Here is how it starts, my rear disk is slightly getting a warp of thick and thin on the rear and is nowhere near a point of concern but I want this to be well looked after since I only own this bike since half of its life. While the first half it has lived, it has seen some usage but not by me. I prefer to my things, in my order of knowledge knowing, what, when and where in terms of their maintenance.
It so happens that there was an on-going discount on the parts and I managed to find a matching disk to my specifications for this G650 Xcountry and supported by my friend to lend his expert help, this couldn’t get any better. Double whammy, for the perfect timings. Brembo’s were double the price and then alternatively TRW LUCAS has a matching disk as per the retailer, with a part number 10043491.
The present state before replacement
Being a self-novice at these things, it was good to get my act together getting my hands dirty and self rolled into the grease and grime. Lovely part, if this can turn you happy, even a bonus.
I replaced my both front and rear axle nuts to 27mm after reading lots of other riders comments about how hard it could be to find 26mm when in the middle of nowhere and also the fact that the original 26mm hex nut ends up losing its shape and the grip on its shape not being long enough and rough edges makes it harder over period of time. More on this here.
Loosened up the rear Axle nut and let the side screws on the chain loosened up all the way to the front as in the pic below to allow the Axle block become free. Pushing the axle rod out was easy enough job with gentle push from the right side with gentle boot tap on it.
Axle rod and wheel removed. Note, that the Axle block holding the Axle also comes off.
Keep an eye on the spacers, and keep them separate as both sides differ. You will notice that they are not same and generally I do not see how you mix them up but still, try to keep them separately. Left to the left, and right to the right. Will help you in the later stage to run them back in easily.
When removing the rear sprocket, keep an eye on the rubber grommets holding inside the hub of the wheel and their directional weights. The ligher(smaller) side of the grommet runs in the direction of the wheel while the bigger part of the rubber grommet sits on the back of second block after the lighter one.
Wheel off
Replacing the disk thought was more so triggered by the fact that I was about to replace the rear pads. But then the warp made me re-consider the disk swap too. Previously on my other Fazer, it went on for as far as 70,000miles without a first replacement.
Take care of the ABS ring, the ABS ring shouldn’t get damaged.
As a precautionary note, take care that the disk side of the wheel is always on the top when working, also when replacing any tubes or punctures as well. When putting the bolts back on, work on them in the bi-directional channel of tightening them up. That ways, you are sure to not mess up anything and also equal distribution of the tightening before putting the final locking pressure on these bolts.
Note: When replacing the disk pads, the rear metal plate on the side of the inner master cyclinder side, needs to be replaced from the older pad. There is only one, on the inner side of the master cyclinder.
Now the reverse procedure to get the wheel back on and the adjustments of the sliders to adjust the bolts to tighten up the chain slacks. There are markers on the both side of the swing arm base, so you should be able to align them equally, leaving them unequal will put your wheel out of balance.
Wheel back in, disk replaced
Well, this was all good and fair up until I rode for 200mtrs and I got the ABS light on. I was wondering what happened.
I had a long ride to get back home so I tried stopping, starting, resetting the bike by nothing changed. It would go away for 2-3seconds when I start riding but as soon as the Picked up the speed, it would come after every 100mtrs. Also, when braking hard, I can instantly feel that there was no ABS in the rear, while the front was untouched and works perfectly fine.
So, the fun part begins, need to get the ABS light and the rear ABS to work again. More on this on my next blog here.
Mileage read out is 37500kms at the time of replacement.
Often the simple things as stated by BMW which makes them really simple are not as simple if:
#1. You do not have previous experience (Novice or little experience)
#2. All the tools [BMW are really shit and kinky about their own tools and sizing(unique)]
#3. Creative mindset to get around them or forget about it.
Surely, that there are endless blogs available on how-to but this one is for my own keep and anyone else who is to do this for the first time or repeat looking at nitty gritty.
My G650 XCo was acquired some 5years back and since then barely much was ever done, but was ridden for a good while and about 15000kms in between those 5 years until now.
