Over the last couple of weeks, my bike had started to sound a bit odd. It was louder than usual, and was backfiring a bit, but overall it wasn't consistent and I thought maybe I was just being oversensitive. Over the last week it seemed to get worse, so I put some real thought into it. I finally decided it must be an exhaust leak. I took it up to the dealership last Wednesday, and the service manager confirmed my guess and even showed me which header bolts were loose.

Wednesday evening I removed the fairing lower in order to just snug up the bolts a bit. Turns out I have virtually every size of metric socket except 12mm, which is exactly what the Beemer needs, so I couldn't actually do anything. I decided to go out and buy a new socket set and torque wrench for the job.

So, yesterday, I treated myself to a new Craftsman socket set (I've had my old one since I was about 14 years old), and a nice Craftsman torque wrench. I really treated myself on the wrench, since I went for the "micro tourque" model, which has a torque release, rather than just a torque meter (it would have been very hard to read a meter with the wrench upside-down and that close to the ground). Well, tools really make the difference, and I had the exhaust nuts snugged up quickly. I went ahead and re-torqued all of them for good measure.

I went out today for a ride around town, and sure enough the odd sounds and backfiring were gone. Score one for the weekend warrior!