Hello everyone, my name is Andrew and I think I am a bike aholic.

I've just become the very proud owner of a black 1988 K100 LT in great condition with just 52k on the clock. The guy I bought it from had owned it since 1993, I have nearly all MOT's and lots of paperwork and spare bits and bobs.

First riding impressions, gonna be great for long distance touring, so relaxed at m ' way speeds, buzzy around 6k. Heavy around town, heavy throttle, lovely gearbox, front end a bit vague but needs new tyres. No damping on front forks so will need investigating.

Shall give the bike a good service, just waiting for spring now!!

Cheers 

WelKome!

Welkom Andrew.  And so close to the continent.......  

ush1000 wrote:Hello everyone, my name is Andrew and I think I am a bike aholic.
I've just become the very proud owner of a black 1988 K100 LT in great condition with just 52k on the clock. The guy I bought it from had owned it since 1993, I have nearly all MOT's and lots of paperwork and spare bits and bobs.
First riding impressions, gonna be great for long distance touring, so relaxed at m ' way speeds, buzzy around 6k. Heavy around town, heavy throttle, lovely gearbox, front end a bit vague but needs new tyres. No damping on front forks so will need investigating.
Shall give the bike a good service, just waiting for spring now!!

Welcome to the Klub Andrew.

Plenty of info on what to do with your new K on the portal page. The LT does feel a little strange when you first ride it - as you say "heavy around town" and a bit vague at the front end. It takes a few miles to get the feel off her, but when you do you will wonder why you thought she felt heavy at first. Slow speed manoeuvring and cornering is a bit of an art and, if you're not careful, she can catch you out and topple. You won't be the first to have an unplanned slow speed/stationary lie down. Embarrassing when it happens (at best) and can cause some irritating damage to fairing and mirrors.

You say no damping on front forks - the front end is quite soft and she will dive if you brake hard, but this is fairly normal. If you have doubts, then it is a relatively simple job to change the fork oil (the oil provides the damping for the suspension springs), but unless you have evidence that the fork seals are leaking (oil on struts and/or all over brake callipers and radiator if the seal has completely blown), I think it is unlikely that this is actually a problem. More likely a case of new K-owneritis where everything feels as if it might need fixing.

Tyres are a different matter - plenty of posts on the subject. If they are old (>3-4 year), then no matter how much tread they appear to have, the rubber does harden and the K is very sensitive to this. That was one of my first experiences and a new set of rubber changed the bike from a wallowing whale into something that rolled confidently around corners.

Buzzy at 6k? Often there is a resonant buzz around the 3k mark, but I haven't been fast enough to see if there is a harmonic at 6k. In 5th I seldom see more than 5k in normal riding. Either you have really gone for a blast or you need to get out of 3rd!!

Waiting for spring? Spring is here - must be, they are selling daffodils and Easter eggs in the shops. Get out and ride and get the feel. Before you know it you will love her.

Anyway, great buy - excellent for touring and as Tackler points out, you are ideally placed in Kent for lots and lots of kontinental touring. There's also some great riding in the UK...and Ireland is definitely worth a trip over.

Enjoy

I am a plonker, when I said buzzing at 6k I meant at around 60 mph doh

ush1000 wrote:I am a plonker, when I said buzzing at 6k I meant at around 60 mph doh

 although I didn't say I thought it was wrong to be doing 6k...just that there are not many places in the UK where you can (safely)!

The buzz shouldn't be too bad at 60mph - do you feel a lot of vibration or is it just the fairing or screen (annoyingly) buzzing? You may even find it is the exhaust muffler heat shield - that is renown for being a right PITA and buzzing away to its hearts content.

 If it is harsh vibration (some have described uncomfortable levels of vibration - have a search for related posts using the search function on the portal page) then you will probably need to get stuck in and do some throttle body balancing. If it is the fairing, screen or heat shield buzzing, then a general tightening up of the multitude of fasteners may help reduce it.

Good luck.

Hi Ush - Where in Maidstone, I'm in Medway.

Give us a shout if you need assistance, though the members on here will give you all the info you need.

Spring - can't come soon enough.

I have been rather lucky with that buzz at 60mph. It kicks in at about 4,000 rpm. There are some threads on how to reduce it a bit but interestingly I had it on the 92 K100LT but its not there on my 84 K100RT. However one thing I did last year was get new footrest rubbers simply because the old ones were worn. Amazing difference in the feet and I would recommend both the footrest rubbers and footplate hanger rubber cones be renewed. It makes a huge difference for the feet. I think handlebars will be the same, the old rubber mounts go hard. An inexpensive job but what a difference.

On the tyres there are a lot of threads on what's good, only thing I can say is pay more attention to advice from those riding all year in the same conditions as you, particularly if you ride all year. We don't get a lot of hot weather and tyres that perform really well in hotter areas may not be a good in our cold wet winter days. The Ks are very sensitive to tyre pressures, they need to be quite a bit higher than some expect. Mine stay at 38 front and 42 rear for solo riding. Any less gets a bit horrible. Corners and roundabouts were interesting for me until I found that a little use of the rear brake really helps the K to fall into tight circles like those little painted mini-roundabouts HM traffic departments seem to love. If you do have the forks out you can pull the stanchions up 10-15mm which helps falling into corners.

On the forks first off an oil change may well solve your problem and worth doing before pulling them all off. Again plenty of threads on what oil to use and how much. Varying the oil grade will affect the damping, sometimes one mixes to grades for a compromise. Unfortunately on both my Ks I ended up doing head the bearings and doing forks seals while off is tempting.