Previous owner history, was through the service book as it seems all BMW services done were on intervals but something not quite right. Perhaps the bike has been sat too long between its active usage. I will write down the other issues as encountered in a another thread.
This was not purely an activity for Spark Plugs change but more to do with Cam Tensioner change, that is covered here in this blog. I decided to keep a track of this for only spark plugs replacement.
So to start with as little and as much, please note that following tools are needed:
18mm Spark plug socket (I somehow believed it was in my kit, but wasn’t) – check yours + a long deep arm to reach the Spark plugs. [Alternative to buy or an another cheaper option would be this]
Special R-ring breaker tool (I hate those BMW hose clamps, extremely unpractical, so get them to normal screw driver hose clamps, found everywhere in a hardware shop). Take a note that once these clamps have been removed, you cannot re-use them. These R-rings are an extremely stupid idea by BMW!
Coil Remover (I did not have this tool, but used a normal adjustable wrench for a coil undoing. You can order one from here or use the way I used the wrench to pull it out.
Main stand or getting bike to be stable while you work on, is not a necessity but an extreme help. So anything would do that holds it in place.
Access to the Spark Plugs:
Remove the plastic panels on the left, right, center [This is an easier bit, with an hex key, should be [10mins], you need smaller hex key to remove the front two top hex nuts on top of the radiator, holding the main plastic component] – In total, 8 bigger hex nuts, and 2 smaller hex nuts. (one of the small hex nuts, can be left in main tank tank part holding the small plastic part – the one above the radiator, loosen it up to just slide out easily.)
Removing the Battery. [About 5mins, careful if your battery is stuck and need extra force, ensure the bike is well in its position] Remove from the terminal connections. You need to remove the battery as it sits in the air box chamber basket.
Undoing the air temperature connector sensor wire on the let side.[2mins] You may need a nose plier to pull that clip out on the sensor and then it just slides out easily. Pull out the complete metal clip.
Remove the relays mounted on the rubber mounts hanging from the airbox[2mins]. Easily done.
Breather hose [5mins] . Additionally, when removing it may not be possible to keep the breather hose in its place and harder to get it back in easily. I cut the cable ties on this breather hose and removed it from the right bottom front corner. Easier to let it slide down next time when redoing to reverse the process.
Remove the air box chamber [About 10mins, two hex nuts on the main front fork frame and two on the base near the seat] Note: The front two nuts are different sizes, good to know from the beginning so you won’t hassle up like me in the end.
Lifting up the complete airbox that connects to throttle body[2-3mins]. There was little struggle to pull it apart but is normal as long as all else has been followed above.
This now gives you a clear view of the top of the cylinder.
Note the positioning of the Spark plugs, this is where from all previous posts and forums I gathered this has to be in very specific position but I don’t see how or why it would make a difference. The coils are same inside and the positioning is rather to ensure that wires are in right place. Note: The black coil is to the inner side of the engine and the grey one on the outer towards the frame.
Pulling out the coils, BMW reprom says, use special tool(as mentioned above) but after trying to be careful and without a tool, it was rather the case, of carefully pulling out the coils with the adjustable wrench
User an extra cloth in the mouth holding the top of the coil to ensure this is not too hard but was fine to get the coils pulled out.
You now have the full view of the spark plugs accessibility. Should be easier and simple but take a note of the tools and alternatives as may not always be the case, you have them all.
It so happens that my friend who offered me all his tools and garage, didn’t have an 18mm socket so it was going not so well, but then there was somewhere in the old heap of tools, he found a worn out 18mm which required an extra work but now, I know I have to buy a 18mm spark plug socket. Just a self note!
Coming to finally, the spark plugs.
I got the Iridium spark plugs to replace the old NGK one. It was in a pretty bad shape as the previous owner possibly didn’t take care of it or they seemingly have never been replaced before (I would say so looking at them)!!
