Motorcycles

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

I just got back from a trip to the BMW dealership to get the larger windshield installed and the problem with the 3 switches fixed. Turned out the fuse layout isn't what the owner's manual says it is, and the factory had installed a 4.5 amp fuse where a 10 was needed. I'm glad. It would've been 2-3 hours if they had to get to the connector and if the switch itself was bad, they didn't have one.

Everything works fine now. Although I still haven't figured out how to disable the feature that adjusts the stereo's volume up and down based on speed. The bike is quiet enough at speed, I don't need this feature.

And that reminds me of another plus the Wing had. Though it didn't pick up stations out here in the sticks very well at all (worse than any car or bike ever), it has an "Ambience" configuration that is really stunning, even with two crappy speakers. Set it on "Hi" when you've got a good signal and you could swear some of the sounds are coming from behind you (despite only having front speakers) or right next to your legs.

I stopped at the Honda dealership to retrieve everything out of the Wing's luggage, too. Turns out it's not torn all the way down to just a frame. It's only torn down enough to get at the welds. Which is still pretty far. They're waiting for the go-ahead from American Honda to tear it down the rest of the way and ship the frame.

The service manager showed me the pictures he emailed to American Honda. It's not just one weld that's cracked. It's two of them. And the crack goes all the way around in both places. It's really surprising it didn't completely break away.

At the BMW dealer's urging, I'm still going to really push American Honda on this to buy the bike back from me. Or replace it. They said that Big Dog (out of Wichita) had a problem with one of their bikes doing the same thing (not a model-wide problem -- apparently a one-off) and they bought the bike back from the guy for what he originally paid for it.

Another thing I was quite unhappy with was that the parts that'd been removed from the bike were basically just piled up on a shelf. Even the painted pieces. They could've at least bubble-wrapped them. No way those pieces aren't getting scratched.