BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

It has been a brutal winter here in New England for sure, but I draw the line at mice in the RR.

Made a cup of hot coffee and went to the garage for my weekly review and polish of the Mistress – resting comfortably on her mats in the garage. Noticed an abundance of birdseed spilled on the floor by the door and - NOOoooooo! More seeds and husks on the mats under the RR! This is WAR! And it ain’t my first rodeo as native here. Bait traps are already doing their genocidal magic as I type, but clearly some partisans still roam.

I started up the Mistress and a few quick revs had seed spraying out from under the tank – Ahhhhhhhhh!
The cleanup begins. All seed buckets sealed and banished. I stripped off the saddle and side panels and did a closer inspection. Sure enough, Varmint Cong had made a seed storage depot of my boxer matrix under the tank – but thankfully, no nest, fur, tirds or pee. Air cleaner and air box are unharmed.

Out came the shop-vac to blow out the offending seed supply, vacuum and rags to wipe everything down. Panels back on and showroom clean again. A two hour investment I did not count on, but glad I caught it.

I continue to be amazed by the design of this bike! Naked = a bike that is super great to clean. Almost everything including the guts can be accessed with a rag or brush.

The invasion took place over the week I was at work – fast. Glass half full though, I found that the 2009’s do not require tank removal for my upcoming battery change.

Do you guys out West have issues with spiders and scorpions doing likewise?

I purchased my 2007 from a gentleman in AZ, back in December, that had kept it parked in a heated garage for the first three years of its life. It only had 250 miles on it. After the 450 mile ride home (it took me 900 miles) I got to looking closely and found a mouse had chewed through a few wires on the diagnostic harness. Thankfully no other wires had been damaged. Before heading home on the RR I had taken it to a AZ BMW dealer to have the first oil change and a brake line recall performed. They didn't bother to tell me about the damaged wires but they did note it on the receipt (I wasn't real happy about that). I have been riding most of the winter here as we don't have much of one. So the critters haven't had time for that foolishness. I hope you thaw out before too long.

I've managed to discourage the wee beasties by gassing them with mothballs placed in small glass jars in close proximity to the machinery.

bicyclist wrote:I've managed to discourage the wee beasties by gassing them with mothballs placed in small glass jars in close proximity to the machinery.

Interesting
Do you drill vent holes in the jar lids for effect?

My H2.....

A few falls ago we had the semi-occasional acorn explosion. The trees go nuts (pun) every few years and drop so many acorns you can't walk down a sidewalk.

Anyhoo, come springtime I go to get a pair of yard boots out of the cubby under the stairs. The boots are full to the TOP with acorns. I start pulling out storage boxes. Everything that could hold an acorn has one. I crawled under another storage space and pulled out ski boots, snowboard boots, boxes, buckets...everything was filled to the brim with acorns. The ground squirrels went completely ape-sh*t over the winter storing up those acorns.

I still find them pouring out of things to this day. Got an old golf carry-bag out the other day...filled with now-rotting acorns.

creamora wrote:

bicyclist wrote:I've managed to discourage the wee beasties by gassing them with mothballs placed in small glass jars in close proximity to the machinery.

Interesting
Do you drill vent holes in the jar lids for effect?

Nope, didn't put lids on the jars. I was pleased to find that the mothballs lasted all winter.

I wouldn't suggest this remedy for use where any kids had access.

Moth balls, Dryer sheets, lots of rat patrol in the shop when fall hits. That is a must, those little buggers can be real busy

Great stories guys.

The wife nixed the mothball idea with the kids and all.

As for the Dryer sheets, I had those spread out all over the garge, shelves and at all climb-up points under the bike and stuffed into the air intake. No effect on my little partisans. I'm beginning to think it's all urban legend; the garage smelled great, but now I think the mice smell great too.

Update: with my cover sheet off and more window light on the bike things seem to be quieting down. Plus, a few more morsals of tasty green death nuggets are gone.

BMW must have some kind of delicious (to rats) stuff in their wiring too... Judy's 328i had a failure in the tire pressure warning system antenna wiring. Examination revealed tiny footprints all around a chewed wiring harness

ka5ysy wrote:BMW must have some kind of delicious ...

Hmm, that might explain why several of the ground squirrel variety of rats charged my RR during a ride down 25 from Hollister, CA a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately they did not survive the attempt to board at speed and were not able to get to my wiring,

Mark

ka5ysy wrote:BMW must have some kind of delicious (to rats) stuff in their wiring too... Judy's 328i had a failure in the tire pressure warning system antenna wiring. Examination revealed tiny footprints all around a chewed wiring harness

Ok, I'm starting to get a picture here... More research is needed and access to an industrial lab.

My theory is that some form of nut extract is being used by BMW in their plastic and extrusion processes. A manufacturing secret/conspiracy that clearly runs all the way to the top of BMW!