Perfecting the R1150R

Butch Kleeb · Post by **Butch Kleeb** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:34 pm

Special thanks to everyone who offerred advice with my adjustments to my 2002 R1150R. After riding almost every new 2005/06 BMW, I felt the R1150R fit like a golf glove for my 5'9" 29" inseam old body (62). I just couldn't justify the expense of a new bike after selling my R100GS & I knew a Black used R1150R could be found. Thank you Ebay. But after logging some miles my recent back surgery caused some aching & after 3 knee operations I couldn't stand and stretch on long rides. My wrists felt fatigued as well. So I asked for some advice.....and now my ride with bar backs, lowered foot pegs and a Sargeant seat is damn near perfect. It seems I can ride endlessly. PIAA lights & oscillating break light will be added at next service. I can now look at all the new models with interest, but not envy. I just need to go out and turn the garage light on...aah "contentment" at long last!

Oh..only glitch so far is access to the center stand peg with the lowered pegs. Best solution so far is leave it on the side stand & reach down with my hand to get the center stand peg started to allow enough room to get my foot on it. Well, almost perfect!

Butch

Post by **iowabeakster** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:56 pm

AAHHHH........MOTORYCLE BLISS!

sounds nice.

daslimpet · Post by **daslimpet** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:31 am

Hey Butch,

Good things have been said about bar-backs on our R's. I'm about the same height and inseam as you, and have noticed that when totally naked (i.e. no windshield

) the stock bars seem to fit about right. But with no wind to lean into when the shield is on it is in fact a bit of a reach.

Glad you're all set up now!!!

ken k · Post by **ken k** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:20 am

Hi Butch, I do the same thing with my lowered pegs, put the bike on the side stand and then reach down and move the peg out of the way so I can get my foot on the center stand. Not much of a problem really.

I also agree with daslimpet's message about not having a windscreen. I put bar backs on in Vermont, but since I got home I took off my windscreen and have been loving the wind on my face (and body) feel of the naked bike. But I sort of wish I had the bars in their original position now due to the extra wind resistance. I guess I will ride with them on for a while and then decide later. It is not a real tought job to switch them out.

Speaking of shields, I am not sold on any of the shields I have used so far (BM sport shiled and a Cee bailey's touring shield) because the turbulence and wind noise caused by the shield pushing the air right into my face makes for a much noisier ride than without any shield at all. Without a shield the wind noise is very smooth and steady and not as irritating as with the shield. I also have a pretty quiet helmet in the Shoei RF-1000 (which is the main reason I bought it, since it got great reviews for being a quiet helmet in many helmet comparisons.)

Any thought on this anyone?

ken k

Post by **P_Jensen** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 2:24 pm

I agree with you on the shields, I use a Cee Bailey's sport in the summer just enough height to keep the wind off my chest but low enough for plenty of air and bugs to hit the helmet. I have a Cee Bailey's 21" for cooler weather, keeps the bugs and wind off the helment (not enough air flow for the summer). I was looking at peg lowering kit from Bob's BMW, which looked like the Surburban Machine kit mounted on the oppsite side. Moves the pegs down and back, not down and forward. I think this would put you in a slight forward lean, but a little more weight on your wrists.

johno · Post by **johno** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:30 pm

I went from the speedster screen to the Givi, and while better wind protection, it is noisier. I also put on 1" bar risers, and find them perfect, especially now with the Sargent seats, which seem to sit you "back" in the bike.
I can still stand while riding if needed, and feels OK.

Paul Mihalka · Post by **Paul Mihalka** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:15 am

I also had the problem with lowering the center stand, because my boots did not fit between the shift lever and foot peg. Suburban Machinery's extended shift lever solved that. For windshield I bit the bullet ($$$$$) and installed a Parabellum Scout. Great windshield, with the right height no buffeting, looks good. With this and a Russell Daylong solo seat, I did 8K miles in 16 days to Rocky Mountains from Durango to Jasper. My old (75) body did not cpmplain.

Parkblu · Post by **Parkblu** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 2:03 pm

My very personal and quite subjective improvements for the R:

Windshields:

6.1 (183 cm) - tried the Flyscreen and currently have the Sport Shield as well as the Touring shield. None are convincing, with surprisingly little difference between the Flyscreen and the Sport shield.

