Low Pipe & Luggage Modifications...

[Bullwinkle]

I made some mods to my 12GS that some may find interesting.
I wanted to keep the stock pipe (reason = 3 year warranty), but wanted the capability of more luggage space. A mate of mine made the 3 inch, 15 degree adapter, we sourced a 3 inch stainless clamp, and I finished with the hanger & modifications to the center stand and the center stand stop. The result is pretty discrete:

I didn't like the stock carrier, as it is at a different height from the deck with the pillion removed. I made my own out of 1/2 inch tubing to give me over 2 feet of unobstructed room to strap anything down/pile anything up for the mega-tour:

As I already have a R1100RS with luggage, I thought I would make mounts so the GS could accomodate the System cases. The rear case is a Kappa K46.
The mounts were a bit of a bitch to build from scratch, but I think the results are worth it:

I can provide more details/photos if anyone is interested...

Cheers
John

 

[CoolCarbon]

Looks real neat..... Nice job

CC

 

[RichieS]

Custom stuff....

Looks the dogs to me. Better than the original

 

[Tim Cullis]

Excellent ideas. The position of the standard exhaust is a real pain in the ass. And I like the extended luggage rack.

Tim

 

[motozen]

I see a business opportunity for you to provide the needed brackets for others to lower their stock exhaust, or even an after market exhaust!

 

[The Machine Cat]

It looks REALLY good ! Could you please post more pictures ?

 

[motozen]

Would you please measure the distance from the top of the silencer to the top of the pillion cargo deck. This would give us an idea of what sort of other bags will fit in that space, maybe HB? Zega?

Thanks.

 

[Psyko]

Clever!

Great looking bit of innovation.

I'd be interested to see how you managed to get the R1100S panniers to fit on to the GS1200. How difficult was it to get the brackets to work and what does it look like with the panniers off? How secure are they, etc. etc.?

I think an after-market exhaust could look even better. No criticism of you intended, more the wide shape of the stock pipe when dropped down a bit. The low pipe I had on my 1150GS still retained a small upward angle which seemed in keeping with the lines of the GS (such as they are!).

A few more pics when you have time would be appreciated. Hats off, again!

Psyko

 

[Bullwinkle]

More pics...

Thanks everyone, for the positive comments. I'll try to respond to some of the queries...

The distance from the top of the lowered muffler to the level of the pillion deck is about 13.75 inches. From the mounting knuckle to the deck is a about 12.5 inches.

What was done:
An adapter pipe was made by an industrious friend in Saskatoon, consisting of a section to fit over the collector outlet; welded at about 15 degrees to a section to fit into the muffler inlet. It has the effect of lengthening the entire assembly by about 1.5 inches. The entire adapter junction is secured and sealed by a 3 inch, thin stainless clamp. This is a picture of the required components:

Next, the hanger point had to be moved down and back. I used a straight piece of stainless strap initially, but when I was fitting the System cases, realized I needed a dog leg bend in the support (that must be why it looks "the dogs", Richie).

Finally, the centre stand stop needed to be moved. The above picture also shows the new stop and where the original tab on the stand was cut and re-welded to. (Note: re-hooking the stand springs after re-installation was a job that required copious amounts of medication )

End result though, is a fairly "sanitary" installation, which preserves the stock condition of the bike for warranty.

My Saskatoon friend (who modified his own 12GS first) was thinking of getting into the marketing of "kits" to facilitate these low pipe mods. I'll forward a link to this thread to him to show him the responses.

The bag mounts were scratch built by myself, and don't look too bad, IMHO.
They consist of the uppers (onto which the bag hooks and clamps), and the lower portions (which locate the bottoms of the bags).

The top rails used the original mounting point, but were located at the front only by these clamps:

The bottom supports used the bottom of the footpeg mounts (the pins were replaced by bolts), and the exhaust hanger on the left:

and a salvaged frame clamp (from the stock bag mounts) on the right:

End result is the ability to use a common set of full-size luggage for both my bikes, and they are very robust. I just returned from a test tour of about 6500 km, over some very rough roads and backwoods mountain passes, and they performed flawlessly with no shake or looseness.
I don't have the ability to get into any kind of production, but if anyone wants to use any of my ideas, feel free.

Here's some more picks with the bags installed (the topcase is off being re-painted)

Cheers, all