A few mods to my R1200GS

[jtw000]

I picked her up just over a week ago. Loving it to bits but I got her cheap due to a few cosmetic deficiencies thanks to the seller trying to paint bits with no clue as to what he was doing! He had painted the side panels and luggage rack blue in an effort to match the alloy covers and had failed miserably. I keyed them with wet'n'dry and repainted with Simoniz "tough black". Quality paint which really does what it says on the tin. I'm letting it cure properly but it seems fairly resilient to chips and scratches straight away, as well as water and solvent. I also made up a simple guard for the oil cooler because it needed one and I had some quality slotted steel just begging to be used.
I fitted a new, cut down screen as the original one blew right into my eyes and had yellowed quite badly. I'm not a lover of the screen but will use it as a basis for making my own unit up. I removed the plastic luggage clips on the rear frame and as i can't identify a use for them I'm not fitting them back on.
It is a little scary modifying such an expensive bike with rattle cans and alloy cut from a cake-tin but it worked out ok. Next is the tail light... that has to go!

http://www.londonstreetbiker.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/P1030492.JPG

The plate was bent to fit the bottom of the cooler and the shroud was cut from a cake tin and sanded by hand before being buffed on a polishing wheel. It was easy to fit and looks a million times better than the scruffy and vulnerable oil cooler.

http://www.londonstreetbiker.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/P1030494.JPG

From the front it hardly notices really but is still a big improvement over standard.

http://www.londonstreetbiker.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/P1030496.JPG

Better...

http://www.londonstreetbiker.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/P1030499.JPG

Before... Close up the paint on the side panels was lousy with orange bloom effect and overspray that had covered the fixing screws. I like to be different, it makes it feel more like my bike rather than I bike I bought.

http://www.londonstreetbiker.com/yabbfiles/Attachments/P1030478_001.JPG

 

[Bryn]

So how's the buffeting ( or lack of it) with the screen?

 

[(RIP) Miff]

Now that's what I like. Someone modifying their GS without spending a fortune. It seems that 99% of mods involve spending plenty of money. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm tight.....

So... Instead of buying a race can, I got a mate (welding god. I swear he could weld wet tissue paper) to gut the can, and rebuild it.

Remove the can from the bike. Remove the Chrome cover. Cut gently (air powered cutting disc, like a knife through butter) to reveal THIS

Then remove the perforated cover from 2 of the 3 chambers. I have highlighted to route the gas takes. Inlet on the right of the pic. Exit on the left of the pic.

Then remove most of the insides. Again I've highlighted the route the gas now has to take.

Now, weld it all back up. Refit. Hey Presto. 1 standard looking can (I like the look of the standard one) but with a few more DBs.

Personally, I'd remove even more metal, as it's not as loud as I would ideally like, but it's now more "Fruity"...

 

[Schtum]

Personally, I'd remove even more metal, as it's not as loud as I would ideally like, but it's now more "Fruity"...

In which case, you might want to get your mate to cut open the collector on the header pipes and remove the cat'. It'll make the exhaust a fair bit louder and it'll make the bike a fair bit quicker.

If you want to play safe, after all that, get yourself a Power Commander or similar device and have the bike mapped on the dyno.

 

[jtw000]

I want to make changes but can't spend a fortune... Like the work on the can, I am hoping to do something similar, I want to get the cat out and was aiming to get a link pipe made up so i could fit an ordinary carbon can to save weight. They are a bit too quiet as standard, mine whistles as it goes along. The buffeting is gone and the bike feels more interesting to ride like that but the screen is just plain ugly. I'm planning to fit a new clear screen to the snub one so it extends upwards about a foot or so. That should tidy the front end up nicely.

 

[(RIP) Miff]

In which case, you might want to get your mate to cut open the collector on the header pipes and remove the cat'. It'll make the exhaust a fair bit louder and it'll make the bike a fair bit quicker.

If you want to play safe, after all that, get yourself a Power Commander or similar device and have the bike mapped on the dyno.

It's the expense of a power commander and dyno time/set up that's stalling that one.

Maybe when I've FINALLY* got rid of the KTM and DR650 I'll have some spare cash

*Bloody people keep messing me about. What part of "Buyer to collect in 7 days" do they not understand???

 

[jtw000]

They're buying a KTM, you can't expect too much.... ahem...

 

[greg12]

cans

buy a y piece and linc pipe without the cat and run standard exhaust sounds realy nice,i went to switzerland on my 1200gs with a straight through remus i wish i had put the standard pipe on very loud on long runs