I have also experimented with no major success with spoilers (noticeably a German version of the laminar lip), which helps, but I haven't found quite the sweet spot yet. Inspired by the newer shields with adjustable lips, I may route two short vertical channels into the Sport shield to adjust the lip to an optimum position.

Seat: wooden beads, which work really well. If I had more money to burn: a Sargent or similar to replace the stocker

Useless but fun: replaced the stock directionals with small dark-lensed but very bright-burning halogen units. And: followed CycleRob and sawed off most of the rear splashguard.

More light: something I do on every bike. PIAA- or similar bulbs as the low-cost version, driving lights for more results (and more money of course).

The entertaining element (besides drawing on collective experience) is that we all have our individual prefs, and I think that's what makes comparing the bikes and posts so much fun.

Panzerleder · Post by **Panzerleder** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:05 pm

Hi Ken and Butch - I guess I'm getting too old to reach down and move the lowered peg out of the way while also trying to put my foot on the center stand and balance a 500 lb bike. So, I installed a short buckled strap to the frame that I can just slip over the peg and hold it out of the way. Makes things much easier.

As for a shield, I've been using a Parbellum and it is great for my 6'1 height. No wind in the face and little buffeting.

kp · Post by kp » Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:53 pm

Parkblu wrote: Useless but fun: replaced the stock directionals with small dark-lensed but very bright-burning halogen units. And: followed CycleRob and sawed off most of the rear splashguard.

My apologies for my TERRIBLE photography skills, but have a peek:
http://fallacy.org/rockster/

I still can't find my bloody Dremel so it's not very smoothed out yet but you can't tell that in the pics anyway so whatever... :-P

edit: pic # 23 probably shows it off best... you can actually see some of the roughness left over by rasping/bastarding. the bulk of the large cutting was done with a hacksaw and the finer parts with a coping saw, then this wonderful tool I found over at Sears, it was probably the most useful tool of the bunch. Really helped out evening out the sides: http://tinyurl.com/fojxh

edit2: by evening out the sides i mean making them more symmetrical.

Parkblu · Post by **Parkblu** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:24 am

Great job! Looks considerably better than mine (sorry, can't post a pic because I'm in Munich, while the bike is in FL.)

Apropos - that makes me cringe every time I'm over here: the roads are in Bavaria - in comparison to South Florida, that is - while the moped is in Florida. Life is sooooo unfair... sigh

dubble8s · Post by **dubble8s** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:05 am

Hello fellow 1150R's... I have been reading many of the posts but this is my first reply.
I have an '04 R1150R, and am planning a trip from NY to NV next May. I have several things I'm going to add (Throttlemiester, PIAA, etc), but the first thing I'd like to do is the windshield. Currently I have the small sporty one - and my neck has had it. Would appreciate any advice from those of you who have been doing this longer than I. Several guys I have spoken to have suggested a Cee Bailey - does anyone know if the current windshiend mount I have will fit the 19.5 or the 22 in.? The Parabellum scout looks really good, but as stated before, you've gotta part with the $$$ - it looks like the Scout has a number of different height screens available - curious as to how high you really need. Thanks in advance.

wsmac1150r · Post by **wsmac1150r** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:37 am

dubble8s wrote:Hello fellow 1150R's... I have been reading many of the posts but this is my first reply.
I have an '04 R1150R, and am planning a trip from NY to NV next May. I have several things I'm going to add (Throttlemiester, PIAA, etc), but the first thing I'd like to do is the windshield.

When I bought my 2002 R1150R, it had the Parabellum screen (Super Tour). It's a good screen - good protection and little buffeting. I took it off for a small Givi screen during the summer, but will definitely put it back on later this year...

http://www.parabellum.com/

Here is a photo of how it looked on my bike...

http://www.avimark.net/ebay%20pics/my%20bmw.jpg

(PS: The seat is grey...I don't know why it turned out tan in the photo)

Post by **DJ Downunder** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:08 am

Wow!...

...that's one hell-of-a big screen....with a strong tailwind..you should be able to turn the engine off...

DJ

wsmac1150r · Post by **wsmac1150r** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:11 am

Yeah, it's like tailgating an 18 wheeler!

How do you post a photo without having to post a link?

Post by **DJ Downunder** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:15 pm

How do you post a photo without having to post a link?

Try typing a [img]before%20and%20a[/img] after the url number..with no gaps.

DJ

wsmac1150r · Post by **wsmac1150r** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:14 pm

Thanks, man.

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