... a few weeks ago i noticed my motorcycle's instrument panel lcd clock was resetting every time i started the bike ... i paid little attention to it, other than to think that i might need to affix some sort of stick on clock to the panel ... yesterday, halfway through our "all the towns" tour of franklin county, i discovered that whenever the bike was started the trip odometer was defaulting to 140 miles ...
... last night i did a bit of research ... results were anywhere from "o-m-g, how can bmw charge $1,100 for a tiny little piece like that," to "well, apparently there are some bmw motorcycles that there comes a time when one has to live without a clock or odometer" ... scary one, of course, was "so a dead clock means the entire charging circuit has to be replaced" ...
... i could've taken the motorcycle to bmw—yea, right ... near as i can figure, that's the sort of thing bill gates and donald trump can do when their clocks stop working ... for me it was more, "i'm not paying someone $110/hour when i can figure it out myself" ... so ...
... so, parked in roger's wonderful new garage, i took the bike apart ... blown fuse was easy, after that was the search for the reason it had done so ... no luck with that, but i did find that the bike's radiator was seriously clogged with road oil and debris ... after clearing the radiator (a rather nasty task), i carefully checked and cleaned all the fittings, tightening everything and making sure all the wires were routed properly, then i very carefully reassembled the machine ...
... so far, so good ... no pieces left over, that's always a good sign ... clock's tickin' away, keeps its time even when the bike's turned off and then started again ... odometer is recording properly, too ... tomorrow'll be another "towns tour," that'll be the test ...