NGK Iridium Spark plugs comparison
You need to have a long enough arm on your socket to get down to the spark plugs. Just a caution if you have old traditional 18mm, it may not be enough on its own without a long arm going down.
Another pointer that surprised me was that the new NGK Iridium plugs didn’t have that round metal cap on its end but threads. So I was glad that my friend had them on his other spare spark plugs, these caps but I am suprised these ones didn’t come with these caps and my old spark plug was a fixed one, that means, when the old cap was tried to be removed, it break the whole long metal inside and these are not replaceable from all old spark plugs if you don’t have them.
Better to be aware than to be sorry when working on this “Simple” task! not that as I thought it looked in the Reprom, hey 10mins jobby, no please do not count on what the reprom tells, it looks very simple but NOT!!
Once you have had everything out, this would be a reverse process on its own to get back everything in order.
In my case, I was going for two more additional items, first one being easier to do – cleaning up idle actuator, while the other one, cam tensioner replacement was going to be fun! You can follow my next write up on that one.
Additional reference: Spark plugs – I found a cheaper discount going on spark plugs, so I was of the notion to buy an extra pair right now. So, I had to check if I can just buy and keep them for future use. I found out this is fairly possible to keep the spark plugs and they will remain the way they are without any issues. Feel free to store them in a dry place, if you may be wondering this works good. Yes, they have long storage life when stored in a dry place and the needle is kept secured, best to leave them in the original packaging.
Technical inputs
Tightening torques 0164 – G 650 Xcountry
12 12 011 Renewing all spark plugs +12 12 513
Spark plugs Tightening torque Value 23 Nm
All the big noise around Time-Lapse is nothing but an art of planning and organizing your stuff. Time-Lapse is one of the easiest forms of photography but the only complication or issues it has attached with it is – “TIME” as it states in its own name. You would need to organize a lot in terms of your location, what time of the day, the storage, the battery supply, the right mode of angle selection/lens type.
After going through a lot of good, bad and ugly topics, I want to keep this as simple as possible for all the layman to follow from here. As I mentioned at the beginning it is not at all a hard thing but it involves a lot of resources be it your time, memory cards(Storage), hard drive space, processing speed and few mini endless things you would brag about when you finish your Time-Lapse. An art if you get it right as I am not too much into it but since the arrival of my Go-pro Hero 3 – it has made life easier.
Time-Lapse basics : You would capture essence of the moment, space, motion, light and everything that is frequently in motion around you except your camera. It is more or less like – when in those childhood days you used to draw around the bottom of your notebook on 100 pages and flip them together to see the motion getting generated. So to begin with you would need to figure out where you are planning to shoot and what the resultant would look like – In short – Plan ahead. Managing your time in terms of what kind of resultant would you get if you are to setup your camera on some place and what you expect in the end would be decided by your original placement, view and time of the day.
Using the DSLR you would notice that you can end up eating your battery pack in 1000shots fairly soon and indeed the shutter count of your DSLR would leave you out of your shutter life in total if you are regular photographer whose camera stays closer to your hands than in your camera bag or in some corner of your precious locked shelf. After trying to use my DSLR for Time-Lapse I realized it is possibly not the best way forward to take this approach. I hence moved to the GoPro as it can clock lot more shutters and that is what it is made for.
Now technically, you would need to place your Camera somewhere you are likely to get some good views. When I tried Time-Lapse years ago, I was naive in terms of processing, knowing the FPS factor and at how much rate it should be used. A fairly simple example : which is not the best one but to show how a bad frame rate would result leaving the pictures blending fairly uneven.
Points to note : Ensure your camera is on the solid, still base. Regardless be it a Tripod or your car hood or your window pane. You would want to ensure that the movement is next to zero to have the smooth viewing pleasure from it.
Starting with your camera settings: A very important step as your final product will be based on your very first step – which basically means your angle, settings and how you want to start tracking it. Once the camera has been set up, I highly recommend to leave it at one place till you finish that one part of the capture. Generally, it is a wide angle that is being used for capturing huge, wide and vast vistas but you may want to limit yourself to a particular selection depending on your choice. If using Go-Pro, you would generally get a very wide angle view so you either would have to crop your pictures in Post Processing(PP) or in Video editing software. We will talk about all that later, but now – the basic thing – initial setup.
