Planing a longer trip. Need some advice.

[Bamblys]

Hello everyone,
I'm planing a 4000 mile trip. Starting in Denver going to San Francisco down the coast to L.A. and back to Denver. On the way i'm planing on hitting most of the natural wonders like Lake Tahoe, Grand Canyon and Pikes Peak.
My bike now has 2000 miles on it so I have a few miles till recommended service at 3600. I'll just have to change oil before my trip starts but my question is what do I do in the middle of a trip? When my 3000 mile limit runs out and I still have about a thousand miles to go? Do I take tools with me on a trip buy some oil at a dealer and do an oil change on a road? Or do I just ignore the 1000 mile over and change oil when I'm home?

[sjbmw]

Take a extra quart of the same type of with you and check the oil every 800-1000 miles or so.
If it's low just top it off to normal.
A low mileage boxer will drink a little oil as parts wear in.
Keep the oil level right, the filter will be fine.

Strict oil changes at 3000 miles is oil manufacturer's (and Jiffy Lube) propaganda.

We can do 3 times that with today's oil.

All one has to look at is the "free scheduled maintenance" being offered on new cars today (BMW, Toyota, VW are some)
My new Jetta only needs the oil changed every 10,000 miles (or 12 months) for the first 3 years or 30k of miles, (if VW is paying for it). So much for the 3k we have been sold.

Pack a quart, keep it level, and you are fine.


As far as your 3600 service, it's a recommendation, get it done after your trip, you will be fine.
It's not a crime to get it done over 1k miles.


But, if you must, you could call a BMW dealer on your route ahead of time, and schedule the one day job.
You will need to stop riding for a day or so on such a long trip anyway just to keep it fun.

Lots of dealers have loaner bikes to get around town while the job is being done.
The hardest part would be calculating where you will be, and what dealer will be available to schedule it.
I think a week notice would do it.

BMW bike dealers are used to doing fast turnaround road trip work, so you will be in familiar territory.

[MTBeemer]

Has something changed? 3600 mile service? 3000 mile interval? Our 4 late model BMWs (including the R) all have 6000 mile service intervals after the 600 mile service. If you convince yourself that it needs to be done at 3000 miles you will be wasting money and making long trips very difficult. Running past a service by a few hundred miles will not damage a bike that is running well.

Annie have gone nearly 9000 miles since mid-April on our current trip. Stopped to have one service done and will be good until we get near home again in another 3000 miles. Doing it every 3000 would drive me crazy.

Don't think of your R as a fine Swiss watch needing a bunch of fuss and bother; think of it as a John Deere tractor that will run on and on with reasonable care.

[Bamblys]

Guess my head mechanic at the dealer wasn't clear enough. I asked him what's the next thing I'll have to do after I was done with my 600 mile inspection he said oil change after 3000 miles and then a second inspection at 6000. I'll go there and ask him again but I'm sure you're right. It felt a bit much.
I'll just need to take a can of oil with me cuz it's eating a bit of oil right now.

[BoxerSteve]

Hello everyone,
I'm planing a 4000 mile trip. Starting in Denver going to San Francisco down the coast to L.A. and back to Denver. On the way i'm planing on hitting most of the natural wonders like Lake Tahoe, Grand Canyon and Pikes Peak.

Sounds like a great ride. How are you getting from Chicago to Denver?

[ammolab]

My Houston dealer and many others push that 3000mile oil change interval. I understand it is just a cash cow for the dealer. I did change my oil myself at about the first 3000 miles as I wanted to change to a synthetic oil and I was going on a long trip that would take me past the 6000 mile service.

Bike was not burning oil @ 3000 miles and the synthetic oil did not change that at all.

I am in New Mexico now. Come by White Sands on your way home.

I will travel to Santa Fe for service in the future. Those guys seem a little bit less "intense" than the Houston Guys. West Houston shop quotes 4 1/2 Hours for the 600 mile service. Those techs must be Sloths!

[Bamblys]

I'm loading my bike on a truck from chicago. I have a limited time frame and that first 1000 miles is really boring. Maybe not so much starting the trip but on my way back.
This is my attempt to post a ruff map of my planned trip. I think I'll just change the oil myself at home and do 4000 miles on that. And after i'm back i have that 6000 miles inspection right a way so I should be fine.
http://goo.gl/maps/JkB8

[Tarmac]

I see your doing the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, if you can get a reservation, ether for a cabin, or camp site, do it. I suppose you can just do a Griswold stop, (Look at that... ok, everyone back in the car) but it's worth it to spend an entire day there.

