1st Gen R53 Cooper S My 2005 R53 Daily Driver build thread

it was my alternative to buying rims and Blizzaks for the blue Mini - still learning how low I need to go with that tire pressure. 10 psi is too much for this white stuff

 

the box on the bars is the GoPro, the box on the downtube is for the light. These last an hour and are as bright as car low beams. The video didn't turn out because the card was full. I did record the "unboxing" and assembly of the bike. Assembly took just an hour with my anal attention for detail, taking stuff apart to make sure everything was put together and lubed properly. Very impressed with this brand, as they are equipped just as good as the Surly, Trek, and Specialized bikes I checked out locally, except this bike is at least 2 grand cheaper.

I ride bicycles more miles per year than I drive my Minis. My commute is 26.8 miles round trip and I ride that almost every workday of the year unless the snow is too deep or we are getting stupid degree windchills. On average I get in 6000 miles per year. The fat bike will see a fraction of that use, but I bought it for the really bad snow days plus some bike touring on loose soil. Not sure yet when I will do that but there are a few places that are on my bucket list where this bike will serve me well.

My regular commuter bike is a 1999 Gary Fisher mountain bike with some modifications and much skinnier Continental "winter contact" tires that work fine on light snow, but when it gets rutted from cars, that bike gets scary real fast. For fun I have Cervelo road bikes (my Ferrari Enzo and Porsche 911 substitutes). These carbon toys see 500-1000 miles per year, mostly on really nice days and always just for fun. Those bikes easily fit inside the Mini with just the tires taken out. This dump truck of a fat bike will look goofy inside the hatch area even with tires removed. I will take some pictures when I do that the first time

I am still undecided about a roof rack to the Electric Blue car. For example, I just can't see how you put a fat bike up there without at least a second person helping you. Almost certain to mess up your freshly polished paint in a really bad way It'll still could useful for ski, which I cannot fit inside the car unless I go alone, plus I'd need some gear bags to keep the interior dry on the way home. This year I haven't gone skiing at all because of that transport problem.

 

I love to pass folks on their trendy e-bikes or $8000 latest generation carbon racer while on my old beater Gary Fisher with luggage rack. Total satisfaction to see that look on their face when there's no motor on my bike. Best ever experience was a guy blasting past me on a steep uphill, only to have his battery go flat or overheat 50 feet ahead of me... insert descending tuba sound here.

 

It's not a dull sound. The best way to describe it is like a piece of zip tie plastic scrubbing on the disc, or cardboard touching the rotor. Not dull at all. Relatively high pitched, but more scratchy, not squealing. Even if not needed, replacing bearings is a good idea - did the fronts on the other car last summer. This blue car will get front bearings next summer when the subframe comes down for lower C-arm bushings and a few other parts. I could just do the rears at the same time, get it taken care of, especially if I don't find anything wrong with the pads or sensor. Definitely don't have a pull/resistance coming from there.

 

The tough stuff isn't the weather or the distance. It is staying alive among the absolute morons that are allowed to operate motor vehicles in this country. Right now my most likely cause of death death is called Dodge RAM. A Honda CRV got close but no dice - I jumped and the bike took one for the team. Thing is, foul weather and winter seem to be the safest time to be out there. My theory is that people are more likely to be attentive to the road when conditions get less than perfect and in the dark I can run big ass lights to get their attention away from their phones.

 

Floor mats again. Still rocking the WeatherTech winter mats, but the summer mats are pretty worn, plus the bottom foam/velcro is all torn. So I was looking for a new pair and found a great price on a set on amazon, but they are labeled as "for convertible???" - what exactly would differ on Mini R52 floor mats that make them not fit into my R53? Price is under $80 which is why I am curious - all the R53 sets I found elsewhere sell for over $100

description:

MINI COOPER Genuine Factory OEM 82110396133 Cooper Black Carpet Floor Mats 2003 - 2008 (complete set of 4 mats)​

 

Duh. I guess sometimes reading the Q and A pays off. Could care less about rear mats, as they a) were never stepped on and b) the car has a rear seat delete. 5 bucks less for the R52 mats sounds like a deal.

 

Yesterday I took off the brake caliper on the right rear to investigate that annoying noise.

First finding was that I need a new piston boot. It has a tear, but mostly still does the job. The other realization was that the pad wear sensor cannot be the reason of the rubbing noise, as it is zip-tied out of the way. Apparently the aftermarket pads do not have a provision for the sensor to be mounted. The pads are near new, so I don't care right now. I won't ever let them get close to wear limit anyway.

The bearing isn't the freest turning bearing ever, but there's also no bad spot that would explain a cyclic noise. Guide pins were not very clean, but it appeared that everything was moving freely. Cleaned that up. The inside pad was somewhat odd, having all sorts of springs that let you attach it to the ridge on top of the piston. Never seen that before on the other cars, but it wasn't too hard to install. Definitely glad I had the proper piston retraction tool, because without that I would have never got the caliper back on the car.

Cleaned up all the surfaces the pads contact, added high temp brake grease and put it back together. Only one quick test drive to the Chinese takeout in the rain - no noise. That doesn't mean I got this sorted, because there were phases I didn't notice the noise in the past. I think it is most audible at higher speeds. Will have to monitor that, but I didn't really fix anything, so I expect to hear it again.

Other thing I did was to test install the "SuperNova V3" H7 LED high beams my son got on my car, just to see if they mount, The RetrofitSource H7 Morimoto LEDs are a no go in that position - too fat to snap in.





These are also thicker on the mount ring that OEM, but they do clip in. Then I turned on the ignition... and the LED bulb begins flashing in total sync with the LED in my trunk space, just as long as the no seat belt chime lasts, then it behaves itself and respects on/off high/low beam orders.

I am guessing this is what "canbus" is all about - need to get another dongle like thing to plug into the harness. This is getting pretty tight for inside the headlight, but it's all worth it - these things are so much brighter than the H7 incandescent bulbs in the high beam position, plus the color temp is closer to the HID low beams. I didn't take them out on the road yet, but the test against the garage wall was all I needed to see to know that a 22 watt LED can be brighter than a 55 watt OEM bulb. You don't use the high beams a lot here around town, but on my travels to California, I've spent many hours on remote highways at night. This addition of extra lumens will be very welcome. Not cheap, but these test out near the very top of the bulbs you can get thee days.

 

so today I got the shipping confirmation from ECS Tuning that the resonated Milltek I bought on Black Friday is finally on a truck heading my way.

 

Learned an interesting thing by accident today - tap my window down for passenger side real short, it does the auto down like driver side. Is that a normal setting on all Minis?

So I was replacing the HID D2S low beams today. 12 years and almost 80k miles, I felt they weren't as bright as they ought to be. Sourced Philips bulbs on Amazon, white box, no label, fraction of the price. Was worried these were cheap knock-offs, but even under a magnifying glass, the tiniest detail of the bulbs I bought was identical to the bulbs I pulled. They are also noticeably brighter than the bulbs I removed. Not a bad deal, the pair for under $70.

Now I need to buy another pair of these for my son, since those were his and I was just supposed to try them and see if they were the real deal Gonna keep 'em