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Up in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Pueblo is a testament of what a single man can accomplish. A work in progress since 1969, Jim Bishop has single handily built his castle from scratch putting in nearly 30 years hard labor; stone by stone, weld by weld.

Bishop Castle is located in south central Colorado on State Highway 165 approximately 12 miles southeast of the junction of SH 96 and SH 165. You won’t find this attraction in any tourist book because it’s kind of a unique place, almost of folklore proportions. But it’s certainly a fun motorcycle ride with nice paved roads and beautiful scenery. It’s in the middle of nowhere, but isn’t hard to spot because there are almost always cars parked out along the roadside full of curious visitors. Some are regulars who have first-hand witnessed the growth of the Castle over the years. Others are curious first-time visitors amazed a what a single man can accomplish. But don’t think you have to stand on the side of the road. You can actually walk through (and up) the many different towers of the castle.

However, do so at your own risk. The castle is not a place for a young child as there are many places where a careful step and a watchful eye are mandatory. Admission is free, although a donation is always encouraged.

If you happen to be riding a motorcycle in the Colorado Rockies, I’d recommend a swing by Bishop Castle just to take a look around because you won’t find anything like it elsewhere.

Jim Bishop is usually there working on his castle and is more than willing to shake a hand.

Battery maintenance is important and fortunately it’s easy. The original battery that comes with the GS and Dakar is unsealed, meaning you periodically need to add water. How often varies but it’s best to check it every few thousand miles or so. If you do a lot of off road riding, it’s best to check it more frequently.

If the water is low, damage to the battery can occur and it won’t hold it’s charge as long. If you find that the battery is consistently low on water, there could be an over-charging problem where the voltage rectifier is pushing too much voltage to the battery. Since it’s right near the battery, we can check that with a volt meter at the same time we check the water levels.

Adding Water to the Battery

• Go buy some distilled water at the supermarket. It must be distilled. You cannot use regular water.
• Leave the bike turned off. You do not need to disconnect the battery.
• Unlocking and opening the rear compartment. Pull the seat release cable and lift the seat at the same time.
• Remove two screws on the left side body panel; one is where the seat normally covers and the other is up underneath the handlebars where the oil dipstick is located. Remove the same two torx screws located on the right side body panel.
• Unscrew the 2 torx screws on the center body panelwhich are also located underneath the handle bars. There is enough flex in the side panels that you should be able to pop out the center body panel.
• Once the center body panel is removed, you will see the battery. The battery is held in place with a rubber strap. Pull and lift the strap. You do not need to remove the battery unless you want to (it’s easier to see the water levels but again isn’t necessary). To remove the battery you need to disconnect the terminals and pull the battery straight out. Note: As with any vehicle battery, disconnect the black terminal first. When reconnecting, connect the positive (red) terminal first.
• Get a small damp towel and clean around the top of the battery, especially around the white plastic circular caps. You don’t want any debris to fall into the holes.
• Once cleaned, remove the first plastic cap with a pair of needle nose pliers. If you look down into the hole with a flashlight, you may be able to see some metal slats. I typically poor in enough distilled water to fully submerge the metal slats. Replace the white plastic cap and repeat the process for each plastic cap.
• Reattach the center body panel and snap the side body panels into it. Re-insert the torx screws into the center and side panels. Reattach the seat.

Checking voltage Rectifier

• While the bike is turned off, use a voltage meter to test the battery voltage. Connect the red lead to the positive terminal on the battery. Connect the black lead to the negative terminal on the battery. It should read right around 12 volts DC.
• Start the bike and leave it running. Connect the red lead to the positive terminal on the battery. It should read around 14 volts DC this time. If the charging voltage is significantly higher than 15 volts, there may be a problem with your voltage rectifier and your battery is getting charged to quickly. This could result in low water levels and could also damage the battery.

Related Entries

• Changing the oil in a BMW 650 GS or Dakar

Changing the oil in the BMW 650 GS and the Dakar is very simple. The BMW shop in my neck of the woods wants $150 to do the job, which is why I took it upon my self to learn how to do this. While you don’t have to get the oil change kit from BMW, it’s probably best because they provide the copper ring for the sump plug, the o-ring for the oil filter, and the oil filter itself all of which costs about $15.

Some people make the job way more complicated than it needs to be, by removing the whole oil tank and getting every last drop out so as to remove all possible particles which may be suspended in the oil. I and many others don’t think this is necessary at all. After all, the oil filter is supposed to take care of that and if you have that much crude in your oil … you got other major problems.

