Broken windshield arms

[Philip Neff]

Six months ago the right side metal arm that raises and secures the windhield broke. I had to keep the windshield all the way down until it was fixed on warranty. Now the left side broke in the same manner. The metal just snapped. Has anyone else had this happen? I have a 2006 R 1200RT.

[Tapatio]

Do you have an oversized aftermarket windshield?

[10ovr]

Call west tool @ design,,Order the support arm set,,R 1200RT,,I have them on my bike and they work great,,,218 739 4990,,They are solid and wont brake,,I think a lot of people on this site have them,,About $90,,Parts and shipping

[Boffin]

This failure has been very common with after-market windshields - the design seems quite marginal but so far no one has reported failures with the OEM sheild for which the arms were designed. We would be very intetrested in knowing if your failures were on an OEM sheild.

 

Andy

[wsearl]

Here is the link to discussion of this issue last year.

link

[keithb]

I had both of my windshield support arms break within six months or so of one another. Both were replaced under warranty and luckily they are holding up. I have a C.B. #2 screen (+1H,+2W).

[billp]

Six months ago the right side metal arm that raises and secures the windhield broke. I had to keep the windshield all the way down until it was fixed on warranty. Now the left side broke in the same manner. The metal just snapped. Has anyone else had this happen? I have a 2006 R 1200RT.

 

Well, is the windshield stock?

[Philip Neff]

Thanks everyone! Yes, I have a Cee Baily oversize. Since my original posting I have seen the thread on this topic. I'm not sure what the dealer will do on this second repair. Depending on our negotiations I may order the custom arms and have them installed, thus I hope solving the problem for good.

[RedMac]

I have the custom arms on mine. I think they are a bit pricey, but nicely made...

[sideways]

Question: Has anyone here had one or both support arms replaced under warranty with an after-market shield on the bike when you took it in for repair?

 

 

Both of my windshield support arms have now broken, also several months apart. I have a Cee Bailey windshield, +2 inches higher and wider, IIRC. (For me, the bike was absolutely miserable at highway speed with the stock shield.)

 

The first arm was replaced under warranty by my very fine local dealer, but in order not to put them on the spot about warranty coverage, I put the stock shield back on the frame before I rode back to the shop for the repair - a truly awful ride.

 

While on a road trip last week, the second arm broke. To make a long story short, I left the bike where it was and flew home, but not just because of the broken windshield arm. I'd like to have someone ride the bike to the dealer where the bike is now the to have second arm fixed under warranty, but the original shield is not with the bike, but here at home with me. My warranty expires in a few days, so I don't have time to get the bike back here, swap the shield, and get it in to the local dealer.

 

(I'll probably order the west tool replacement arms, too, but timing of parts arrival, etc. may be an issue, because I need to take another 800 mile ride very soon.)

 

Thanks much for any replies!

[drzep]

If you are going to keep running a larger screen, you may want to consider stronger arms. Someone on this board makes a very nice set of machined aluminum support arms for a reasonable price. Should be in the archives if you search.

 

Good luck!

[Ken H.]

Let me see if I've got this right... Your aftermarket shield broke the bike, but you cheated to have it fixed under warranty. Now it's happened again and your looking for someone to help you cheat the warranty again?

 

Hummm, let me thing about it for a micro-second...

 

Oh I know! - I think I'll pass.

[motoguy128]

I unfortuantely have to agree that the Cee Baily windscreen are moster shields. Thicker, heavier plastic, more upright, often with an upward flip, and worst, bu being larger only on one end, they place a rotational force on the arms, instead of evenly distributed force. I'd extimate that the force is 2-3 times greater at freeway speeds. Do you expect BMW to use a design factor of 3x or 4x to accomidate aftermarket components?

 

Sorry...rant off... get the new, stronger arms.... problem solved.

 

If you can afford to fly home after a trip out west and just leave your bike, if should make economical sense to spend $90 for a set of arms... probably an extra $10 to have them shipped overnight wherever you are.

 

The other solution is to get a winscreen like the Cal Sci that does not load the arms so severely but still eliminates the turbulence of the stock windscreen. Just my opinion. If my arms break... I'm simply get the stronger aftermarket units.

[sideways]

Ken and Motoguy,

Wow. Obviously I viewed the situation differently at the time and until reading your replies. Maybe I was wrong to handle the matter as I did. I'll think about that today. But would you be willing to consider my point of view?

 

At the time the first arm broke, I'd never heard of that part breaking on any bike. And if the Cee Bailey shield places some multiple of stress forces on the windshield mounts as Motoguy suggests, that's news to me. It doesn't seem THAT much heavier or larger to me - just enough to smooth out the airflow sufficiently to make the ride enjoyable. But I'm no engineer.