I have no idea how much time you have, but on the advice of this article ....

http://www.cycleworld.com/2012/02/29/mu ... t-feature/

... I added that to my last ride after the North Rim. One exception is that I cut south after Capital Reef, and took the ferry across Lake Powell. Im going to say that it was pretty damm awesome.

[Tarmac]

If you do stick to your route, after you leave the North Rim, you can take a short turn off at Marble Canyon to Lee's Ferry, drop down the canyon, and cool your feet in the Colorado River.

[Bamblys]

If you do stick to your route, after you leave the North Rim, you can take a short turn off at Marble Canyon to Lee's Ferry, drop down the canyon, and cool your feet in the Colorado River.

Now that sounds like a good idea!!

I don't have too much time for this trip. I pretty much have to stick to my millage and time . My wife is 8 1/2 month pregnant with my first baby (very excited!!). So I just have to come back on time.

I hope to do a NW tour next year if i get a chance to leave for a couple of weeks. But I'm being told that this will be my last chance to have some fun for a long long time.

[Lost Rider]

I wouldn't skip or go too much over the recommended interval when the bike is hardly even broke in, regardless of peoples expert opinions vs. the engineers who made the bike. It's not a conspiracy to trick you into one more oil change so the dealer can get 1 measly hour of labor.... Comparing any car's service intervals to our air cooled bikes is also very pointless IMO.
Later in life you can stretch it out no doubt but I believe these first few oil changed are important with everything getting worn in properly and why they recommend what they do. Changing the oil around 3000 miles with the non-synthetic oil seems about right and exactly what I did until I went to synthetic at 12,000. That's the whole reason to want to switch to synthetic, so you can go 6000 instead of 3000, and why you're supposed to wait to 12,000 to switch, after the engine is worn in.
Granted I'm not the shining example of taking perfect care of my bike, but mine started out life according to the book, still doesn't burn any oil and never needed to carry oil after I switched to synthetic.
One thing is for certain in a sea of opinions, changing the oil according to BMW specs will not hurt the bike and can give some peace of mind.

With that said, with my experience in traveling, if you just show up at any decent dealer while on the road and from out of state they WILL get you in for an oil change right away. I've watched dealers take local guys bike off the lift to get mine in a few times. Oil changes are not a whole day service, should be an hour or two at most of your day.
More than anything dealers take care of people who are traveling, maybe a phone call the day before you show up explaining you're on the road to warn them you're coming can make things smooth too, though I've just popped into many dealers around the country with only one giving me a hard time getting my bike in right away - one of the few crappy dealers around, in Grand Juction, that Honda place that's barely a BMW dealer....
Making actual appointments for service is pointless and not needed when traveling and planning too much makes you on a set schedule, something I find to be most annoying when I'm on the road and getting LOST!
With the general route you're taking you have lots of options for dealers and shouldn't need to go more than 300 miles over no matter what, if you choose to service it on the road. Finding a dealer and getting it serviced or getting the supplies is part of the Adventure of traveling, properly maintaining your bike isn't a hassle, it's part of the fun, plus more often than not while I was at some random dealer I got route advice that took me places I wouldn't have found on my own, or found the perfect piece of gear that my local dealer didn't carry....
A&S Cycle in Sacramento is a great dealer and stocks a massive amount of riding gear/stuff, BMW of Ventura and Long Beach BMW are also great dealers near LA, Vegas BMW, BMW of Utah has also gotten me in and out quickly in my travels.
If paying a dealer to change your oil is out of the question, buy the oil and filter while traveling, get a gallon jug of water for a dollar, empty it, cut the top off, then you have a oil pan to catch the oil when changing it in a parking lot. Put the oil back in the empty oil bottles and drop them off at any car oil change place, they will usually take them for free or at worst charge a couple bucks to dispose of it. Done that route quite a few times too, though more on my 3000 mile oil change interval GS.

Depending if I'm home or on the road, you can always come do an oil change at my house, I live near Ventura CA, send me a PM if you'd like to see if our schedules work out, I can have the oil here waiting and live smack dab in the middle of some of the best riding in SoCal.

