DMV

The California DMV is a notoriously Draconian place. Their power over your life is considerable since the privilege to drive is a life or death matter to most people.

Today I get to see if I can get permanent plates for the FrankenBeemer.

I really do not know about that one. Actually mechanically speaking she should be ok; except for the ABS brakes. Are the going to check on that? Hmmmmmm..I wonder.

BMWeerman's Ghetto Garage

Welcome to the Ghetto Garage.

This episode...Zen and the Art of the Frankenbeemer---making shims.

In Robert Persig's classic tale there is at one point a rather heated debate as to whether a much needed shim for a BMW motorcycle be manufactured from a beer can. The owner of said BMW motorcycle would have nothing to do with such a notion with the belief that nothing of the sort was worthy of his piece of Bavarian engineering.

We here at the Ghetto Garage believe differently. As long as it is safe and ahem.. relatively legal, why not.

In this case, after a front wheel change the ABS sensors on my R1100RT needed to be re-calibrated. The calibration is done with very thing aluminum or stainless shims. As it turns out after this wheel change we had to change the gap enough to where we did not have enough shims. Rather than waiting for BMW to send replacements we went ahead and manufactured them. All it took was patience and a steady hand.

In above picture you can see the hands of the lovely Wrench Wench using a factor shim as a template to cut out a new one from a Monster can. Rock on Wrench Wench!




Above you are seeing a BMW wheel with the ABS sensor detached. I need to get a better image in here so you can really see what is going on.