 

But I felt the part should have been covered under warranty, and until I read your posts above, I still felt that way, cee bailey or not.

 

Having heard all the usual tales of warranty work being refused (not at my particular dealer, however) by manufacturers on bikes when any sort of aftermarket accessories are installed, even items completely unrelated to the problem at hand, I thought it would be best to take five minutes and install the original shield to prevent even the possibility that there would be any conflict between the dealer and BMW regarding coverage. My intention was not to cheat, as I can easily afford such a repair. Instead, my primary thought was that I might potentially save my dealer some nuisance if there were a question about coverage. Also, after many thousands of miles with the cee bailey on the bike (during which time the windshield supports DID NOT break, leading me to think there was no big stress problem), I wanted to try the bike again with the stock shield to see if it was as awful as I'd remembered - it was.

 

When I called the dealer to make an appointment for the arm replacement, the service manager didn't ask if I had an after-market shield. If he had, I would have answered honestly as I have in other matters of warranty and insurance with the bike. But as you consider me to be an outright cheat, you probably don't believe that.

 

In hindsight, I’m sure we’d agree that the thoroughly forthright thing to do would have been to tell the service guy when I dropped off the bike the first time that I had had an aftermarket shield on the bike. If the repair was covered under warranty, fine, and if not, I'd pay for the repair. It’s true that I didn’t do that. So again, maybe I was wrong in handling the matter like I did.

 

As for my financial ability to fly home from where I left the bike, that really had nothing to do with the circumstances at hand, nor am I “looking for someone to help me cheat the warranty again.” I was just curious to know if anyone had had the arms replaced under warranty WITH an aftermarket shield on their bike. If so, I was considering asking a friend to ride my bike to the out-of-town dealer for the replacement, just so I'd have two solid stock arms as backups.

 

In any event, happily, I just spoke with a very nice person at the West Tool Co. They have their improved arms in stock and are shipping me a pair today.

[motoguy128]

I didn't mean to come down so hard. Sorry. The project manager I report ot is being and a** today and I took some frustration out on the board. But I do stand by my point of view.

 

I think it's hard ot see that there is much difference, but the additonal 2" height and 2" more width on roughly 28" tall shield that 's maybe 16" wide stock, that's an increase of almost 25% in surface area, and more impotant, most of the added material is only on the top of the windshield basically creating a longer "lever arm" pressing on the mounts with more force. The weight of the windshield itself is not as significant IMO as the combination of the wind loading and weight together.

[bimmers]

Why would not ceebailey warrant that their after market product fits the original mounts? THey should be held responsible........

Just ordered some stuff from there so I'd beter watch it.

[sideways]

Bimmers,

The Cee Bailey fits the original mounts just fine. That’s not the problem.

 

If you have an R1200 RT and your height is such that you require an after-market windshield to prevent head buffeting and to help preserve your hearing, I’m sure you’ll find a Cee Bailey screen to be a significant improvement. It’s a very nice product. But I’d recommend you do a search here for windshield / windscreen information to read about other people’s experience with screens from other companies, too. When I bought my CB, none of the other screens were available, and I haven’t tried any of them – yet.

 

However, as you can see if you read much of the above discussion, when at least some of the available after-market shields are installed on the RT, the upper windshield support arms become something of a weak link on an otherwise really wonderful motorcycle.

So if you go with an after-market screen, certainly a relatively larger Cee Bailey, I’d just go ahead and buy the stronger arms available from the West Tool Co at the same time – information for those and original thread linked above.

 

It’s possible that a customer-oriented BMW dealer might replace any of the arms that break under your warranty whether or not you have an after-market shield, but regardless, a broken support arm is a nuisance on the road. So now that this little Achilles heel is known, it’s worth it to take advantage of the improved replacements.

 

For my part, I’d be really interested to know if any users of the Parabellum, Aeroflow, Z-Technic, and Cal-Sci screens have so far had these support arms break, also. Maybe if we go back and read the original thread, helpfully linked by someone above, that information would be found.

 

Good luck and good travels!

[hopz]

Why don't you call the supplier of the after market windshield and ask them to repair it or pay for it to be repaired?

Seems reasonable to me.

 

Or do they have a warning on their sites saying its your problem if their product causes a breakage...

[marcopolo]

I put a ZTechnik screen on last year, and have had no problems. Anecdotally, from earlier threads it seemed that the ZTechnik was the only one that hadn't caused any problems with the arms (not suggesting it was some kind of scientific survey).

 

Obviously BMW engineered the arms for the stock shield, so I don't know how anyone could blame them if the arms break after an owner installs a larger, heavier shield. Since one of the design goals of BMW's new bikes was lower weight, why would they over-engineer any part (I'm assuming the part would weigh more)?