[MTBeemer]

There are folks who post here and other sites who have had oil analysis done on the oil in their bikes after 6000 miles. All, according to my memory, indicated the oil was still well within acceptable limits for contaminates and lubrication qualities. The engineers specify a 6000 mile service interval and you can be certain they safe-sided their specification. There is no empirical data indicating that changing oil at a 3000 mile interval will improve performance or engine life. I must admit that I subscribe to the idea of changing the oil on a new machine at a very low mileage. I change the oil on my new bikes after I ride home from the dealer. This maybe as nonsensical as the 3000 change, but it does flush any manufacturing residue and is a one time event.

I cannot recall one report of an oil related engine failure on 1200 series engine. Performing extra oil changes is the least of our worries.

[Woland]

I cannot recall one report of an oil related engine failure on 1200 series engine. Performing extra oil changes is the least of our worries.

Indeed, I´ve ranted about this on many forums. Manufacturers oil specifications and intervals should be viewed as minimum not maximum. If the manual says 6000miles, there is no reason to change before that unless you ride your bike WAY outside a normal performance envelope. I've yet, in the 25 odd years I've been into combustion engines, heard of a single instance of engine trouble in a car or motorcycle attributable to oil, that's been serviced according to spec. On beemers you can lie awake worrying about a number of things, final drives, leaking clutch slave cylinders etc etc, but running your bike 6000miles between oil changes is not one of the things you need to worry about. Neither is running synthetic oil, while its probably preferable to run mineral or semi-synthetic for the first 6-12k miles its not like synth oil is somehow magical and will do strange things to your engine, its just better at low and high temps.

What most riders should worry about is not riding enough! Bikes do not fare well by being garage queens. Everything on a bike works better if ridden regularly.

So less fuss about farkles and oil changes and more fuss about riding more please

[Lost Rider]

We are all in total agreement.
BMW Boxer engines are awesome!


Have a great trip Bamblys!

[Bamblys]

We are all in total agreement.
BMW Boxer engines are awesome!


Have a great trip Bamblys!

Thanks for the invitation. I might take you up on that if when I'm in the area.

I just did an oil change. Do you know that the specific wrench for our oil filter costs $70? Might be only newer r1200r but still.

[MTBeemer]

Same offer goes if you find yourself in Montana and we happen to be home. We have a well equipped shop and a bunkhouse too. We can ponder the deep mysteries of oil change intervals over a beverage of your choice.

[MTBeemer]

By the way..............

We ave skipped over the one and only truly important item that has come out in this discussion... 8 1/2 months... do not screw this up! You are cutting this close and should you miss the birth of your first child because you were on a ride, then I suspect it may be your last ride; at least as a married man.

This may not be the time for your first LD ride... sorta.

[hetman]

When you're riding south from SF on the 1, you might consider cutting inland on the 92 and then continuing south on Skyline (35), and then take the 84 back to the coast or continue on 35, or try any of the side roads around there. That's a pretty famous motorcycling area, and you'll get plenty of coastal views the rest of the way down to LA.

[Chumley]

Bamblys,

I just returned from the area a couple weeks back and went from Monument Valley to Capitol Reef. Hwys 24 and 95 are incredible. We were going to take Hwy 261 but the Moki Dugway got us spooked. Towards the Monument Valley end it drops over 1,000 in 3 miles on a dirt road (or from our direction would have climbed). It looks spectacular and since we were going to be headed up it I was game but my buddy was less game (and probably wiser with trip loaded bikes). Just be aware that it is there in case you are not comfortable on a gravel road, although it is a well maintained road but someone said that there might be a little sand at the bottom. Can someone who has been there lately chime in? We went the long way round and went through Blanding but it was nice enough. I think that 261 would have been nicer.

If you get a chance Hwy 12 is really worth the effort and you get a chance to see Bryce and you can't miss Zion.

Sorry but I can't open your trip map so maybe this is all gibberish to you.

Enjoy,

Chum

[deilenberger]

Thanks for the invitation. I might take you up on that if when I'm in the area.

I just did an oil change. Do you know that the specific wrench for our oil filter costs $70? Might be only newer r1200r but still.

There are alternative wrenches that are MUCH less money.. a bit of Googling should turn them up (if not ping me and I'll wander to my garage and read the name off mine.)