I’ve gone and Supermotarded my 1200GS

[Yonkyo]

I think it looks gr8.Who cares about the offset,if it works,then why should we worry.I think windychuffer needs to get out more,folk have been modifying their bikes ever since bikes were invented and will continue to do so.I am glad that we feel free to show off our modded bikes on the forum ,it gives us all ideas and pleasure chatting about it.A smaller front mudguard and some carbon would IMO look fab.Keep on with it mate,and post the pics.Good on yer.

Thanks Shurv

I have some carbon bit on order...

 

[big simp]

GS supermoto bits for sale

I converted mine also it has the ST wheels painted in satin black and wearing BT014 Bridgestones. Have only covered about 200 miles. 120 front 180 rear.
I am currently changing my GS and will sell all the parts to convert it to the supermoto look.

Brand new BMW ST wheels painted two pack satin black and a carbon front guard modifed to suit the 17" wheels, as the orginal front guard looks naff with the smaller wheels these are a bolt straight in swap.

call me for details pls. 07894 047 667

steve

 

[Yonkyo]

I converted mine also it has the ST wheels painted in satin black and wearing BT014 Bridgestones. Have only covered about 200 miles. 120 front 180 rear.
I am currently changing my GS and will sell all the parts to convert it to the supermoto look.

Brand new BMW ST wheels painted two pack satin black and a carbon front guard modifed to suit the 17" wheels, as the orginal front guard looks naff with the smaller wheels these are a bolt straight in swap.

call me for details pls. 07894 047 667

steve

Ok PM sent

 

[big simp]

Hers a another pic in red the wheels will match any colour bike.

 

[Yonkyo]

Hers a another pic in red the wheels will match any colour bike.

Nice job...that’s one hell of a clean bike there Simp...do you ever ride it

I'm just jealous, my GS could be that shiny again if i could stop myself riding her....

Cheers...let me know if sell your mudguard separately


Whoooohoooo...i've just bust the ton on my posts

 

[big simp]

Its only got 2600 miles on it but i do keep it clean wish i was a dirty git but ive tried to be and it just isnt working out it bugs me dirty for to long.
steve

 

[Andrew Lodge]

BIg Simp

Do I recall from an earlier post that you had the wheels and possibly rear drive modified to reduce the rear offset?

I love the idea of a GS with 17" wheels and think they look great but just cannot get my head round the idea of a bike with offset wheels.

It is a long time since I studied physics but I don't think the rules have changed much. Surely a bike with offset wheels must corner better one way than the other.

Whilst I respect the opinion of those who have made the conversion and say it is fine I think i would have to try it for myself before I could bring myself to spend a grand on it.

Out of curiosity does the front wheel go straight in without the need for any additional spacers etc?

All of course just MHO and good luck to those with the balls to just get on and do it!!

 

[marcparnes]

I've done my '05 and my new '07 as well. Here is a pic of the '07:

The rear offset is a bit much. You don't notice it unless you take both hands off of the bars and then it pulls to the right pretty hard. I fixed it on both bikes by removing .150" from the mounting flange of the wheel and also .150" from the rear drive flange. Very simple to do resulting in no pull at all Another thing to watch out for is how close the front disc support comes to the caliper. It actually hit the r/s caliper on my '05 and was extremely close on the '07. Its a 10 minute fix to get .040" clearance with a grinder and a can of flat black paint. You have to take just a bit of material off from an area about the size of the tip of your finger. No big deal. The bike is only lowered at the pegs by 1/2". The rear wheel is the same size in diameter as the stocker while the front is 1" smaller. The bike drops into turns much quicker with less effort. It tracks beautifully as well. I powder coated the '07 wheels gloss black for a paltry $75 for BOTH wheels! Powder coating is so simple compared to wet painting anyone could do it. The powder is electrically charged and blown on the wheel which is then placed in an oven for 4 hours at 400F. Presto, perfect finish. I had an industrial guy do it. Dropped them off in the morning and picked them up in the afternoon. He probably had a total of 30 minutes of labor invested, hence the low fee. The front fender is a cheap laid up piece from Boxer-Design painted flat black to match the other plastic bits.

 

[marcparnes]

Out of curiosity does the front wheel go straight in without the need for any additional spacers etc?

Yes it does using the original axle and spacer.

 

[Yonkyo]

I've done my '05 and my new '07 as well. Here is a pic of the '07:

The rear offset is a bit much. You don't notice it unless you take both hands off of the bars and then it pulls to the right pretty hard. I fixed it on both bikes by removing .150" from the mounting flange of the wheel and also .150" from the rear drive flange. Very simple to do resulting in no pull at all Another thing to watch out for is how close the front disc support comes to the caliper. It actually hit the r/s caliper on my '05 and was extremely close on the '07. Its a 10 minute fix to get .040" clearance with a grinder and a can of flat black paint. You have to take just a bit of material off from an area about the size of the tip of your finger. No big deal. The bike is only lowered at the pegs by 1/2". The rear wheel is the same size in diameter as the stocker while the front is 1" smaller. The bike drops into turns much quicker with less effort. It tracks beautifully as well. I powder coated the '07 wheels gloss black for a paltry $75 for BOTH wheels! Powder coating is so simple compared to wet painting anyone could do it. The powder is electrically charged and blown on the wheel which is then placed in an oven for 4 hours at 400F. Presto, perfect finish. I had an industrial guy do it. Dropped them off in the morning and picked them up in the afternoon. He probably had a total of 30 minutes of labor invested, hence the low fee. The front fender is a cheap laid up piece from Boxer-Design painted flat black to match the other plastic bits.