So … let’s get on with it. Run the motorcycle to get it up to normal operating temperature, which means the radiator fan should should kick on. Turn the bike off.

Draining the Oil Tank

• Leave the bike tilted on its side-stand. There’s enough of a lean for the oil to drain. If you have a center stand, that is fine.
• Remove the seat by unlocking the rear compartment and pulling the cable release located inside. The seat will then lift up. The only reason we have to remove the seat is to gain access to one torx-head screw so we can remove the left side body panel (next step).
• Remove the left side body panel by unscrewing the oil dip stick and the torque screw right next to it, removing the 4 torx screws which connect the left hand turn signal to the body, and remove the one torx screw which is normally covered by the seat. You can let the left hand turn signal dangle by its wires, although it is easily disconnected by squeezing the plug and pulling gently. NOTE: The bottom part of the left side panel has a male connector piece that snaps snuggly into a rubber grommet. It’s best to pull the bottom of the left side body panel out just a bit, then lift up.
• Once the side body panel is removed, the black finned oil tank is now visible. Loosen and remove the oil drain screw located here. The oil will shoot out about 5 inches or so then slowly tapper off. I found it best to use a funnel to collect and direct the oil in a pan of some sort. If you have the bike on a center stand, just lean it over a bit to help the oil drain. Again, you don’t have to get every last drop.
• Once the oil has finished draining, replace the drain screw. Don’t crank down on the drain screw too much, but it should be snug.
• You can now replace the left side body panel by inserting the male connector into the rubber grommet (bottom of body panel), re-attaching the turn signal, replacing the torx screws, and attaching the seat. The top of the left side body panel snaps into the top body panel in three places.

Changing the Oil Filter

• To remove the oil filter, you have to also remove the chain sprocket protector to gain access to one of the torx screws.
• Reposition the black neutral wire so as not to get oil on it. You don’t need to disconnect it, just move it out of the way.
• Now that the chain sprocket cover has been removed, you can remove the 3 torx screws on the oil filter cover (one of them looks different and sticks out a bit). Be prepared for a bit of oil as you start to loosen the torx screws. It’s not like a liter is going go gush out, but there will be a few ounces. There’s no perfect way to prevent a mess. Some people cut an aluminum can length-wise to catch the oil and direct it away from the bike. Remove the filter by pulling it straight out with your fingers (did you think you were going to stay clean?!).
• If you want, you can clean out the oil filter housing, but it’s not necessary. If you do decide to do so, make sure you use a clean lint free cloth or something that won’t leave lint or threads behind.
• Remove the old black o-ring from inside the filter cover you just removed. If you bought the oil change kit, you will find a new black o-ring. Lube the oil ring with fresh oil and insert it into the oil filter cover. Put some oil on the rubber ring inside the oil filter and insert the oil filter into the motorcycle. It should push in snuggly, but not hard.
• Reattach the oil filter cover, re-route the black wire in its correct position (if you moved it), and reattach the chain sprocket cover. The specs on the torx screws for the oil filter cover are 10 nm. However, the one torx screw that looks different and sticks out a bit should not be tightened that hard. Snug, but not super tight (you may break it).

Sump Plug for the Crank Case

• Under the bike is the sump plug for the crank case. To gain access to the plug you need to remove the bash/skid plate. This is held in place with 3 hex bolts.
• I used a long-arm crescent wrench to remove the sump plug bolt because it has a lot of leverage. The sump plug is on there really tight (spec is 40 nm). If you have a 15/16″ sprocket that is small enough to fit in there, great! But you might need some additional leverage. Again, position an oil pan beneath the plug because quite a bit of oil will drain.
• Once you remove the plug, clean it off. It’s actually a magnet so you might see some very fine metal shavings stuck to it. This is normal. Take off the old copper ring/washer.
• In the oil change kit is a new copper ring/washer. Put the copper ring on the sump plug and re-insert the plug into the crank case housing after the oil has finished draining. You want to tighten the sump plug pretty good (spec is 40 nm of torque). Don’t go tighter than this though. The last thing you want to do is strip the threads on the crankcase.
• Re-attach the bash plate to the bottom of the bike with the 3 hex bolts/washers.

