Engine protectors

[rockingdoc]

Anyone thrown their bike down the road with the little BMW cylinder head protectors in place? Any good?

[Bullett]

For zero to slow speed drop, they will do the trick. I've dropped my twice in parking lot bonehead maneuvers. The guards sustained some scuffing, but did protect the valve covers.

 

A friend of mine discovered that a low side with sliding and then a flip over to the high side will break the guards and some other stuff.

 

 

Edit: Hi, by the way, and welcome to the board.

 

[Fugu]

My ex dumped my GS in a parking lot at ~1 mph, the plastic BMW protectors worked perfectly.

 

 

[Albert]

My ex dumped my GS in a parking lot at ~1 mph, the plastic BMW protectors worked perfectly.

 

 

Were you two "communicating" via the Autocom at that time?

[Unhofliche_Gesundheit]

yes. they work but like a helmet they might need to be replaced after they have done their job.

 

my story: parked on right hand side of road (at bait shop in the small town of Calabogie) ... bit of a slope down to right but nothing particularly unusual - i thought the bike was solid - I was off the bike -3 meters away - wandering around looking for 'refrescos' - at least 2 minutes elapsed since disembarked .. suddenly but oh so slowly bike toppled to the right and into the dirt (... mirror popped off... right hand mini guard took a scuffing

 

luckily the big silver monster did not fall on my light-weight wife (who was making a lot of squeeking noises while the bike slowly toppled by the way- me frozen in place). If it fell on her i would really be in trouble (small but feisty !) she was nearer than me to the bike- i think the vibration of her tiny footfall was the root cause - like the beat of a butterfly wing leading to a hurrican (chaos theory). I couldnt get buy in on the theory from the 'rest of the team' however....

 

some weeks later when had guard off to do the spark plugs observed there are some plastic tubular standoffs which had been crushed.

 

the mirror has never been the same since (gap is overly large)

uhmmm i learnt a lesson!

 

 

[Sailorlite]

What actually happens to a valve cover in a zero-mph drop? Are you more likely to damage a protector than the cover itself? I'm thinking I should hold off on installing the protectors until they're needed to cover up some cosmetic damage (and then maybe install only one side).

[Survived-til-now]

I have the GS covers fitted to my RT - see attached. The dealer says that they survive drops well. The problem with the black plastic ones is that with any speed the bike goes down the road sideways and rips them apart....

[Unhofliche_Gesundheit]

well obviously big bars are better than little plastic caps... but if you have an RT rather than a GS i suspect the big bars are a big deal to install and come with a big price. if money is no object then its a no-brainer. i searched but dont see a price on the little plastic covers but i did find that for a 'head cover' (the metal part) is a tad under 200$ - worth spending a bit of cash to protect it if you are so inclined.

 

anyway see in photo how plastic bracket really is designed to let the bike down easy in a slow drop... if you want real protection for the whole side of the bike then these are not the right thing..

 

as far as i can tell from surfing the web i think 'no-speed' and 'slow-speed' drops are pretty common - advisable to have some protection for this.

 

not sure how many people have higher speeds laydowns and what happens to the bike... intesting topic for research ?

my un-educated opinion is that you have a whole lot of other problems beyond skuffing of the side if you go down at 'speed'- indeed i dont think you have to be going very fast at all on an RT for the cost of the damage to exceed the value of the bike - not sure if big bars gonna do much...

 

 

 

 

 

[DoctorC]

I figured dropping the bike at 0 MPH was not big deal, and valve covers were pretty inexpensive... to find out that the covers scrap noticeably in a 0 MPH tip over... and the price of valve covers has gone up since I last checked... I put protectors on my Christmas list.... They are ugly, but maybe I will paint them Piedmont Red?!

[BSAtoBMW]

I don't think I've seen any value cover protectors on CHP bikes in California. If they "worked" well it seems like the CHP would be using them.

