I love my bike – I really do…
The BMW R1150RT is a well built machine ideally suited for the task of long distance travel. But, like all man made machines, parts fail. On the way back from my chiropractic appointment this morning, I noticed the speedometer behaving erratically. "Aha," I thought, "the cable is about to go." And, sure enough, within a few miles, it stopped wobbling and the needle dropped to zero.
Upon my arrival home I attempted to remove the old cable and here my tribulations commenced. The top of the cable meets the speedometer body deep inside the fairing. I could just about get my right hand in and feel the knurled nut holding the cable to the speedo. But that was it, there was nowhere near enough room to turn my hand. After several fruitless minutes, I telephoned my local dealer and asked if they had a cable in stock. They did, so I trekked over and picked it up – along with a tip for getting the old cable off; use a small pair of pliers. Well, nice idea, but once in the tiny space, I couldn’t get the pliers to both grip and turn, so I gritted my teeth and took off the left-hand fairing panel. Then the bugger came off. 
To my surprise, the cable was fine. So now I need a new drive….
Oh, well, given the overall reliability of the bike, the occasional failure such as this isn’t so bad.
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