Filling with Oil

• Once everything it put back together, somewhat slowly fill the bike with just under 2 liters of oil. A full 2 liters won’t quite fit if the bike is tilted on the side-stand.
• Start the bike and let it run for about 30 seconds. This will pump the oil through the filter and into the crank case. Turn off the bike and add another 0.25 liters or so.
• Check for leaks near the oil filter and sump plug. If the oil level is still a bit low, add more oil. Don’t over fill the tank though, otherwise you may introduce oil in your air box.

That’s it! It took me awhile to change my oil for the first time. The second time went 10x faster.

Now … what oil should you use? That the source of HUGE debate. It will never hurt to use regular non-synthetic oil in your 650 GS or Dakar. I switch between SAE 15W50 in the summer and SAE 15W40 in the fall/winter. Finding SAE 15W50 non-synthetic oil is tough as all the auto parts stores only carry the synthetic version. Only a couple bike shops carry it, and of course the BMW dealership does as well, but it’s like twice as much. I can’t speak for synthetics because I have never used them. Just keep in mind, this bike has a wet clutch which means synthetic oils that have friction modifiers or other additives can cause the clutch to slip.

Related Entries

• Battery Maintenance – BMW 650 GS or Dakar

If you find that your BMW 650 CS/GS/Dakar tail light doesn’t work at all or flickers when riding, chances are the metal power terminals inside the bulb socket are no longer making a good connection with the metal bumps on the tail light bulb. This is a very common problem with the BMW 650 of all makes, models, and years. Fortunately, there is a very easy fix.

Due to excessive vibration, temperature changes, and replacing light bulbs, the two metal power terminal tabs inside the tail light socket deform and get pushed too far back inside the tail light chassis. This prevents the tail light bulb from making good contact with the power terminals and the smallest vibrations can cause the electric connection to break temporarily or indefinitely.

To fix the problem, all you need to do is pry the two metal power tabs forward just a little so that they make a better connection with the metal bumps on the tail light bulb. If you look at the back of the bike, the red tail light casing on the 650 CS/GS/Dakar is held in place with two screws. If you remove these screws the red tail light casing comes off and you have access to the light bulb inside. At this point, turn the ignition on, but you don’t need to start the bike. Remove the light bulb by pushing in and twisting clockwise about 1/8 turn. If the bulb flickered while removing it, then the bent power terminals are most likely the cause.

Looking at the tail light bulb you should see two metal bumps. These bumps need to make a good connection with the two metal power terminals inside the tail light casing. Turn the ignition off and find a small tool that you can use to pry the power terminals forward just a bit. Make sure the bike is off and you don’t want the power terminals tabs inside the tail light casing to touch.

After you have made the adjustment, turn the ignition back to “on” and re-insert the taillight bulb. If the bulb is lit, then you are done. If it still flickers a bit and doesn’t stay lit, then you will need to continue prying the tabs forward until a good connection is made. It took me 4 tries before I fixed mine because I didn’t want to pry them too far forward.

One of the first things I noticed about my BMW 650 Dakar was how dim the taillight was. The little incandescent bulb is not very bright and if the plastic light cover is even just a little bit dirty (as it always seems to be) the light is even more unnoticeable. And that’s the one thing you don’t want to be while riding a motorcycle on busy city streets, unnoticeable.

So, one of the first things I bought for my bike was the Brake! LED taillight from Touratech online. This is an awesome little addition to any BMW 650 or 1200 motorcycle. Instead of a single incandescent bulb letting people know you are coming to a stop, the LED lights are like 10x brighter. This thing is bright, but not so much so that it is annoying. The other cool thing is it’s extremely easy to install. The only thing you have to do is remove the two screws holding the red taillight case in place, remove the light bulb and plug in the new LED taillight. The connector has the same plug as a regular taillight bulb so it’s very easy to install. I did it in about 5 minutes with no problems at all. The taillight cover then goes back on as it was before.

There are a few good things about the Brake! LED taillight (or any LED taillight for that matter). The first is obvious; it’s much brighter. Now, that may not be a big deal if you only ride the bike off road, but for those of us that use it as a commuting bike (hey, 72 mpg baby!) on busy roads, I’m all for being a little more visible. The other benefit is LED lights are vibration proof. They do not have filaments like incandescent bulbs and they last much longer. The bike will be long gone before the taillight ever goes out. You can also configure the Brake! LED taillight to pulse or flash for 1, 1.5 or 2 seconds before remaining on. This will help capture the attention of the person behind you. Since the BMW 650 GS doesn’t come with a large alternator, the LED lights draw less power which might allow you to use it on other electronic devices.