[sideways]

Why don't you call the supplier of the after market windshield and ask them to repair it or pay for it to be repaired?

Seems reasonable to me.

 

Or do they have a warning on their sites saying its your problem if their product causes a breakage...

 

 

FWIW, I don’t think that’s a solution, either. In my opinion, none of the aftermarket windshield suppliers should be responsible for a weakness in the windshield support system. I’d guess this problem was unforeseen by everyone – the aftermarket, the customers, and even BMW.

 

Whether the bike owners who install a modified part should be responsible for any repair that might or might not be a reasonable and foreseeable consequence of that change, or whether the manufacturer should warranty against something that ARGUABLY is a design flaw is a question that could everyone could debate endlessly here with no benefit to anyone.

 

But of the three parties here, however, - Cee Bailey, bike owners, and BMW, I tend to think the last to be held responsible would be Cee Bailey – or Aeroflow, or Parabellum, etc.

 

Here’s a hypothetical analogy, off the top of my head: I have a Suzuki DR 650 dual sport bike. Let’s say I install a heavy duty skid plate on the bike that allows me to safely and comfortably ride the bike on rocky trails, a use for which the bike is designed to accomplish. After thousands of miles of “happy trails,” and just before the bike’s warranty expires, the frame breaks while I’m riding on a regular old jeep road.

Who should be responsible for the repair? The skid plate maker? I think not. Me, the owner/rider?

Well, maybe. More information would be needed, but since I was using the bike in the manner for which it was designed, and in the way in which it was advertised, I’d say Suzuki should probably cover the repair.

 

Nevertheless, in an event like that, before taking the bike to the shop, I’d take the skid plate off, especially if I’m taking the bike to a dealer I don’t know, because Murphy’s Law of Small Problems Become Big Hassles states that otherwise somebody would call me three days later and say, “Sorry pal, we called Suzuki and they say the frame broke because you put that skid plate on. Do you still want us to fix it?” When laying down the cash to pick up the bike, I’d have bad feelings toward both Suzuki and the dealer. And you can bet Suzuki wouldn’t beef up the frame’s weak point, which the dealer and I might find out later was a known issue.

 

I just read the original thread on this subject again. Most people who posted there had their support arms replaced under warranty. I’d be curious to know how many, if any, left their aftermarket shields on the bikes when going in for repair, and how many are lowdown, lying, cheating, dogs like me who put their stock shields back on to avoid controversy and to save all parties potential hassle.

 

I would guess that the vast majority of riders who are tall enough to ride a 12RT without elevator boots have found the original screen to be unusable and have replaced it with one of the excellent alternatives. Given that, one question I have is why after almost four years of manufacture, BMW hasn’t managed to improve upon the very weak link presented by the upper windshield support arms.

 

But no worries! Fortunately, we have skilled machinists and entrepreneurs like Mr. Westra who use their noggins and their shops to save the day, so to speak. I’d rather pass some currency to a skilled craftsman with a small business than send more piles of cash to a big corporation any day!

[hopz]

FWIW I was being eye-ron-ick...

 

Of course the after market windshield guy should not pay for broken mounts any more than the BMW dealer should.

 

[ShovelStrokeEd]

FWIW I was being eye-ron-ick...

 

Of course the after market windshield guy should not pay for broken mounts any more than the BMW dealer should.

 

 

Especially after they have been defrauded once. Avoid controversy my lily white a$$. The stock windscreen was put back to make the dealer believe the mounts failed with it on, pure and simple. BMW is under no obligation to fix this as the oversized wind screen was the proximate cause of the failure. Ditto the dual sport analogy. Frame failure? Aftermarket part that may have caused stress to the frame? You are out of luck and putting the stock stuff back on to make the dealer/mfg believe otherwise is fraud.

[exPostal]

I was considering gettin a bigger windshield and I never considered the arms breaking. The stock shield provides plenty of protection but more is always nicer in the cold weather. I probably won't get the cee bailys now. Thanks for the info.

[sideways]

You guys are brutal, at least to a stranger.

 

But maybe I have rationalized away an unethical act and point of view, and maybe your rapid and efficient judgments are closer to the truth than not. To that extent, I should thank you for causing me to think about it.

 

I’d be very interested to hear from any of the other people whose windshield arms were replaced under warranty as to how they handled the situation.

[sideways]

This discussion has made me think back more fully to the first breakage of my windshield arm, and what my thoughts were when I took off the CB shield and put the stock item back on before going to the dealer. If anyone who hasn’t already concluded that I’m a mangy cur and cheat would like to chime in on the degree of my ethical transgression, I’d like to hear what you have to say.

