Burnt toast?

[boxermania]

THe bike will run OK with out the cat and the muffler, do remember to remove to O2 sensor an tuck it out of the way, it will be very, very loud

[Turk74]

I finally figured out what the smell was. Mice must have hid bird seed down the muffler and into the catalytic converter. I took the cat off and shook a bunch of seed out, some of which was burnt. My problem now is I can't get all the seed out. I remember someone posting a pic of the insides of the cat...but can't find that picture. Does someone know where I can find it? I think it would help me figure out how to get the rest of the seed out of the cat. Thanks

[joejeweler]

Maybe they thought you were running a "rice-burner"!

[owldaddy]

I'm surprised the seed is still there, as hot as the cat gets I would think that it would be ash by now. Maybe it will burn out next summer........ Or this might be a good excuse to buy a Y pipe, and eliminate the cat all together.
Don

[Turk74]

I think the reason it's still there is 1. because the mice kept adding more all summer. 2. There's a lot. I think what I'm going to do after I get the seed out is put some sort of screen over the opening to the can.

[MIXR]

How the hell did mice get into the end of the can???? I'd be more worried that someone has tampered with the bike and poured some grain down the pipe.

If it really was mice (or rats), check under the plastic and tank to make sure the buggers haven't been nesting and chewing wires!!!!

I had to chase off a big white dingle on the weekend. Stupid thing was having a nice old time standing on my tank and trying to strip off the beading around my screen while I was parked and having a drink.

Animal sabotage!!!!

[soldat]

well i would germinate the seed and hope for the best

[hirschg]

I just got my r last month (an 03 with 2000 miles) and have smelled the burnt toast smell very faintly only once or twice , but this morning when I road home from work temps about 40 I used the heated grips and when I pulled into the garage at home there it was the burnt toast smell but stronger than before. I have put a couple of hundred miles on it since I bought it and have only used the heated grips a few times on the low setting even though they were not needed just to check them out but today I used them on the high setting and thats what I think is producing the smell. however I tried to smell the grips but no odor from the grips themselfs (whether the smell is normal or not is a differnt story) I'm going for a ride tomorrow and I will not use the heated grips and I'll let you all know if my hypothesis is correct..........hirschg

[hirschg]

Well so much for my sciencific analysis road today tried both with and with out using the heated grips no burnt toast smell. I spoke to the sevice tech at my local BMW dealer about the smell he said the grips would give of a rubber smell. could be road grime thrown up on the exhaust or he thought it might be the clutch he said its a dry clutch and some times can give off an odor but he said it was nothing to worry about.
hirschg

[Turk74]

The smell coming from my bike was no doubt coming from the exhaust. I'm glad I finally took the cat off because there was A LOT of bird seed in it. It couldn't have been good for the bike. If you get the smell again, I definitely would suggest taking it off and shaking it out. It doesn't take that long.