I purchased a 1998 k1200rs this spring. It is a wonderful and incredible machine which i have come to love and to loathe this summer. After 2000 blissful miles on a modern bike the deamon of problems came down like an anvil. I had foam in my oil and no coolant in my radiator. Rut ro. This was diagnosed as most likely a water pump issue, so i purchased a new ( used 8k miles) one on Beemer boneyard and installed it. I had my valves adjusted and dad and i went on our trip to the gaspe'.

After about 300 miles i was out of coolant and things were not looking so great, but there wasnt any foam in my oil. Hmmm.. well we are a long ass way from home so we might as wel keep riding. Every day i had to add about a litre of water the the radiators just to keep riding. When i got home looked for leaks and other likely things when i noticed that there was some foaming in my oil again. Well, needless to day i was not pleased. After some considerable soul searching i decided to undertake a task far beyond my knowledge and skills. I decided to do the head gasket... or at least thats how the project started.

Two days of disassembly over labor day weekend left me with parts all over the garage and some serious regret... i was in DEEP. After consultation with a mechanic and a machinist i disabled the head itself for a valve job. It took 5 weeks for the machinst to get the head back to me, but when i did it was shiny clean, with new valve stem seals and pressure penetrant tested. It was good to go, as was the waterpump i had him rebuild with brand new seals.

48 hours later the bike runs well. It took dad reading the clymber manual while i ran around with parts and my hands gloved up and oily, but it was completely worth it! We had some fun with it as well.

 Im leaving the plastic off for a few days while i do some test rides and work out the kinks but overall the project is done. Not including some tools dad purchased the total came to somewher between 500 and 550 dollars. Not too bad for a complete valve job, all new seals and gaskets.

What i learned:
-With patience, the manual and sometimes a 4 foot breaker bar all things are possible.
- Dont hesitate to take on a big project, just grab a friend (or a father in my case) and make it fun
-Tools tools tools - make sure you have them! you need shit you cant even imagine, and its all for the little things you dont think about till you are doing them. ( like a small manet on an extendable stick for fishing screws out of places you dropped them)
-BE ORGANIZED! I cannot stress this one enough. Label, box, lay out, do whatever you have to do but dont just pile everything together. Separate by systems, like coolant, exhaust, fuel.. ect
-Take Pictures. If anything looks even remotely less than 100% obvious take a picture of it so you know how it goes back. It will save you hours of diagnosis time.

Not all miles by motorcycles are created equal

Yeah, I'd say we hit a milestone in our motorcycling adventures when the wheels weren't turning.

I cannot stress how impressed I am that you got that job done.

Well done!!

I couldn't agree with your conclusions more. Every large job I've ever tackled I've done the same way and walked away with the same conclusions. But I've never done a job of this magnitude and complexity on a modern machine.

Thank you so much for the post.