 

I’d had the Cee Bailey on the bike with no problems for I think about sixteen thousand miles at the time, including several long road rides, a SaddleSore 1000, etc.

The first windshield arm broke during a generally slow riding two-up tour of the country roads and B&Bs in central PA. I propped the broken arm into its other end, and we slowly rode home. I was concerned all the while that a gust would grab the shield and cause other supporting parts to break, making the damage worse or even dangerous, so I often held that side of the shield (left) with my hand.

 

My dealer is about half an hour from my house by freeway, and about an hour ride by alternative roads. On the day that I took the bike in, I didn’t have time to ride the back roads.

So three thoughts occurred to me, in this order, as I recall:

1) I didn’t want the hobbled windshield to break off while riding down the Interstate, possibly causing other bike damage or a crash.

2) I could take the windshield off altogether and ride the bike naked, but that wasn’t too appealing. The original windshield was in on a shelf right next to the bike. So, I recalled that I’d been meaning to put it back on and try it again, AND that it IS smaller and lighter than the Cee Bailey. So putting it back on seemed like a good compromise, AND

3) (NOTE: I fully acknowledge thinking the following) It’s possible that warranty coverage might be denied by someone (although I tended to think my dealer would probably fix the problem anyway, or give me a discount or something) if the after-market screen were on the bike, which would have bothered me, given that the shield had caused no problems for so long. (This last was a larger consideration after the second arm broke far from home, as I mentioned in my first post here.)

 

So I put the stock screen on and rode to the dealer. As I mentioned in an earlier post above, while the service order was written up, I DID NOT volunteer that I’d had an aftermarket screen installed.

 

I can’t disagree that both my thinking in #3 above and my omission at the service desk were deceptive or dishonest to some degree, and that my thinking and actions produced a result that benefited me at BMW’s expense.

 

Also, considerations about metal fatigue of the part over time caused by the additional weight and size of the CB shield never occured to me until I read Motoguy’s replies above. Maybe that, too, was part of a self-deception.

 

In contrast, though, here are a couple of things that definitely didn’t happen:

A) I didn’t attach a 4x4 plexiglass sheet from Home Depot on the front of the bike, then put the stock windshield on the bike to get the broken arms fixed at the dealer under warranty. The CB shield, of course, is designed specifically for the bike by a reputable manufacturer.

B) The arms (first or second) didn’t break right away after installing the CB, or even in the first year of riding. If they had, it would have much more obvious to me that the shield was the culprit, and I surely could not have attributed the breaks to weak design or materials that should be covered under warranty.

 

So, how bad WAS my behavior in this instance?

 

No doubt some of the folks who replied above will say that I’m just lying in my description – that my thoughts were first, foremost, and solely about avoiding payment, period, “How can I cheat my way out of this charge?”

 

Is anyone else able to give me more benefit-of-the-doubt, or at least discuss my faulty thinking in a slightly kinder way?

[ShovelStrokeEd]

OK, here is a kinder way.

 

At a dinner party one night, a drunken Churchill asked an attractive woman whether she would sleep with him for a million pounds. “Maybe,” the woman said coyly. “Would you sleep with me for one pound?” Churchill then asked. “Of course not, what kind of woman do you think I am?” the woman responded indignantly. “Madam, we’ve already established what kind of woman you are,” said Churchill, “now we’re just negotiating the price.”

 

Sorry, your actions just rubbed me the wrong way. I work for a company that makes instruments that are far more expensive than a BMW motorcycle and deal with warranty issues on a daily basis. You wouldn't believe the $$$$ we pay out just to maintain good will with our customers, even though they have abused, misused the equipment.

 

In my book, that just isn't done.

[hopz]

BEEMN, welcome on board.

IMHO you did an in appropriate act but it is not the end of the world as a result.

As I see it you have the choice of beating yourself up some more or moving on with the intention of doing good. I say move on.

[Ken H.]

Why would not ceebailey warrant that their after market product fits the original mounts?

That's even crazier IMHO than expecting BMW to over-engineer a part on their bikes to accommodate every way someone might modify it.

 

Both BMW and CB engineer their products to do certain specific things. Neither is capable of for-seeing, designing and testing every possible combination that an owner might come up with to try. Be it windscreens, seats, or pull trailers.

 

When a bike's owner decides to modify a production product, the assumed liability for the outcome is the owners.

[sideways]

BEEMN, welcome on board.

IMHO you did an in appropriate act but it is not the end of the world as a result.

As I see it you have the choice of beating yourself up some more or moving on with the intention of doing good. I say move on.

 

That's thoughtful and wise counsel. Thanks!