12K Service – Brattin Motors, San Diego

A somber day as we remember September 11th 4 short years ago. It was the following day that I made my decision to leave the company I founded. But that’s a whole other story. If you’re interested you can read my letter I wrote shortly after here.

I picked up the bike from Brattin Motors today and I’m duly impressed. Gary Orr, Todd and the excellent service team did a great job and went out of their way to make sure my bike is ready for the miles ahead.

Beyond the 12K service I decided to replace the Works Shock with a back-up they sent me just to have a bit more dampening and more adjustment to have the bike riding as Al Jesse set it up a couple weeks back. I also put the stiffer Touratech front fork springs.

Even better Brattin was able to diagnose, service and repair a slight oil leak that has plagued me since Anchorage. A leak that neither the Anchorage dealer (it’s no wonder) nor BigSky in Missoula could correct. Thankfully this was covered under the BMW warranty.

Still running the Anike rear tire I purchased in Missoula, I was anxious to change it out for my Avon Gripster. With still lots of miles left on the Anike, Gary talked me out of tossing it and suggested I carry my Gripster and change it in Baja or mainland Mexico. This logic made sense, but the thought of schlepping a tire 1,000 miles to the bottom of Baja didn’t appeal to me. So he changed the front tire, left the Anike on the bike and I’ll strap the tire and change it on the road.