F800GS crash resilience?

[F650Dakar_Norway]

I bumped into a car from behind at a lowly 20kmh in November and experienced surprisingly much damage to the front end. Typical stupid accident in rush traffic and the notorious second of concentration failure on my side.

Aftermath:
- smashed headlight
- broken front panel carrier (holds light and instrument panel etc.)
- broken beak
- broken beak-holder panels ( tank dummy )
- front fork bent out of alignment ( simply realigned afterwards )

I managed to weave left and clipped the suddenly braking car left behind ( it barely got a crack in the left rear indicator panel ) while in a flurry I saw the whole instrument panel, beak and parts of the fake tank panels brake off the 800GS in pieces. In the end I fell over to the right while the broken front light and instruments assembly with fairing glass hung only by the electrical wires to the instruments. It took a fair amount of duct tape and zip-ties before I could ride on - as opposed to the 650 which has a more robust front assembly.

I escaped unhurt ( touch wood ), a dent in my pride and with surprisingly much damage on the bike. From my experience this motorcycle has a vastly less robust front end than the 650 Dakar. I know this the hard way after incidents with both.

The difference being mainly that the 650 draws benefit from having a far more solid front end assembly and a metal front panel carrier to hold the instrument cluster and main light. In 2007 I went down hard twice on icy gravel roads with the 650 Dakar in September on the mountain roads at Golsfjellet with only two broken LH indicator lenses, broken fairing glass and a broken clutch lever.
After changing the clutch lever, zip-tying the indicator lenses and duct-taping the fairing glass together I rode on with no hassle afterwards.

The F650 Dakar also has a single lens headlight being far more crash-resistant than the dual-lens, edgy 800GS headlight being supported by a surprisingly weak plastic profile front panel carrier. On the 650 the front light/instrument assembly is supported by a more solid metal carrier. In addition the beak of the 650 is far more robust and turns with the front fork so it doesn't break as easy as on the 800GS - whose stiff beak is prone to breakage at tipovers and crashes.

Lessons learned:

- Focus better in slow-moving rush traffic
- This bike has a cost-cutting-based less crash-resistant front end than the F650 Dakar
- The darn thing has expensive replacement parts

The latter was found out here:
http://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/MainDiagrams.asp?mospid=50779

Question:

Based on the above US microfiche;
What do these parts cost in the UK, Sweden, Germany or other countries?

63127697753 headlight (SAE) BUY 1 $426.34
46637714071 side trim graphics, front left - Up to 08/2008 BUY 1 $395.32
46637714072 side trim graphics, front right - Up to 08/2008 BUY1 $395.32

best regards

'08 F800GS '04 F650 Dakar '94 ST1100
SP2610/Cn2008

 

[Greggers]

Glad to hear you escaped relatively unscathed...

Yaaah ... BMW seem to have adopted this composite plastic as their material of choice for most brackets and frames on the 800. It certainly doesn't have the resilience of alloy or steel...

I had a quote in the UK for a new side trim (fake tank side?) for £165.00 or thereabouts, and the F800GS graphic was about £24.00 per side from memory... Needless to say I'm repairing my panel and might consider new graphics, but that's not too high on the priority list at the moment.

Greg

 

[F650Dakar_Norway]

The US MaxBMW designation "side trim graphics" appear somewhat misleading.
"Side trim" or "fake tank side" seem more precise.

My gripe is mainly that the F800GS front assembly need to be "ruggedized".
Both the edge-shaped headlight and its support brace needs more metal structure. As is I'm not confident that this bike is really a candidate for a RTW trip. I'd rather take a serious service and refit on my single-cyl 650 Dakar for such a task. The F800GS is simply not rugged enough IMHO. Fancy having dumped it in the middle of nowhere and the whole headlight-instrument-windshield assembly just dangles from the electric cables to the instruments as I experienced. Not exactly an Adventure highlight. Duct-tape and zip-ties can not support the wight of that assy over bumpy dirt roads for long. Needs reinforced structure for serious dirt-road duty!

Additionally the upper part of the tank dummy that supports the windshield should be detachable from the lower tank dummy panels. Should also be supported by some metal structure or bracing.

That beak/fake tank panel combo is a weak point that needs reinforcement or maybe even a clever "crash-pop-off" solution to save some crash damage. There's potential for aftermarket solutions here

My opinion so far after spills on the F650 Dakar and the 800GS:

1. I'd take the 650 Dakar for a RTW or hardcore dirt road adventure - better aftermarket supply and more crash-resilient

2. The F800GS is apparently more road oriented and less crash-resilient per March 2009 than the F650 Dakar single.
The 800GS' front assembly has a more solid front fork but as yet a far less crash-tolerant headlight-instrument-windshield assembly.
A soft jaw indeed.

 

[everywherevirtually]

A car pulled a U-turn on me last year and I made contact with the driver door. I came to a stop but as I had to let the bike down the beak scraped his door. If that impact had been harder I think, like you I would have lost the front end.