[bobbybob]

The odds are high that you will need to replace the plastic covers after the first drop, at which time you will have already paid for the metal tubular-types, which work very well (over and over again). A side benefit of the Wunderlichs: the bike resting on the bar is already a ways off the ground and lifting it back up from that point is greatly facilitated. DAMHIK

 

(Installing them is no big deal--you can do it.)

[FLTRI]

I don't think I've seen any value cover protectors on CHP bikes in California. If they "worked" well it seems like the CHP would be using them.

 

The RT-P has front and rear crash bars. Heads never get near the ground...

 

http://faithcottage.smugmug.com/photos/242598193-L.jpg

[Pictou]

My experience with the BMW plastic ones is not very good. I had a slow speed drop while doing a U turn. I couldn't have been going much more than a walking pace. The bike slid probably less than a foot. The plastic guard was totally destroyed and there was still scuffs and damage to the valve cover as the guard obviously gave up the ghost before the bike was finished moving. They are probably okay in a non moving drop but after that don't expect much from them. I still have a pair on but have a little faith in their ability to provide much in the way of protection.

[Bullett]

Here's a link to my first drop pictorial, if you're interested

 

Linky

[Boffin]

I don't think I've seen any value cover protectors on CHP bikes in California. If they "worked" well it seems like the CHP would be using them.

 

The RT-Ps that CHP uses have big chrome protection bars as standard - if they fitted the plastic protectors they would not hit the ground anyway.

 

I slid my '02 RT along a smooth road in Spain at about 40mph, that side just ground the protector away a bit. Then the bike flipped over, smashing the protector on the other side, gouging the valve cover in the process.

 

I would go with either the Wunderlich or Touratech chrome engine bars.

 

Andy

[Slumgullion]

The results and the performance of the plastic protectors in my recent low side were mixed. The left protector was shattered but the valve cover was not damaged although the spark plug cover was scratched. The right cylinder was a different story. The protector was shattered and the valve cover had a hole in it. The protector, the valve cover and the spark plug cover all had to be replaced. I am looking for some guards that really do something!

[BOB1200RTC2]

I like my Touratech crash bars. They protect the engine and keep the plastic off the ground too. Of course if I looked to make shure the side stand was down and didn't asume it was down I wouldn't know this to be true.

[bobbybob]

The results and the performance of the plastic protectors in my recent low side were mixed. The left protector was shattered but the valve cover was not damaged although the spark plug cover was scratched. The right cylinder was a different story. The protector was shattered and the valve cover had a hole in it. The protector, the valve cover and the spark plug cover all had to be replaced. I am looking for some guards that really do something!

 

Joel, the Wunderlichs worked "wunder-fully" for us. Nothing touches down except the crash bar in the front and the side-case in the rear. The mirrors and handlebar-ends do not touch, nor the cylinder covers. You can turn the bars lock-to-lock while its snoozing on the tarmac and neither bar end will touch. It is also much easier to lift it back up from this position.

[markgoodrich]

I have some steel guards, forget the brand, but I'm not sure they'll do much more than the plastic ones or the expensive Toura-lich covers. The REALLY expensive Toura-lich full coverage bars would probably do better, but here's a slightly contrary idea: $100 deductible collision insurance. Doesn't cost much more than a higher deductible. Two or three years ago I dropped my then-FJR at zero speed. The scratches to the bike cost more than $800 to fix. I called my insurer (Dairyland) and they happily covered everything above the deductible, called it a collision, but "no fault" and it didn't affect my premium.

 

You drop the thing, you're going to the repair shop anyway....

 

 

[Mister Tee]

I have the Wunderlich crash bars, and they are great, although they do reduce cornering clearance somewhat. Both sides of my Wunderlich bars are pretty well scraped up from cornering. I touch them up with silver paint to keep them from rusting.

[gfountain]

I have the BMW plastic guards on my R1200RT. After a drop in the garage they had a few scratches. A couple of track days later and they aren't as pretty but the cylinder heads are still unmarked. This was not due to a drop just cornering without having my body weight over far enough. Bottom line is they did the job for me. I also like the unobtrusive appearance of these guards.

