bs0502-4

Boxer Shorts February, 2005 - 4 of 4

Rockster Gets A Remus Muffler

by Peter Leone

Rockster and Remus After talking with Rusty Gill at Max BMW in spring, 2004, I longed for a Remus Revolution muffler to replace the stock BMW exhaust on my R1150Rockster. The stock BMW exhaust is too refined. I had replaced the BMW stock mufflers on my 1982 R100T with Super Trapp after 18 years of ownership, with happy results. The ZTechnik exhaust for the Rockster seemed just the item, because it was super-light compared with stock, but when I learned at Max's that it needed to be repacked every 6,000 miles, it dropped off my dance card.

In the early spring of 2004, having purchased the 2004 Rockster less than a year before, in the interest of marital harmony, the Remus had to go on my wish list. Time went by - Downeast Rally in May, with rain, once again, on Saturday. A trip to L.L. Bean to buy whitewater-kayaking gloves, recommended by the clerk for Maine motorcycle riding. I tried the kayaking gloves on a ride down Maine Route 24, along Orrs Island, to Bailey Island, to look at the one remaining Cribstone bridge in the world, according to Christina Tree's An Explorer's Guide to Maine. (Never figured out how I can get to so many Maine Islands without getting off the motorcycle.)

The Cribstone Bridge [pictured above] is constructed without mortar, the granite blocks laid in a honeycomb, allowing tidal flow freely between the granite blocks. I took a photo, trying to get both the bridge and Rockster in the same picture, without sinking the Rockster in Harpswell Sound. Like a talisman, the kayaking gloves warded off the Maine rains, salvaging part of the day, and wringing out the soaked deerskin gloves. Seeing the quaint lobster restaurant across from the Cribstone Bridge, I regretted that I had eaten lunch in Freeport.

September and the Green Mountain Rally (GMR), still thinking it would be great to bellow along Route 17 and the Appalachian Gap with the Remus, but still a most happy guy just to be riding a great BMW, a little time to ride, and a spouse that knows it's best to let me go for occasional motocycle-therapy. At the Saturday night awards at the GMR, Ted Hall, as departing President of BMWMOA awarded prizes, including a cordura packing duffel, made by Helen Two Wheels (thanks, Helen), that I won. Loading the prize duffel and more "stuff" onto an already overloaded Rockster reminded me of the George Carlin comedy monologue about packing "stuff".

Leaving the GMR on Sunday a.m., marking the passage of a good time, I had extended the GMR into four days of road-riding by making a reservation at the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) Pinkham Notch Lodge for Sunday night dinner and a September 12th overnight accommodations. I happily recalled taking my then pre-teen daughters to Pinkham Lodge in the late 1970's, and the heaping-portions community-style dinners. Not disappointed on this return trip. To get to Pinkham Notch, I had a great time riding up eastern Vermont near the Connecticut River (along the River, had I followed directions better), saw a true Vermont country estate auction, not scripted for TV, many attractive barns that are slowly disappearing from the Vermont countryside, eventually connecting to Route 112, also known as the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire.

I was struck, in riding from Vermont to New Hampshire, how Vermont is like a large, attractive groomed park, with quaint towns and frequent gas stations, compared with the White Mountains, when I ran nearly out of gas on Sunday afternoon by failing to note the much greater distances between towns and National Forest boundary lines. There were more motorcycles in the White Mountains on this mid-September weekend, save race week at Weirs Beach, and then no one is riding.

Because it was before "color" in the fall foliage season, there was only a group of seven of us in the dining room at the AMC Lodge for dinner but with varied backgrounds, we had a great visit over and after dinner. All but me was at the Lodge to hike. Save hiking for another day - too much fun riding, especially before foliage clogs the New Hampshire roads with traffic.

On Monday, I rode over Route 302, through Crawford Notch in beautiful sunny weather, where a National Forest Ranger greatly admired my Rockster, then down Route 3, through Franconia Notch, to look at the remains of the Old Man in the Mountain. The Notch is still an awesome sight. Rode South on N.H. Route 175, which parallels Route 93, but is more scenic and fun to ride, into New Hampshire's "On Golden Pond" Lake District. I had hoped to have lunch at Bailey's Ice Cream Parlor in Wolfeboro, the only place I know where you can get a penuche Sunday (figure that one out), but ordered a sandwich at a variety store on Squam Lake, a/k/a "Golden Pond", because my stomach wasn't going to make Wolfeboro.

Except for a couple of Yankee Beemer Sunday breakfast meetings, my riding pretty much ended with the GMR and Pinkham Notch. With the business environment finally improving in 2004, I was a busy beaver, and free time was spent visiting grandchildren. Remus not forgotten, however, before Christmas, fortune smiled upon me. I spoke with John at Max BMW, and ordered a Remus Genesis through Maxmoto, the California Remus distributor. John called, and said that Max was open until 3:00 PM on New Year's Eve day, a Friday, if I wanted to pick up the can, which I did. With my trusty but blind dog Raffles, we rode up to Max BMW in the Jetta. It was December 31st, after all, even if it was unseasonably warm, plus I didn't know how big the Remus can was to carry back. Besides, Raffles likes to ride in the Jetta and not on the bike.

Checked out the BMWs in the showroom - lots of GS's. It also seems like BMW is going over the edge in its futuristic styled fairing on new bikes. John retrieved the Remus box from the storeroom and said he had been saving it until I got there to open. It was beautiful, in a Titanium finish, and felt light. Slightly over $500, including shipping. We both took turns staring through the exhaust tube, like two kids looking through a paper towel roll, and admiring the beautiful welds and finish on the exhaust can. Truly a work of art - I said if my wife would permit me to, I'd put it on our mantle.

On January 1, 2005, since the temperature reached the high 50's, I decided I could not wait to install the Remus. (Guy must not have a life - installing a muffler on New Year's Day.) The muffler went on easily, although the Austrians only bothered to translate the most obvious instructions; the critical instructions remained in German. Also, while Remus included an extra set of bolts to mount the hangar bracket on the can, they neglected to include the hollow sleeve that fits into the rubber-grommeted hole for the mounting bolt that connects the hangar bracket to the bike. Remus included a lovely but fuzzy picture of the part and its installation. A set of instructions without an English translation. I managed to tap the hollow sleeve out of the stock R1150R exhaust to reuse it in the Remus bracket, (it was after all New Year's Day 2005, so I couldn't call Rusty at Max's, and I wanted it mounted then and there to try it.) Everything went fine, even if I found my tube of anti-sieze compound on January 2nd , after all bolts were snug and tight.

The critical moment came. I pulled on the choke. Pressed the starter button. And, at idle, it sounds just like the stock R1150R exhaust can. Must be that overbuilt stock BMW catalytic converter. Maybe it will sound better when I take it out on the road at 5,000 rpm's, although my old Super Trapp had sounded great installed on the bike, even at a 1,000 rpm idle. But then I installed all of the disks that Super Trapp had sent with the mufflers. So, the Genesis Titanium connector with the premuffler runs about $500, on top of the $500 already spent.

If you don't hear my Rockster coming in 2005, it's because I'm waiting until January 1, 2006 for the rest of the Remus Genesis exhaust. Happy trails to you in 2005.

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