Anyone murdered their 1150 off road? What breaks?

Nick

Guest
Mine has had a pasting recently, in 2 rallies and an enduro. I have much more enthusiasm than skill and crash a lot. I want to do more of this sort of thing but without risking being stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bust bike. So I'm looking for ways to head off potential trouble.

I'm familiar with all the Touratech tough parts and the reasons for fitting them. Can anyone suggest further improvements? E.g.:

- my rear shock snapped the other day, probably because it bottomed out once too often over the jumps on a motocross course. So I'm getting it rebuilt with more travel.

- a while back the seal on the rear shock failed - probably because of grit getting lodged somewhere it shouldn't. So I'm making neoprene booties to protect both shocks.

- i snapped a fear footrest hanger the other day. Done this
several times - they are very brittle. Anyone got any thoughts?

- i haven't snapped the bars yet, but live in fear of it. How would one bodge a repair on the road? (I have a pocket blowtorch but have never used it for anything cleverer than lighting the gas at home.)

Any other thoughts or suggestions most welcome!
 
Nick said:

- i snapped a fear footrest hanger the other day. Done this
several times - they are very brittle. Anyone got any thoughts?
Click to expand...

If you mean the pillion peg hanger . . . yes, a common breakage, they're cheap castings. Just take them off!

It's well worth investing in carbon or suchlike cylinder head covers and/or engine bars as the magnesium covers crack or puncture surprisingly easily. At £40 each new (and about £18 2nd hand) it's worth having spares with you in case of emergency.

Remove indicators or at least replace with Touratch flexible ones.

Remove the screen.

Put on or keep on the pannier rails but cover them in foam pipe insulation.

I've seen bars on the 1150 get bent but never snapped.
 
What?

I didn't think Nick was serious actually. Probably winding the BBers up. Or is he a masochist or what? Surely if you're going to be serious about offroading you're gonna use the correct tool. Mine's an XR400 - spends a lot of time plastic side down, nothing breaks, and boy is it a giggle.
 
back to back

after riding my gs and a ktm 200 back to back off road I know which I would choose !!
 
Actually I was serious! I agree that the GS is not the ideal tool for this sort of stuff. I did an enduro - the Hafren - on an XR400 the other day and it was much more fun. (Having said that, two friends did it on 1150's, one of which was mine, and claimed to be having a great time. More of a challenge, they said!)

But...you can't go round the world on an XR. Well, you can...but I'd rather do it on my GS. I reckon it represents the best compromise if you want to go everywhere, sometimes with a passenger. So a GS it has to be. But when I get the chance to do some interesting trails I want to get stuck in without worrying about the consequences of dropping it.

Thanks for the suggestions. Tell me more about alternative rocker covers - I didn't know they existed.
 
I've seen pictures of carbon type rocker cover protectors, they look rather good. I dont know who makes them though.
 
- my rear shock snapped the other day, probably because it bottomed out once too often over the jumps on a motocross course. So I'm getting it rebuilt with more travel
Click to expand...

What shocks have you got ?
I was under the impression you could'nt rebuild OEM shocks

Gates
 
It's a Tech 2000 super duper 5 way adjustable thing. When I got it my bike was strictly a super moto for road and track use only. So I happily signed up for short travel. But I forgot about this when I started off roading recently. So I blame myself for the breakage.
 
Handlebar.

Try a set of Renthal handlebars from any motocross shop. These are really hard to bend if you drop the bike....they come in various colours and bends...I would suggest the Enduro typr bend as they are as high as you`d get to match the originals......
 
Nick

You can get a BMW bar end kit that allows the fitting of the heated grips with the Renthals it has a small pin the stops it going into the bar the whole way and allows the cable for the grip to go between the bar end and the weight. You will also have to drill 2 holes in the bars for the cables to enter near the yoke.

Simon
 
most bloody ecentric nation in the history of mankind

"People in glass houses" springs to mind!!

:hapybnce:
 
Cool. Er...I mean "hot". This BMW bar end kit...is it a BMW part? Or from someone else? Where can you get it?
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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