New Rear Tire

Old and New Side by Side

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Time to put the new rear tire on before heading out to West Virginia for three days.   With an extra rear wheel and new tire already mounted, this is dead easy on the Beemer, just 5 lug nuts like on a car.  The Sipes on the new Michelin Pilot Road 2 start out 0.2" deep adjacent to the wear-bar bumps.

Christmas Village Road

I did not want to head out for the long weekend without scrubbing the tire in, so I took a couple of hours and ran across the county to Christmas Village Road between Bernville and Rehersburg.  It's not West Virginia, but the road is at least not dead straight, giving the opportunity to scrub out towards the edges of the tire somewhat.

New Tire After Scrubbing

New Tire After Scrubbing

Baggie 1

The Beemer recorded:  96.9 miles; 41 mph; 46 mpg.

The other day, I got the on-board camera working again.  Turns out, the camera is very sensitive to anything that gets between the lens barrel surfaces and blocks smooth lens travel.  So in addition to moisture, dirt, grit, bugs, etc. coming at the deployed lens at 60 mph has the potential to gum up the works.  I tried putting a clear plastic bag over the camera and it seems to work.  Picture quality is seriously degraded by sun glare on the plastic, but some of the photos are usable to show the running scenery at the resolution posted here on the blog. 

Baggie 2

I am working on trying to find the best type of plastic bag or other transparent wind block.  I labeled the photo according to which type of plastic bag was used as a wind screen.  I think the Baggie 1 photos are clearer but would be interested in other opinions.

As you can see in the photos below, it was a beautiful autumn day here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Colors are developing in the leaves and the temperature was in the low 60's, really about perfect.

Baggie 1

Baggie 1

Baggie 2

Baggie 2

Baggie 2

Baggie 1

Baggie 1

Baggie 1