George's Recommendation

I finally ran into George Rahn, our local BMW airhead guru, at the College Coffeehouse. He agreed that since the water isn't from condensation in the tank, it must be from frost or ice building from air moving through the carb due to numerous short trips. Any moisture that builds up inside the engine block from condensation will get blown into the intake plenums due to the plumbing within the airbox. As far as a path into the carburetor bowls, he believes that it would be through the atomizer where the needle from the slide fits in. This is circled in green on the diagram and is right at the bottom of the carb throat. Any moisture or frost built up on the slide or intake would run right down the needle to the main jet when the engine isn't running. With the engine running and the carbs nice and warm, any moisture would go right into the engine and get burned. I had thought that the needle had closed off the opening  but George said that there would be plenty of room for water to find it's way down. What is pictured here is the position of the slide at idle (or off).

His suggested solution would be to find some foam and route air from cooling fins on the heads and cylinders around the carburetors. He had done something like this years ago using packing foam and aluminum foil and routinely rode at temperatures well below what I'm doing right now. He thinks that the RT fairing would help to hold things in place and depending on where you have the air exit, would also provide a little heat to your legs and feet which is why he did it. With this setup, he had never experienced the water problems that I seem to be having.

Right now, I have a new minor problem. The sidecar tire is flat. I think that I'm just going to pump up the tire and head for home. I'd rather deal with the flat there than in the parking lot.