heated seats and handgrips. The Gerbings stayed home because the weather forecast predicted temps in the 60s and 70s on the ride down and back.

Texline, Texas

Capulin, New Mexico

I got so cold I was having to pull over every 30-40 miles to stand in gas stations or in the case of the second photo, a gift shop, to warm up for 15~ minutes. From now on the Gerbings' jacket liner is coming with me!

[802Mike]

Don't get Gerbings. Not the same today, look at Warm and Safe.
www.warmnsafe.com

[802Mike]

What's the strap for, to keep the case fro ejecting?

[cabnfvr]

We take the heated liners every trip. Last July we wore the liners all day across Kansas. Yep, Kansas in July. It rained most of the day and never got out of the upper 50's.

p.s. Gerbing is sill available at The Warming Store and still carries a Lifetime warranty.

[Spanky]

The strap(s). Panniers are Bumot. There has been a problem with the left pannier that I'm working with Bumot's U.S. distributor to resolve. I'll update this after I learn what they intend to do.

[Lee]

The Gerbings stayed home because the weather forecast predicted temps in the 60s and 70s on the ride down and back.

I got so cold I was having to pull over every 30-40 miles to stand in gas stations or in the case of the second photo, a gift shop, to warm up for 15~ minutes. From now on the Gerbings' jacket liner is coming with me!

Never trust the weather report

[Spanky]

802Mike I have the old school Gerbings that's hella stout. I know a rider who used to be there marketing manager and he told me about how their product went downhill when they started sourcing material elsewhere and then got rid of their manufacturing staff and sourced labor to Asia. Crap product, are they still in business??

[802Mike]

Warm n Safe people used to make the controls for Gerbing.
I got the wireless control. Down side is it takes a battery. Upside,
you can stick it anywhere. I'm not sure if there's a default if it goes
dead.
https://www.warmnsafe.com/

[Lee]

802Mike I have the old school Gerbings that's hella stout. I know a rider who used to be there marketing manager and he told me about how their product went downhill when they started sourcing material elsewhere and then got rid of their manufacturing staff and sourced labor to Asia. Crap product, are they still in business??

Gerbing changed hands several times and I lost track if the new company is any good.
The Original owner started making heated gear again under the name Gordon's.
https://soundrider.com/archive/produ..._Clothing.aspx

[Lee]

Gordon's must be out of business, I can't find a link for the company.

[Pittsdriverwes]

I had a recently purchased Gerbing mid-layer jacket that malfunctioned and was zapping me. I contacted them right after the new owner brought it back to market from the original ownership. They voided my warranty and said I'd have to pay to have it fixed after I paid for shipping both ways. I talked to the new owner of the company asking him if he thought it was proper to trade on the Gerbing name without standing behind the products the way that company always had. He told me it didn't matter what I thought about his ethics as he was "just trying to save the company." By dismissing the Gerbing commitment he wasn't off to a good start and they'd seen the last of my business or referrals. I'm very happy with my Warm N Safe gear now.

[955i]

Electric gear is in my future. Lee's educated me about a dozen times as to the nuances. I will pull the trigger before THCR.

[Pittsdriverwes]

The wireless controller on my Warm N Safe gear is a great feature. I have it velcro'd to the top of my GPS stack on the GS where it's really easy to adjust on the fly. On our trip through the Yukon (20's F) a few years ago sometimes I'd turn it off for a few minutes until I just started to develop a chill and then turn it back on. It feels as good as slipping in to a hot tub on a snowy day

[Spanky]

802Mike As promised, I'm following up with what happened with the U.S. Bumot distributor, Jason. First, he's been fantastic to work with going back to my initial order. After three left-side pannier ejections I contacted him and that started a back-n-forth series of "do this, do that, how did it work?" mounting bracket adjustments with the last one (seemingly) solving the problem.

I've not been able to actually test the adjustment during real world riding but hope to when we get some warmer temps. Given the cosmetic damage to $550 pannier, I asked him what Bumot will do to make things right and next week I'm getting new hinges for the pannier lid and eight nylon corner protectors plus a $50 gift certificate to his offerings. Can't ask for more than that.

Here are a few pics of the damaged bits:

[Bmorganjr]

matta33178, Aug 8, 2010
matta33178
matta33178
Duderino
The plastic hinges on my 2004 GSA panniers broke recently, and I found a drop-in metal replacement which is rock-solid. Thought I'd share this and a couple of pics.

The OEM hinges are supplied by Southco. This replacement hinge is also made by Southco and has the same footprint and hole locations. The big difference of course is that this one is die cast zinc instead of plastic. The other difference is that this new one is a constant torque hinge which means that the feel of the hinge is stiffer and pannier top can be opened to any angle and it will stay.

Here is the link to the hinge on Southco's site:
http://www.southco.com/products/e6-c...10-420-50.html

And here is a link to their distributors' stock:
http://access.southco.com/cgi-src/us...t=E6-10-420-50

The only hiccup is that these hinges are a bit thicker (good thing!) and the bottom set of screws are too short, so you will need new screws on the bottom (the top screws are longer and can be reused). The new screws that you'll need are M5x0.8x16mm stainless button-head cap screws. My local hardware store, Menards, had these but with a Phillips head instead of Allen, so my installed screws look slightly more ugly.

Here are pics:
[?IMG][?IMG]
OEM hinge and replacement hinge

[?IMG][?IMG]
Broken OEM hinges

[?IMG][?IMG]
New hinges installed

[?IMG][?IMG]
Showing how the cover stays at any angle a la PacMan


I just bought some hinges for a bmw and they look just like yours

[Bmorganjr]

I copied and pasted from adventure rider

[Spanky]

I copied and pasted from adventure rider

I clicked on the link for the hinges and it yielded a 404 message. My problem with replacing the hinges and corner peices (all new material supplied by ADVR Motoraad, a GREAT vendor) is that while I have both metric and U.S. allen head tools, neither fits as good as they should. My first attempts using the allen bit that comes closest to fitting into the fastener almost rounded off the fastener. I need to contact the vendor for advice as just WTF tool/allen bit I need to replace the hardware.