 

[Unhofliche_Gesundheit]

so rthunt - if you had had the big bars (assuming the big bars are wider ) they would have touched down first - protecting your cylinder head but....

 

1/ this would have reduced your available lean angle... reducing cornering speed limit

2/ touching down of the big bars would act to lift wheels off the ground - leading to loss of traction and then a crash ...

 

so if you do have big bars you would want they they were well fitted so they did not extend any more than necessary.

 

in a perfect world would not bike be designed so that the (spring mounted) foot pegs would touch first?

 

 

point of this post (beyond the above musings) - i am thinking about getting some of the big bars- or least do some shopping on line for them to see what they would cost but when i search for r115rt i dont see any products...

** so is the solution to buy r1150gs bars for the r1150rt? **

could someone please confirm

(this is what i am understanding from survived till now but i am concerned about interference with the tupperwear...

cheers.

 

 

 

[Boffin]

Wunderlich do bars for the R1150RT. Go to BMW of Santa Cruz's website - they are the US distributor for Wunderlich.

 

Wunderlich engine bars

[Unhofliche_Gesundheit]

thanks andy. about 350US$. a bit pricy. copy says: "The challenge to create a set of engine protection bars for the RT almost drove the design and production teams to the brink of insanity. "

 

i looked at the bars for other models and they run around the same price - so fair 'nuff.

 

 

i have put them on the wish list (at the bottom of my service & expense tracking spreadsheet). they look very nice on the list - in good company along with the HID headlight upgrade, the one or 2 pairs extra spot lights for the front, double air horns, top box, upgraded cam chain tensioner, helmet upgrade, fitted earplugs, and yet another windscreen.

 

bleeding cold here now so all this stuff is just as good (or better) on the spreadsheet rather than on the bike !

 

[Mister Tee]

I can't speak for the 1150, but on my 1200RT, I can say this of the Wunderlich bars, made for the RT and not the GS:

 

>1/ this would have reduced your available lean angle... reducing cornering speed limit

 

Yes they will contact the ground before the heads will, but after the pegs scrape. The difference in angle between contacting the heads vs. the bars isn't measurable, so no they don't reduce your cornering speed. And you shouldn't be leaned that far in a corner on the street anyway. (I know, do as I say...)

 

>2/ touching down of the big bars would act to lift wheels off the ground - leading to loss of traction and then a crash ...

 

Not really. If you just scrape the bars from light contact, you wouldn't notice it other than by scraping noises. Remember than in a corner, you have a compressed suspension, which will tend to keep wheel force on the ground even if contact with the bars pivots the bike slightly. If you whack the side down hard enough to lift the rear wheel, you already dumped the bike anyway.

 

>so if you do have big bars you would want they they were well fitted so they did not extend any more than necessary.

 

They are quite well fitted, to the point where they contact the fairing (Wunderlich supplies foam tape to keep from scratching the lower part of the fairing.) The 1150 fitment might be different, I don't know.

 

>in a perfect world would not bike be designed so that the (spring mounted) foot pegs would touch first?

 

They do. But the pegs are spring loaded so they don't dig in and cantilever the bike over in the event of contact. The next thing to contact is the bars.

[hexairheadbeemerguy]

I have the Wunderlich crash bars, and they are great, although they do reduce cornering clearance somewhat. Both sides of my Wunderlich bars are pretty well scraped up from cornering. I touch them up with silver paint to keep them from rusting.

 

Wow, I have these bars on my RT, they are great but I have yet to even touch a peg down. Must be getting old...

[rglassma]

I have the wunderlich bars also. I installed highway pegs and that adds additional protection. It does protect the plastic, but if you have the bags on, it won't protect them in the case of a tip over.. The wind tipped my '05 RT over on the kick stand and the right side bag suffered a small amount of road rash on a dirt road.

[Slumgullion]

Not sure the wunderlich bars with fit on a R1200S