Do remember to adjust your exposure – according to your time of the day and light situation. These can also be changed in after shots using Post Processing but try to avoid it as it becomes a very time consuming process.
I generally prefer to shoot RAW but for Time-Lapse if shooting on a DSLR, I would stick to JPG format to give me more versatile option of huge space. I can edit them afterwards in camera RAW with quite similar options as on RAW images but I generally plan ahead to avoid this from happening. Using GoPro Camera, I would use a 7MP mode to give me a a good view storage size and lots of shutters. I use 32Gb Card in GoPro and the battery generally lasts me upto 90minutes with ease on full charge. Using 7MP mode – I could generate upto 15k images using two battery packs.
Completing your shots capture: Try to use a remote trigger on a DSLR or you possibly used a Intervalometer. On a GoPro 3 I use a inbuilt wifi to trigger the start and stop mode unless the battery runs flat. If you want to go back to where you left, try not to move or change your Tripod position. Remove the camera from the tripod base without moving it from its original location so to avoid losing the smoothness in your shots. On most DSLRs you would be able to take out the battery/memory cards without having a need to remove them from the Tripod or without moving them. On a GoPro 3, you need more caution due to its small structural size.
Transferring your pictures: As one of the big steps towards this would be successfully moving your images into one single folder as it helps you get a view of all shutters and if you know that you may want to remove some of few shots due to any unwanted movement – you can delete that particular selection. Keeping your raw images in one single folder will also help you streamline your process and save you your valuable time. Try it !!
Processing your pictures: In the past, I have used the Photoshop to process my Time-Lapse but since the advent of GoPro3, it has an inbuilt feature which can make your life lot more easier, simpler and exciting using the GoPro Cineform Studio. Try it regardless where you shoot. GoPro CineForm Studio is a free download from the GoPro Site.
Once downloaded, setup is straight forward and easy.
Once Installed, launch the software icon from the desktop or from the start menu
Launch the software and click on Import (above)
Click on Import New Files(Below) Point to note : You will have separate folders(each full folder should have 999pics) for pics in your memory card – so to make life easier, transfer them all to a folder name to your choice or I call it (RAW).
When you click on the Import new Files, you will get an option to browse to the folder where you saved all the files (below).
Press “Ctrl+A” to select all and then click on “Open”
You will be amazed with the clever piece of software bit – It makes all the items come together in their own timely manner.
The first clip on your left hand pane under – Import new files (above) shows you the time length of the total selected pics put together.
But hey, this is a Time Lapse so we want to add a little speed into it.
In this case – it is a quick Time Lapse (848Frames) which comes out to be 00:00:28:08 which would further be reduced in its play time as I speed it up.
So, carefully know how fast or slow you want to play your video. You can always do it again but will have to start from scratch of this following step.
Click on “Advanced Settings”
I would keep the Frame size as 1080P as proposed to the source. (See Below)
Click OK on the above box. And you will return to the main window (Below)
Click on File name : Choose your own name
select the final file location : Wherever you want the resultant file to show up.
Click on the Conversion List and the video will show on the Conversion List.
& Click on “Convert All” button
You will notice once the processing starts – the red bar starts to show under the Clip.
Once completed, you need to click on the “Proceed to Step 2” – This is where you can adjust/modify the clip setting to your own likings.
Welcome to giving those final touches.
Now, on the right hand side – you will see the Presets option – click on that and your video will suddenly swing into life.
Also, you can play with lot of other sliders on the top – name the video to your own choice.
Once done, click on EXPORT MP4 –
Once done, you will have your end product ready for you.
In the easiest possible steps for all the novice users too.
Any questions, feel free to ask.
Lets share and learn in the process of sharing 🙂
FreeBirD 