Nicely done Marc

I removed my hands from the bars today at 80mph, and yes the bike wanted to drift to the right, but NOT alarmingly so. And having done over 400 miles with these wheels, I hadn’t noticed any pull to the right with my hands on the bars.

I had no problems with my front wheel/callipers. This maybe because I’ve used the wheels from the R1200S (which come in deep gloss black as standard)

The standard GS with decent tyres is by no means a bad handling bike, but the more I ride my GS with this set-up, the more I love it. It has truly improved the all-round road handling. Especially through fast twisty ‘S’ bends. I have loads more confidence to throw the bike into corners now with these fat sticky tyres .

Of course, this set-up wont be to every GSer’s taste, but if we all liked/disliked the same things, it would be a very boring world.

 

[sandbar]

.........but just cannot get my head round the idea of a bike with offset wheels.

As somebody has already posted - all R series have offset wheels

I don't know what the figures for the GS are, but for the R1100S the offset in the workshop manual is +4.5mm +/- 9mm. In other words anything from +13.5mm to -4.5mm is normal and within BMW's tolerances.

sandbar
www.sandbarcomposites.co.uk

.

 

[GS TRV]

Thanks Trev

Comparing old and new?

Old ZX
Has three distinct powerbands (big leaps in power) which would catch me out sometimes exiting corners – 152 RWBHP tested (standard)
New ZX
A bit flat below 4800rpm, then BANG arm wrenching power right to the red-line – 169.8 RWBHP tested (standard)

Old ZX
Hard suspension, very bumpy ride, but a sweet steering, very flickable handling, though very wheelie prone in the first four gears.

New ZX
Much softer well damped suspension, a very smooth ride, slower steering, not as willing to change direction as the old ZX – so I dropped the front forks by 10mm in the yokes, which helped, less wheelie prone too.

As for which one is best? That’s down to the individual. If you like an aggressive hard ride, go for old ZX. Or if you like a more refined, road friendly (but still totally bonkers) ride. Then go for new ZX.

i still like the style of my old ZX though...

Hope this helps

I think I'm in love

 

[Yonkyo]

I think I'm in love

Yes, she was magnificent.

I must admit that the old 04/05 10R was much prettier than the new one below.

 

[big simp]

As somebody has already posted - all R series have offset wheels

I don't know what the figures for the GS are, but for the R1100S the offset in the workshop manual is +4.5mm +/- 9mm. In other words anything from +13.5mm to -4.5mm is normal and within BMW's tolerances.

sandbar
www.sandbarcomposites.co.uk

.

Yes correct i agree with this.
steve

 

[GSmonkey]

Nice supermoto conversion mate, looks the business. Not so sure about the fat ass on that 06 Ninja - had to be the gixxer for me, ugly pipe and all!!!

 

[GS TRV]

Yes, she was magnificent.

I must admit that the old 04/05 10R was much prettier than the new one below.

That's probably the general view and a real pity that they ruined a stunning bike. Just out of curiosity - why'd you buy it then?

Why not a R1 in yellow

 

[marcparnes]

As somebody has already posted - all R series have offset wheels

I don't know what the figures for the GS are, but for the R1100S the offset in the workshop manual is +4.5mm +/- 9mm. In other words anything from +13.5mm to -4.5mm is normal and within BMW's tolerances.

sandbar
www.sandbarcomposites.co.uk

.

I tried to find a spec for offset in the GS manual but all I can come up with is:

Wheel track offset, value = none.

This is in Technical Data, Construction groups, general. Do you happen to remember where exactly you found the offset in your manual? Is it a paper manual or a CD. I have the CD. I guess in this case they either don't have a spec for offset allowance or expect it to be "0" which doesn't sound practical. On both of my bikes before modifying, if I took my hands off of the bars it would immediately go to the right. Nothing out of control or anything, just more than I was comfortable with. Besides that, it just looked weird from the back. As I remember from the '05, the offset started out at 14mm and ended up at 6.5mm after machining. Assuming your specs are the same for the GS, it was just about within to begin with so if the pull and the look didn't bother me I probably could have left it alone. I sure would like to see a spec for the GS, though. I like the idea of using the "S" wheels instead of the RT/ST since they're already painted. Do you know how the price was compared to the RT wheels? With a 180 Avon Azaro the edge of the tire is about 1/4" from the plastic piece that sits on top of the paralever and 3/4" from the Remus can. How much clearance does yours have with the 190 on it?

 

[Gaz_57]

"Motorway handling is excellent also, just as stable at high speed as with the standard wheels."


??? but the GS comes with absloutely shite 'high' speed stability built in as standard (compared to a sports bike) ... do you mean there is no improvement at all with the 17" wheels & tyres ?? Would have thought there would be some improvement at least.

Also - is the speedo over-reading by much now ?

Looks great!

Gaz

 

[marcparnes]

I just got home last night from a 950 mile day including hundreds of miles at 85-90 mph. In my opinion the bike feels a bit more planted on the freeway than it did before. You would assume with the lower front wheel and improved turn in that the high speed handling would suffer but it doesn't. The circumference of the 180 x 55 is about the same as the 150 x 70 stocker. The speedo reads 83 at a GPS 80.

 

[Yonkyo]

Nice supermoto conversion mate, looks the business. Not so sure about the fat ass on that 06 Ninja - had to be the gixxer for me, ugly pipe and all!!!

That's probably the general view and a real pity that they ruined a stunning bike. Just out of curiosity - why'd you buy it then?

I sold my old 10R because it was over two years old, and I like to replace my sports bikes after two years . However, I do regret changing for the new 10R now though.

Come on Kawasaki…release the ZX-10RR