"Must haves" and "Need-nots" for the R1200GS/GSA

Hi da al die Honne!

A while back Sláinte Mhaith started a thread asking who had what problems on high mileage R1200GS'ses. A few replies came through, although nothing major(to make as skrik!!!). Working through the R1200GS thread you will find a good idea on what can happen on these bikes though and helps us all to know what to look out for. Thanx SM

I want something different for this thread. The R1200GS/GSA is maybe one of the bikes with the biggest range of aftermarket parts and accessories. It ranges from the"cant ride without it" necessities to the "most buck for your bling", over- advertised bits and pieces where you are made to believe you cant live without it. Some of these are most probably important "must haves" while others are only for show...

In terms of extra protection, there are all these extra metal housings and plates and things that claims to protect your bike's parts in a crash or fall, allowing you to make it home. For instance, the potentiometer cover available from different manufacturers. Most of these covers/plates uses the two screws that holds the potentiometer to attach themselves to the bike. Is this wise? Ive seen a model that doesn't only use these screws but has its own as well. Anyway, the details are not important..yet.

What I want to do  is first establish who had what breakages under what conditions? For instance, has anybody on this forum experienced a broken potentiometer/housing on the throttle-body due to a fall, for which there are a protection device available? Has anybody broken their brake reservoir on the handlebar in a fall? Has anybody damaged the side-stand switch in a fall? How many of you needed extra protection around the heads? GSA's comes with this protection and some more, but GS's not...Probably because the GSA rider wishes to go off-road and the GS buyer not necessarily, but this for instance might be a good investment anyway because of the REAL threat of damaging your head/s on tar or otherwise, for instance.

Something that is also very important is to tell us if you've fallen over, with no protection on your bike and hasn't broken or bent anything yet! This means we don't have to add anything to our bikes!!

Please don't make this a brand bashing thread. This is not the intention. If you think mentioning the brand will damage their reputation, don't mention their name, but please let us know what you think of it, the design, the fitment, the engineering flaws or otherwise! If you absolutely believe this particular piece of hardware is the only right piece of kit for the job, please tell us who makes it.

This thread will also not benefit from talks about which panniers to use, what xorst gives the most power, or who can supply the cheapest tyres. Its about protection and bling. But, if you believe fitting a carbon fibre xorst is a necessary item in terms of protection or reduced risk in a fall, please tell us why!

And Lastly, if you are a recognized vendor on this forum, please indicate your relationship to the mentioned item/product. You are however always welcome to help us understand your product better.... :deal:

Ill start then. I've bought a headlight/oil-cooler protector for my bike. I've done 36000km to date and have had a few stones hit the light cluster area. No breakages so far there, so I think its working. The bolts supplied with the kit however is rusting. The metal plate is scraping on the windscreen. It's difficult to clean the actual light under the protector unless you remove the perspex lenses. Takes time because it has a million small bolts to remove. Looks fantastic though!!

My GSA came with a "skid-"plate and this also works. I've hit bottom a few times and this definitely protected the underside of the engine form scrapes. Scrapes on it (the plate) but no dents yet...Aftermarket items and even the one fitted on the 30th year edition is bigger though...looks better also. Thicker(stronger) items might be at risk of damaging the mounting points on the engine crankcase where they attach. Someone else s experiences here can help us determine if buying something else is better or not...

My GSA also came with the head protectors. I've fallen over in muddy roads in the Eastern cape and hit a rock. The protector got a scrape and dented, obviously protecting the alloy head cover on the right. I still have this protector on the bike, but it has bent "backwards". The BMW protectors works nice because they have rubber "spacers" that presses against the head and therefor I think they might be better than other aftermarket protectors, unless these aftermarket jobbies also has the rubber spacers. They(the aluminum protectors) are soft though, but this might be to absorb the knock better and not break the attachment points off..

I've bought the spotlight relocating kit form a certain manufacturer. I fitted it and after +- 3000km it vibrated off...the stainless steel just snapped under the spotlight. I contacted the manufacturer and they replaced it free of charge no questions asked. They indicated that there was a problem and they re-engineered it to be better. I still have these on and has had no damage to my spots from riding. I did however damage one of the lights when installing the kit! The light fell out of my hand and broke one of the retaining pins inside the light. So in this instance the actual fitment caused me damage. The tip here if you're doing it yourself is not to loosen the electrical plugs to the light when taking it off. First loosen the light from the bracket, take out the bolt. If you drop the light it will not hit the floor but swing on the elec harness. Secondly I overtightened the torx screws that drives into the plastic light housing and this is now loose. Luckily there are three more to hold it! But the fact is, I damaged these lights while refitting the faulty set of brackets... What I also noted is that the brackets, while fitted normally on the bike, can rotate/swing backwards and forwards on the standard bracket. I was thinking, if this was loosened just a bit, wont it protect the plastic spotlight in a lesser fall by just bending out of the way? Whereas on the new brackets, it can only be bent forward, because the actual bracket forms a "C" around the bar in order to relocate them to the top. This "C" only allows movement in one direction. Design differences anyone?

So, to start of this thread, my conclusion:
Headlight/oil cooler protection - Good buy. Watch out for fitment issues
Skid-plate - Good buy, but standard skid-plate from BMW is OK
Head protector - Necessary! Cant be without it! BMW model is OK, and has those rubber inserts between head and protector.
Spotlight relocation brackets - Good buy. Watch out for fitment issues...

Hopefully we can develop this thread to be a good idea of what to buy for our beasts and what not...

Groete