Once I picked up my bike and started going through the routine maintenance, I did what most ham-fisted wrenchers do, and started accumulating tools. And over the course of several long-distance trips, I’ve assembled a motorcycle tool kit and spare parts that I stick in my Wolfman Tank Panniers. Here’s a BMW F650 Tool Kit [...]
Welcome to the BMW F650 maintenance, reviews, accessories, and DIY projects website. I hope you find some helpful information here to help keep your bike in good working order, and trim it out for your particular purpose.
If the BMW F650 has a glaring weakness, it’s the stock seat – it was killing my backside, and the low seat height was jacking up my knees on longer hauls. Aside from the Ohlins shock upgrade that I waited far too long to do, rebuilding the motorcyle seat was the next best modification in [...]
When I picked Bellisima up, she originally had the bright red paint scheme. Red is fine, but I kinda think it looks a bit dated. Throw in a front disc brake fluid change and drip a bunch of brake fluid on the paint, and it turns a pretty reddish-pink. I used to do some hobby [...]
Proper motorcycle tire irons are a must-have if you’re heading out on a long trip, especially in the back-country. Now, if you have ever tried to replace the rear tire on a BMW F650, you already know what a royal pain it is. Breaking the bead is tough enough, getting the tire back on is [...]
In my experience, I find the BMW F650 front end to be rather stiff unless i’ve got my tank panniers and a full load on board. The lack of front end refinement. Up until a few years ago, the remedy was to drop shock emulator cartridges in with performance springs. Until Ricor Intiminators came along [...]
I had a bottoming out issue that took me a while to figure out. The first rear tire I bought for my BMW F650 was a Heidenau K60 – my opinion, it’s a beast of a 50-50 dual sport motorcycle tire. I made one mistake – I bought the next size up from the 130/80/17 [...]
Here’s my CBOA remedy for my lack of a proper motorcycle gps mount on my ’97 BMW F650 – the Magic Mat. The Magic Mat is this super tacky flat blob of stuff that almost feels as tacky as bitumen roofing material. Stuff sticks to it like slime. So, as far as it’s application in [...]
Wolfman Tank Panniers was a welcome addition to my BMW F650 dual sport outfitting. They serve a few purposes: They hold the large bulk of all my typical F650 maintenance tools and spares, whether sitting over the tank or on the garage floor. The help shift my center of gravity forward a bit. With the [...]
This is a comparatively easy maintenance procedure on any BMW F650. The only tricky part is to snug up the bearings nicely get the side-to-side play to maintain while torquing the top nut on the triple clamp. Here’s a link to a video on the procedure:
This is a handy BMW F650 maintenance history form available at www.angerman.net. Aside from logging your maintenance history, there’s also maintenance specifications such as torque settings for particular items in the right column. You can download it here. .